emka
Junior Member
- Joined
- Jan 19, 2011
- Member Type
- Student or Learner
- Native Language
- German
- Home Country
- Germany
- Current Location
- Germany
Trying to pick your brains...
I want to soften/reduce my foreign accent (L1 is German). How realistic is this given the fact that I don’t live in the country of my target language, i.e. I am not exposed to English on an everyday basis?
Also, if I were to succeed making any discernable progress, would it last or would it just fade away for the above-mentioned reason?
What realistic options are there given the fact that I can’t afford to hire a voice and accent training coach like Hollywood actors or high-flying VIPs who need to alter their accents and who don’t worry about the money side of it?
I have been looking for accent reduction options online, searching for a deal along the line of language exchange via Skype (accent training for German conversation), but to no avail.
I have also been looking for accent reduction coaches on the internet. Most train/coach AE or the Canadian variety. The few who do BE accent coaching are simply out of my financial range. And of course you don’t know what skills and quality you get unless you try a coach for a couple of hours – money that might be wasted.
I have also been considering a home-stay holiday in the UK with a host who is an ESL teacher as well. But then being an ESL teacher does not necessarily mean that this person also knows how to do accent reduction training. This is a special training area; yet ESL teachers usually focus on the four skills (reading, listening, writing, speaking, often training for IELTS or Cambridge exams), improving their students’ grammar and fluency rather than working on the finer points of pronunciation, i.e. awareness of the vocal tract and voice production, intonation, word and sentence stress, pitch, pace etc. Identifying a person’s individual weaknesses and training them to improve these aspects specifically requires a certain skill set I don’t think I would find with the “normal” ESL teacher.
Can anybody give me some useful hints how I can proceed with this? I really want to do something about my accent – if it is feasible at all.
Thank you.
I want to soften/reduce my foreign accent (L1 is German). How realistic is this given the fact that I don’t live in the country of my target language, i.e. I am not exposed to English on an everyday basis?
Also, if I were to succeed making any discernable progress, would it last or would it just fade away for the above-mentioned reason?
What realistic options are there given the fact that I can’t afford to hire a voice and accent training coach like Hollywood actors or high-flying VIPs who need to alter their accents and who don’t worry about the money side of it?
I have been looking for accent reduction options online, searching for a deal along the line of language exchange via Skype (accent training for German conversation), but to no avail.
I have also been looking for accent reduction coaches on the internet. Most train/coach AE or the Canadian variety. The few who do BE accent coaching are simply out of my financial range. And of course you don’t know what skills and quality you get unless you try a coach for a couple of hours – money that might be wasted.
I have also been considering a home-stay holiday in the UK with a host who is an ESL teacher as well. But then being an ESL teacher does not necessarily mean that this person also knows how to do accent reduction training. This is a special training area; yet ESL teachers usually focus on the four skills (reading, listening, writing, speaking, often training for IELTS or Cambridge exams), improving their students’ grammar and fluency rather than working on the finer points of pronunciation, i.e. awareness of the vocal tract and voice production, intonation, word and sentence stress, pitch, pace etc. Identifying a person’s individual weaknesses and training them to improve these aspects specifically requires a certain skill set I don’t think I would find with the “normal” ESL teacher.
Can anybody give me some useful hints how I can proceed with this? I really want to do something about my accent – if it is feasible at all.
Thank you.