Accent Reduction: The Standard American Accent

If you're a foreign speaker trying to pronounce American English, you may be pushing yourself too hard. There's really nowhere to go and seemingly nothing left to do. You're stuck with twisted notions of how Americans are supposed to sound. Your aspirations are turning into a real tragedy that plays itself out every time someone asks where you are from. This accent reduction manual flies in the face of conventional wisdom. It takes the responsibility off your shoulders. The vowel and consonant suggestions quickly add up, and in only a handful of scheduled lessons, you'll see that your dreams of clear speech need not be brushed aside. This program is supported by a free series of YouTube videos and limited to exactly what you need to improve. Your hopes will rise like a sun over the morning horizon. Study in the privacy of your own home, perhaps enjoying a double mocha latte as you pick up the basics of clear American speech.


About the Author
My students get tired of hearing this story, but it really happened. As a young actor from New York City, I found myself getting verbally cuffed by casting directors over my thick accent. It was one big unavoidable mess, and I was unfortunately in the middle of it. The whole thing was a rain cloud over my acting career. I grew tired and distant. I studied with several speech coaches, yet I often felt like I skipped a lesson somewhere, because the way they sounded didn't reflect what I heard in the media. After learning the basics of the phonetic alphabet, I turned the volume up on my television and analyzed how Americans truly pronounce their vowels and consonants. This combination of book-learning and ruthless appraisal opened the doors to understanding the American accent. My own accent became a virtual non-issue. I began coaching, then in the nineties I started as an instructor in the Los Angeles City College system. Nearly two decades later, the fundamentals of the American Accent are now at your disposal.