How to reduce your accent!

[Anglika]

Seventh heaven = The farthest of the concentric spheres containing the stars and constituting the dwelling place of God and the angels in the Muslim and cabalist systems.

see also here:Brewer, E. Cobham. Dictionary of Phrase & Fable. Heaven.

[Sitesurf]

For what it's worth, I strongly believe our ability to catch the targeted accent (British, Am, etc) has to do with the quality of our earing.
If you have got a good musical ear, then you sing in tune.
If you hear well, then you can control the sounds you produce.
Some of us are naturally good at music, others need to work more, but I believe singing helps us all.
Therefore, my personal advise would be to take music lessons, in particular singing lessons.

[abdallaali]

Accents:
Accent of any language can not be learnt ,but acquired during the early life of child .
Accent of people (English, Indian , Japanese ,Arabian , etc.) as we know characterises each as well as their other characteristics .
So, i think all of you are agree with me that when Indian speaking English-even clear accent- we can’t say : this man or woman is English or American .
It’s natural when any one speaking language not his or her native , will speak it in his or her own accent or sound .
Am i right

[Anglika]

Yes and no. It is individual.

Some people can absorb the sounds of other languages and sound quite native.

Others never hear the subtleties of other languages and always sound wrong.

Most come somewhere in the middle.

[stuartnz]

Originally Posted by abdallaali

Accents:
Accent of any language can not be learnt ,but acquired during the early life of child .
Accent of people (English, Indian , Japanese ,Arabian , etc.) as we know characterises each as well as their other characteristics .
So, i think all of you are agree with me that when Indian speaking English-even clear accent- we can’t say : this man or woman is English or American .
It’s natural when any one speaking language not his or her native , will speak it in his or her own accent or sound .
Am i right

Overall I would say that you are right. It is especially worth noting that there are many different varieties of accents among people whose first language is English. Many of these accents are looked down upon as "wrong", by those who speak or aspire to speak in one of the major dominant accents, such as RP or standard US English. Often those who esteem or use these accents will criticise or devalue others, such as my New Zealand accent, or the accent of native speakers from Australia, South Africa or India. I would suggest that clarity of pronunciation is more important than trying to imitate a particular accent. As long as the pronunciation is clear and unambiguous, then in most cases, the accent will not be a problem.

[dling]

hi everyone

do you know of any good internet websites to practice english?

[rebeccaataccentschool]

Hi,

A lot of people struggle to improve their accent but really don't know what a "foreign" accent is in the first place. It is sort of hard to improve anything when you don't know the cause.

I go over this in great detail on Accent School - AccentSchool FREE pronunciation software. If you use the free software, the first thing you will do is learn the causes of a foreign accent and then play a sort of game about it.

Hope that you might find that sort of information helpful....I know, for a lot of students, once they understand what their problems are, they can start to fix them.

Rebecca
Accent School - AccentSchool FREE pronunciation software

[stuartnz]

Originally Posted by rebeccaataccentschool

I go over this in great detail on Accent School - AccentSchool FREE pronunciation software. If you use the free software, the first thing you will do is learn the causes of a foreign accent and then play a sort of game about it.

Obviously any commercial enterprise such as yours would have to say that the accent it teaches is "correct", but as someone who would definitely "fail" the standards set due to my "foreign" accent, I find the whole concept of an accent school somewhat analagous to the selling of unused or never previously worn vestments to males of the highest Imperial rank. On a linguistic note, I'd be fascinated to learn what the reasons given are for the accent you choose to teach, and how you define "foreign".