Accent reduction can be essential for business professionals

Many entrepreneurs mention that their confidence is undermined by their accent and that their lack of American pronunciation prevents them from advancing in their careers. They dare not speak in meetings or with American colleagues. They speak too fast because they are nervous about making a mistake and are afraid of slowing down their speech in front of an audience. Their teammates continually ask them to repeat themselves and in some cases they were unwilling to include them in team meetings because of their speech.

A vice president of a major technical company in Silicon Valley, California, completed an accent reduction program for business professionals and said, “After completing accent reduction training, I have received a boost to my confidence. I speak more than 6 hours a day in meetings and teleconferences and my message is no longer interrupted and misinterpreted because someone asks me to repeat myself. My meetings go smoothly and my presentations are praised. “

Another entrepreneur from a computer technology company, he speaks very fast English with a Japanese and Portuguese accent that prevents him from communicating effectively in business and personal communication. He said that his English-speaking employees don’t understand him and that, interestingly, other foreign speakers were able to understand his English more easily. The reason for this is that people who speak more than one language, which many Americans do not, have a broader perspective and are used to hearing heavily accented English.

Most people think that everyone else has an accent and they don’t. However, the truth is that everyone has an accent that is determined by the language they speak and where they learned to speak it. In the US we have a Chicago accent, a Texas accent, a Boston accent, etc.

When it comes to bilingual or multilingual speakers, speaking standard American English becomes more difficult. Why?

1. Pronouncing consonants and vowels in Standard English can be difficult. For example, Mandarin Chinese speakers have trouble pronouncing (L and R) because these sounds do not exist in Mandarin.

2. Standard English words are made up of one, two, three or more syllables and it is important that a foreign speaker can hear three degrees of accent in a polysyllabic word for the American ear to recognize the pronunciation of that word. . For example, the word Liniment (Linen/ i / ment) has three syllables and the heavy accent is on (Lin), the secondary accent is on (ment), and the (i) is discarded.

Being able to speak standard American English with the proper stressed syllable in each word allows one to speak English at an American rhythm. Often times, a foreign speaker will superimpose the rhythm of their mother tongue on English. Because that foreign rhythm puts the emphasis on the wrong syllable, its English pronunciation no longer sounds like English to the American ear. Example: comfortable (com/ for / ta / ble) is often pronounced by Indian people who have a Hindi accent like (com /strong/ able) with a strong accent on the syllable (strong) and discarding the other two syllables.

A great speaking voice can often lead to success and for foreign speakers this means a reduction in accent.

The goal of an American pronunciation and accent reduction training program is to be an outstanding communicator not only in live presentations, but also in teleconferences, video conferences, international / cross-cultural meetings, webinars, telesales calls, interviews, negotiations and calls. customer retention, worldwide. .

An American pronunciation and accent reduction training program helps the bilingual or multilingual foreign speaker become more easily and easily understood by the American listener. Rather than speaking with a perfect American accent that strips you of your cultural identity, these programs should allow the speaker to communicate more easily and effectively in Standard American English and acquire a more American accent. Accent Reduction for Business professional is carried out by phone all over the world at the customer’s convenience.

Many international company / corporation executives have successfully benefited from an Accent Reduction Program for Business Professionals and now speak with more command, confidence, clarity, authority, persuasion and power.