How Do You Change Your Accent? It's a Personal Thing!

I believe Accent Reduction can not be taught in a large class.  It is a personal thing, not a group thing.  It's not actually accent reduction, it's learning a new accent.  You can actually learn several accents, like many actors do, and you can always switch back to your old one (for fun!).  I can coach three accents, Southern, French and  broadcast-quality English. This is the one that is most needed, and not just by broadcasters, but anyone wanting to improve their credibility and influence.

Many people come to me after they have have attended some kind of accent reduction program, and it didn't work.  Why?  Because it's a personal thing. You can't learn from a class or CDs alone, unless you are particularly gifted. You need a good coach or teacher to help you to know what to do and to help you change habits.  And this is the magic.  The coach guides you, and you take on the training as if it's a workout, and workouts are personal. I believe the new sounds are like learning new dance moves.  You may not get it the first time, but keep trying and you will certainly change the way you speak.

Speech Coach Lisa Jeffery
of Accent Reduction Miami®
coaching a French Speaker
using the Color Vowel Chart®

My actors, NBC and ABC broadcasters making the cross over from Spanish must speak with a perfect broadcast quality English.  But not everyone has to be that perfect.  My CEO clients, authors, financial adviser clients don't have to be perfect, but they do have to reduce the distractions of their accent so that they can speak with precision, elegance, influence in order to persuade people. It IS possible to change the way they speak English.  And this is true for people whose native language is English... but they mumble, or do not articulate well.

I don't come from a speech therapist background, I come from a television and radio broadcasting, public speaking and training background.  I taught voice and articulation and broadcasting at a university for many years, along with public speaking and communication skills.  It took me many years to find a sparkly "movie star" like coach to work with me.  But I found her one day when I met Alica Harris, and trained her in my unique techniques.

I had been consulting, coaching, and teaching university classes in Miami since 1998.  But I launched the Speech and Accent Academy in 2002 in Miami.  I launched Accent Reduction Miami® as an organization in 2008.  Accent Reduction Miami® is a philosophy, a trademark, a brand, of which I am very proud.  I created classes, and  a free meetup group to connect people to meet and speak English together.  At our meetups, we have fun, go to concerts, museums, restaurants, have salsa lessons!  I give a free lesson at our meetups and I connect people with other people to practice English together. 
 Why?  Because when I was in Paris, and spoke French with a horrible American Accent, I had nobody to practice with who would not make fun of me.  I wanted friends whose accent was a bad as mine in French, but could practice with me.  I had gotten a scholarship from the Rotary Foundation -- $20,000.00 if I could make six speeches in French in 1994.  I had to change my accent.  I hired a French Accent Reduction Coach and began my journey that changed the course of my life.

Beginning about 2004, cuts and strict restrictions in medicare and medicaid began effecting the profits of the Speech Pathologists industry.  So they had to diversify to survive, and looked towards "Accent Reduction" as a new business model -- something that dialect coaches for actors have been doing all along.  Hundreds of Speech Pathologists contacted me to ask if I could train them how to move into the area of Accent Reduction.  They  wanted to know what I was doing and how I was doing it.  I was asked to go to Dallas, San Francisco and New York.  I decided not to go into the 'train the trainer' business, but keep working with my clients.

 Accent Reduction Miami continues with classes, and our meetup group will always be free.  Our classes will always be small groups, and our coaching -- state of the art.