How do you learn a new accent?

How do you learn a new accent?

Let me answer that by using myself as an example.  I wanted a more standard American accent.  The accent you hear in Julia Robert’s movies; something general, from anywhere USA.  I knew that I used some vocabulary that was different like redd up, rift, and slippy.  So I worked on changing that.

But, after changing my vocabulary, I had no idea what I was doing differently, so I asked some friends and colleagues.  I found out that I did a few things:

Sounds:

I shorten my long E’s…so steel becomes still and eagle becomes iggle.
I don’t move my vowels…so house becomes haus, and failed becomes filled
I really round my mouth…so L’s at the end of a word become an O…Doll becomes dow. Tom becomes Towm.
Grammar:

I don’t say “to be”.  Instead of saying The car needs to be washed. I say the car needs washed.
I end sentences in prepositions.  I’d say Where’s it at?  Instead of Where is it?

Once I figured out what I needed to do, I listen to the accent that I wanted, A LOT!  I tried to imitate what I heard.  Here’s a good tip, imitate the mouth postures, what the lips and tongue are doing.  You can see great examples of this with comedians who imitate accents, they actually look different when they do it.

Then I would read articles out loud and practice.  Once I tried to start talking with my new accent, I had to really slow down and pause.

Here are the steps to change speech:

Determine what you want to change.
Determine the problem:  Figure out your mistakes.
Determine steps to fix the problem: What will you do instead:
Implement the plan…Practice

Words
Sentences
Reading
Talking

If you want to learn a new accent and aren’t sure what to do next, contact us.  We offer assessments to tell you the sounds that you say incorrectly, teach classes on how to say sounds, and have videos and audio files for practice on the go.