Accent Reduction

Ok, for those of you who know me well, I have been working hard on my Japanese the past few months so I could take the JLPT3 (Japanese Language Proficiency Test or 日本語能力試験3級)… well I sat for it in December, so lets hope I passed!

So now what you ask? Well, I have been thinking and it occurred to me, that while many Japanese know lots of English words, and a good amount can even speak, one of the biggest differentiators between my perception of who is good and who is not is simple, their accent.

In most interactions, we only are exchanging a relatively small number of words, so how you say them really count. If you meet 2 people, 1 has a vocab of 1000 words but great pronunciation and one has a vocab of 2000+ but is hard to understand, who will you perceive as the better speaker? Granted, overtime, the truth will probably come out, but then again, first impressions are hard to shake.

So I have decided to focus on reducing my Japanese accent, at the same time, I will be trying to apply those same techniques I am using on myself to non-native English speakers.

Now, I know, the same problems Japanese speakers have with English will be different from those who are native Spanish or Russian speakers. In the same way my problems with pronouncing Japanese may be different than the problems I have with Spanish.

So to start, I am going to keep it simple, I will focus on general techniques as well as specifics. What is in my head now is this basic strategy

1. Read a passage in the target language. (Record It)
2. Have a native speaker read the same passage. (Record It)
3. Compare recordings with the native speaker so they can help you see where you are making errors
4. Rerecord, rerecord, till you get it perfect.

Also, for some fun, I am thinking that I will use this opportunity to develop a British accent for myself… as a citizen of the UK, it seems only fitting that I use a British accent when I try and use my British passport right?

If you have any ideas, thoughts, comments, please post em up below…

Here are some references I will be reading over the next few weeks to give me more ideas

For Japanese Learners

simple TIPS and TRICKS: http://www.ehow.com/how_2151706_improve-japanese-pronunciation.html

http://www.wikihow.com/Sound-Natural-While-Speaking-Japanese

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080116175740AA3loa7

For (American) English Learners

http://www.accurateenglish.com/HTML/tips.htm

http://esl.about.com/od/speakingenglish/a/accent_reduce.htm

http://www.speakingyourbest.com/accentguides/japaneseaccent.html

(this site is trying to sell stuff, still interesting)

http://www.americanaccent.com/

(this site appears to have a computer analyze your English! pretty cool)

http://comptonpeslonline.com/assessment_sections/anlys_section/intro_analysis.shtml?send_to=info%40englishwithoutaccent.com

this guy seems interesting: http://www.scottsensei.com/

this looks has a good bunch of resources: http://www.sunburstmedia.com/PronWeb.html

For those who want a British Accent

http://www.articleclick.com/Article/Learn-British-Accent—A-Plus-for-Actors/1060245

http://ask.metafilter.com/20898/How-to-pick-up-a-British-accent

http://www.ehow.com/videos-on_7570_speak-british-accent.html

(this lady has American accents too)

http://www.patriciafletcher.com/classically_speaking.php