Hey folks,
I tried to post this one a little earlier today but under as anonymous. I guess the topic is not gonna appear, so here is it again. I'm not a native English speaker but have spent a considerable number of years in the US (more about myself below). What I'm looking for is an individual, native to one of the following areas, willing to teach me their accent. I'm looking for:
Boston, Massachusetts area, a white middle class accent.
Any Southern accent except for TX or FL area (FL I don't find very pronounced and TX I dislike; no offense intended); white middle to lower class.
Male or female makes no difference.
Anyway, being a poor college student like so many, I regret that I find myself unable to offer monetary compensation at this point, however, I would be more than willing to return the favor. I'm a native German speaker (Hannover area) with the prestigious high German accent. I'm looking for someone who derives joy from learning and teaching accents and who's interested in picking up a German accent.
About me:
As stated earlier I'm a born German. Hannover is roughly 40 minutes (driving) west of the city of Celle, which they say has the most desirable pronounciation in German. I've lived in Hannover for a little more than 16 years before I left for the US. I've lived in the US for about 4 years now, spending 1 year in Idaho (yehaaw!) and the remainder in Minnesota. I've had the opportunity to study Latin (4 years), English (9 years), Chinese (2 years), French (1.5 years), and Spanish (.5 years), but consider myself not fluent in any of these languages except for in English, which I consider conversational and fluent.
I'd be more than happy to talk to the willing individual a couple times a week over the phone or Skype for coaching.
See, I've managed to somewhat blend in over the past few years, at least to a point where people don't ask "where are you from" as soon as I say "hi". I don't mind having a German accent and I'm sure it comes in handy in certain situations, but I'd like to have some variety. My dictionary is advanced and slightly above college average. I consider myself to be from the upper middle class
in Hannover and received a well-rounded education, including some private schooling in high school.
When it comes to an American accent, I'm afraid it hasn't quite clicked yet -- I guess I can imitate some of the speech from Southerners or Easteners but not reliably. I don't know anyone personally from either region of the country. I'm a management and economics major and got fortunate as in being able to pick up some sociolinguistic and linguistic classes along the way.
Did I get you interested? I know that this might be a quite unusual request but I'm hopeful that someone will be so kind as to take on that challenge :-)