“Practicing just 30 minutes a day can Dramatically improve your American English accent in only a few months.” Co-Founder Cynthia Marie Accent Reduction Specialist Home Accent Reduction Trying to be understood in a social situation can be quite disheartening when you are speaking with a heavy accent.  Being understood in a business situation is especially important to prevent misunderstandings.  In today’s global economy, conversing with associates who speak different languages can result in severe accents when those associates try to speak in your language.  Accent reduction is the key to being understood across cultures.  Reduce Don’t Eliminate Never try to completely eliminate your accent.  It is quite impossible, especially in social situation.  Instead focus on accent reduction.   Try to pay attention to those areas of speech that others find difficult to understand and focus on reducing the accent in those areas. Pronunciation A great way to promote accent reduction is to focus on properly pronouncing letter groupings and difficult words.  You might have difficulty with certain vowel sounds, or sounding out “th” or “w” or “r”.  You need to find an instructor who has the knowledge to help you work on those problem areas.  Consider taking a class that focuses on elocution or speech giving.  Both of these areas of training work to provide the speaker with a more universal accent.   Practice Once you have gone through accent reduction training the next step is to find a way to practice speaking without such a pronounced accent.  Join the local toastmasters club or a debate team.  Practice with your colleagues who are also trying to reduce their accents.  Take turns giving presentations and speeches.  Tape yourself speaking and play it back with a critical ear.   Knowing what areas you need to focus on for accent reduction will bring you one step closer to being understood by your friends and business associates.  Once you have learned how to speak with a reduced accent it is important to practice so proper speech will become second nature.  Cynthia Marie Accent Lessons