Neutralising your accent - Part I

“You have a strong MTI (Mother Tongue Influence). Please work on it and come again ….”

“Sorry, you have to work on pronunciation ….”

“Your English doesn’t sound like English …”

And this is the statement of many MNCs today

These are some phrases which put an end to interviews most often nowadays.  What might be the reason ?

Doesn’t the candidate know English?  

No…That’s not the reason. We KNOW English but we don’t know to SPEAK English.   And its true knowing English is entirely different from knowing to speak English.

Many deserving candidates lose out on job opportunities because of their vernacular accent. What is this vernacular accent ? It’s the influence of your mother tongue on your English, or it’s a state where we unknowingly replace the sounds of English with the sounds of our own language. There are many reasons which contribute to this, like:

1.       The ignorance of the original English sound.
2.       The lack of that particular sound in our language
3.       The position of the articulators and some more…

What is the solution? Can I neutralize my accent?

This is the question in the minds of many of the candidates whose interviews ended with the above said phrases. And the answer is fortunately YES… YOU CAN.. All you need to do is train yourself to speak English as comfortably and perfectly as you speak your mother tongue.

How do you train yourself ?

By inculcating certain practices in your daily lifestyle. These will get you closer to sounding like a native English speaker and equip you with a global accent or a NEUTRAL ACCENT -- and you will NOT speak American or British English, but correct English.

This is the first step to learn any other accent, be it American or British or Australian.

Lisa Mojsin, head trainer, director and founder of the Accurate English Training Company in Los Angeles, offers these tips to help 'neutralise' your accent or rather do away with the local twang, as you speak.

i. Observe the mouth movements of those who speak English well and try to imitate them.

When you are watching television, observe the mouth movements of the speakers. Repeat what they are saying, while imitating the intonation and rhythm of their speech.

ii. Until you learn the correct intonation and rhythm of English, slow your speech down.

If you speak too quickly, and with the wrong intonation and rhythm, native speakers will have a hard time understanding you. 

Don't worry about your listener getting impatient with your slow speech -- it is more important that everything you say be understood.

iii. Listen to the 'music' of English.

Do not use the 'music' of your native language when you speak English. Each language has its own way of 'singing'.  

iv. Use the dictionary.

Try and familiarise yourself with the phonetic symbols of your dictionary. Look up the correct pronunciation of words that are hard for you to say.

v. Make a list of frequently used words that you find difficult to pronounce and ask someone who speaks the language well to pronounce them for you.

Record these words, listen to them and practice saying them. Listen and read at the same time.   

... to be continued