I WANT AN AMERICAN ACCENT!

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Dbutkus

#352536 Wed, 18 Apr 07 04:00 PM

Any type, Southern, NY, Mid-Western, Hawaiian, I just need an accent so I converse with my American friends about sports and be taken seriously!

Need drama or speech tutor in Birmingham, UK to help me out!

Dbutkus

Joined on Wed, Apr 18 2007

New Member (01)

Kooyeen

#352642 Wed, 18 Apr 07 10:42 PM

Hi,
"be taken seriously"? Why does it have to do with American accent?
"Drama or speech tutor in Birmingham"? Why? Are you in Birmingham? Are you a native speaker of British English?

Sorry, I can't understand exaclty what you need, the way I see it, maybe you live in the UK and have a strong kind of British accent that makes you feel a little awkward when you talk with your American friends. Is it so?

I read a book on Accent reduction that helped me a lot with American accent, but it was meant for non-native speakers of English (accent reduction = you'll sound less foreign), so I'm not sure it could work for you too. Smile [:)]

Kooyeen

Joined on Thu, Dec 22 2005

Italy

Senior Member (3,973)

If you don't have a sense of humor already, it's about time you buy one.

Accents, American accents, British accent, British English

Gaia74

#352800 Thu, 19 Apr 07 08:08 AM

Hi Kooyeen,

what's the name of this book?

Big Smile [:D]

Gaia74

Joined on Thu, Apr 5 2007

Italy

Full Member (117)

Accents, American accents

Anonymous

#352808 Thu, 19 Apr 07 08:53 AM

hi every bady iwont to learn english please help me

Anonymous

Accents, American accents, Learn English

Gaia74

#352838 Thu, 19 Apr 07 10:11 AM

Hi!

I'm learning english too and when I'm staying at home, I hear and watch english sound and movies, without subtitles, so I try to understand the words, the pronunciation ... and it's very funny. Try it. Smile [:)]

Gaia74

Accents, American accents, Learning English, Pronunciation

Kooyeen

#353040 Thu, 19 Apr 07 07:34 PM

Gaia74 wrote:
Hi Kooyeen,

what's the name of this book?

Hi,
it's American Accent Training, by Ann Cook. It comes with some CDs. I don't know if there are other that could be better, but I know that's a very popular one. It is a good way to learn to recognize the features of American spoken English. Here is the website: http://www.americanaccent.com/.
To give you an idea of what you can find inside, here's some important stuff
http://www.americanaccent.com/intonation.html
http://www.americanaccent.com/pronunciation.html#ie
http://www.americanaccent.com/liaisons.html

That's practically most of the important stuff there's in that book. You can also listen to the introduction (two samples), here on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=american+accent+training&search=Search

That's all. Enjoy! Wink [;)]

Kooyeen

Accent Training, Accents, American accents, Intonations, Pronunciation

Gaia74

#353399 Fri, 20 Apr 07 02:00 PM

How fantastic! I have to try it immediately.

One question: you have said me that the accent in Boston is very difficult ... what do you mean?

I'm going to stay two days in boston and my friend doesn't speak english at all ... I'm a bit afraid! Sad [:(]

How do you pronunce " driver's licence"?

Bye!

Gaia74

Accents, American accents, Speak english

Kooyeen

#353725 Sat, 21 Apr 07 03:06 PM

Gaia74 wrote:
One question: you have said me that the accent in Boston is very difficult ... what do you mean?

Well, no, I don't think it's difficult to understand (or at least I hope so Wink [;)]

), it's just that I heard that there are some features in that accent that some Americans find strange, unusual, even funny. I think if you can speak and understand General American, you'll have no problems (maybe Wink [;)]

).

How to pronounce "driver's license"? (It's "license" in Amercan E., not "licence")
I don't know if you know how to read IPA transcriptions, it would be /draivərz laisəns/. In case you don't know, you can hear the pronunciation here:
driver: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/driver (click on the red little icon)
license: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/license (click on the red little icon)
Add a "z" sound as in "zebra" (but pronounced in English, not in Italian!) after "driver", and you get "driver's".

Smile [:)]