Dialect and accent work should be fun! Our work will never diminish who you are. We are seeking to expand your skills and that is a joyful act!
What is an accent?
Accent refers to the way a group of people pronounce words in any language. Everyone has an accent. Accents are influenced by geographical location, upbringing, education, and myriad other factors. One thing accents serve to do is signal commonalities and differences between us.
Why do people want accent modification?
There are lots of reasons a person might want to increase their options for how they sound. The world sometimes offers advantages to people who can change their sound to “fit in”. The desire to fit in is human nature. We aspire to find shared interests, jokes and ways of communicating with our peers. The sense of feeling like we don’t fit in is also a common, although isolating experience.
If you speak English with a particular dialect that is influenced by where you come from or how you grew up that’s great! If you learned English as a second language and your pronunciation lets people know that you are multi or poly-lingual, that is also something to be proud of. However, sometimes the gatekeeping of the worlds of business, academia, media or even some social circles can discriminate based on the things that make you uniquely who you are, making it more difficult to achieve your goals.
My Approach: Affirming Accent Modification
You don’t have to lose something to gain something. My goal is never to erase where you came from. My goal is to help you build on the skills you already have so you can code switch (change your accent at will) to your advantage. In this way we put you in charge of how people see you. Let’s open more doors, increase your options for pronunciation, and put you in charge of the your own narrative.
It might be as simple as teaching your vocal tract (mouth and throat) a few new sounds. It might mean learning a dialect sometimes known as “So-Called General American” or SCGA. This is an extremely achievable task that can open things up for you and doesn’t have to change who you are any more than you want it to.
Jillian Courtney 