I was never the first case but I used to get some weird looks and I was asked that famous question: "Are you Russian?". Aghhhh, every Slavic person (especially not Russian) hates that :) It was lowering my already low self-esteem, since I was a target of many evil and biased people in my home country based on my religion and the way I was raised (it is that kind of a country), but we're not going to be talking about that here. I hated being connected and associated with that culture so one day, after countless hours of devastation, I decided I want to change the way I think, breath and speak English.
I remember hysterically browsing the Internet, hoping that one click can magically change everything in a couple of months. I was lucky enough to find a teacher very close to where I used to live and she was a perfect match for me. Afterwards, I heard many stories about people being ripped off which made them give up working on themselves altogether.
Having an accent reduction lessons is very delicate since you have to face your fears and re-learn to talk and think again. When I first started I was so tired and sick of tongue twisters, tongue positions, mind blowing THs, differences between Vs and Ws and half sound vowels (the ones having problems with those will understand completely). I thought my head will explode...
About a year after I started in, I never had a person asking me where I'm from or to repeat something. I only had lessons once a week for an hour, not every week though. Being very understandable and having a slight accent wasn't good enough for me, so I decided to continue until I perfect myself fully.
Right now well into my second year of studying I am very often mistaken for an American :)
What to expect:
- You will be frustrated (and mad at yourself)
- You will allow fallback occasionally, it's normal
- In order to get results you will have to practice everyday
- It will take much more time than what you have expected, but if you're persistent enough it will payoff
What NOT to expect:
- Your teacher is not a miracle worker
- Most teacher will not agree on giving accent reduction lessons if your English is not good enough (and for a good reason, you have to know how to spell in order to be able to joggle with all those new sounds).
- Your teacher should be very welcome to correct you, if you are a type of person who know everything (and we all are at least a bit), maybe it's better not to start accent reduction, since you will not learn anything.
- Your teacher is a person with his/her own frustrations, don't take everything personally :) I was lucky to have a patient and warm person for a teacher, but I can only imagine how hard it is to listen so many stories and keep a smile on your face. Kudos to Elizabeth for putting up with me and all of that drama that comes with me practicing my accent.
In the end, do not be so hard to yourself. There will be some good days and some bad days, like everything. Right now, I'm at the point where a tend to fall back to my old habits when I'm surrounded with my friends and family from my past, because some little devil inside me tells me not to let go of that :) If you decide to dive into this beautiful and very rewarding adventure, you will not regret it.
If you want to contact my teacher here is the link.
*Photo-courtesy by Denis Wagovich
No comments:
Post a Comment