Lisa’s Blog

Some of my accent reduction clients have complained that the new voice recognition technology doesn't understand their heavy accent. I would like to hear your experiences with Siri and other similar applications.Here is an excerpt from an article on Huffingtonpost:"It...

Find good role models of speech. Don't imitate just any American. Some Americans mumble, they have "lazy lips" and don't make an effort to speak clearly.For example, in your native language a poet and a computer programmer may speak very differently. Right?Same thing...

This is what my student have said. Why do YOU want to reduce your accent? 1. “My boss told me that some clients are complaining that they don’t understand me.”2. “I am an actor and I my agent told me I have to get rid of my accent.”3. I am tired of always being asked...

Here is a new video that I just posted on YouTube. It will teach you the very important rule vowel reduction. English vowels can be pronounced differently, depending on whether they are stressed or reduced.

My accent reduction students usually have an advanced knowledge of English, but they still occassionally make mistakes with English grammar or vocabulary usage. Here are some books that I recommend that they purchase to perfect their skills. I have also included the...

1. Slow down your speech. Actually, you can speak as quickly as you wish, as long as you are pronouncing every sound of every word and you are following the rules of good stress and melody. You will notice that newscasters often speak quickly but clearly. If you...

The new DVD course is available. It helps Japanese speakers of English speak more clearly and learn to fix all of the most common pronunciation mistakes. Learn to correctly pronounce the difficult American consonant sounds. Fix the most common mistakes. Purchase the...

I recommend this dictionary for looking up the pronunciation of words: http://dictionary.cambridge.org/. I like the fact that it has two different accent options - one American Accent and one British. The vowels and consonants are mostly pretty authentic to an...