How do you get rid of an accent?

Question

I'm Natirah-American. Both of my parents speak Spanish and I lived in a bi-lingual house until my parents seperated. Since then, I've been living in an English household. I grew up in Charleston so so I have a mixutre of a Gullah accent and a Spanish sounding accent. A gullah accent sorta sounds like Rihanna's speaking voice. Since currently I'm pale and lighter haired since it's winter, people think I'm a "poser" or whatever and constantly ask "Why is the white girl trying to be black?" or something like that. Anyway, I'm not Spanish and I don't want to keep having people being so rude about my accent. Not many people know about a Gullah accent so it's hard to explain to them. How can I get rid of my accent?

I'm Natirah-Native American, African and European.

It's not that I mind my accent and even though everyone's comments get trying but I can't do a lot of activites at school. They won't let me take a lead in drama, I can't give speeches, I can't sing in the choir, they won't even let me holler out commands for cheerleading. The only times I've gotten to be in a play is when I had to play a foreign character and have my English made fun of or someone from New Orleans.

Answer 1

Have you ever seen the movie "My fair Lady"? What a fantastic movie (with Audrey Hepburn), you HAVE to see it. It's about a girl who speaks terrible English because she's from the lower class part of town, and an expert in speech takes her in on a bet and teaches her to speak the 'proper' way.
My English is terrible (even though i grew up in the U.S). My mom's side of the family is Armenian, and for some reason I picked up their broken/mixed English. Everyone has always given me a hard time about it. I remember when I was young, kids would tell me "you talk funny" and "where's your accent from?" ah, I'm from the U.S! Anyway, it's got a lot better as time has gone by. I find that reading books (in English of course) helps me straighten out my sentences and think and speak more fluently. I don't know if this helped. You might just want to walk around the house and try to enunciate words and practice like that. Reading has always helped me though... of course I'm still working on it... the "accent" still comes out a couple times a day :-P

Answer 2

It's complicated, this accent business. If you can, try a contrastive phonetic course. But the best way is to get a coach with linguistics experience. In the big city, there are people whose careers are to teach people to lose their accent. (Conversely, some people need to learn an accent- Nicole Kidman is a good example. When she speaks as Nicole Kidman, she has a very noticeable Aussie accent. When she plays a role on film, she sounds 100% American.)

The contrastive phonetic approach will give you examples of how the same word sounds in different accents. Mimicry helps, but so does a conscious understanding of different ways to articulate words. (Hence the "contrastive" part.)

And you can't forget that there are regionalisms involved, too- the classic Southern word for concrete is "SEE-ment," while many with a standard accent say "suh-MENT," And that policy that pays for car accidents in the south is "IN-shur-unce" while in non-accented regions, it's "in-SHUR-ence."

To focus your efforts, pick an area- like the cheerleading commands. Get a coach (maybe a cheerleading friend?) and listen carefully to the way she says the command, then try to imitate her. Think of intonation, cadence, and articulation.

Motivation is one thing you need to have, and I think you've got plenty of that. Practice. And listen when you can, to the way other people are talking- the energy, the speed, the duration of a sound. Don't be afraid to sound "funny" to your ears. Your ears grew up with gullah as "normal," and you've got to make some sounds that are definitely not normal within the gullah language. Once you know you're going to sound "funny," and you're OK with it, you're most of the way there.

Good luck and have a great Christmas!!

Answer 3

Just let yerself be drawn in, (and almost HYPNOTISED) by the New York accent whenever ya speak to the locals and start to mimic the way they pronounce different words, and the intonation that they use in their accent, and ya should gain a New York twang soon enough, but it will only be a twang at your age, I'm afraid, cöck- you've left it too late to gain the full accent. I've got the binary opposite of your problem- I moved from my native London, (England), up to Lincoln, (ALSO in England), WELL over two years ago now, and for the record, I'M tryin' desperately NOT to lose MY accent! Let's hope we'll BOTH be successful in our quests, eh? Peace and love! Be lucky! :)

Answer 4

It takes a while, but talk with people who speak with the accent you want to learn and try to imitate their pronounciation. Your brain will adjust but it will take work.

When people live in the UK for a few years, you can tell because they pick up a alight British accent so your accent is not set in stone

My sister speaks perfect Mid-Atlantic English but grew up in panama. Moved to the U.S. at age 10. My mom has a slight accent but she didn't learn English till she was naturalized when she was in her 30s

Answer 5

Repeat after me: The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain. No, no, no....try again. : )

Seriously, people are rude, so that is not going to change.

People who are more interested in your accent than in what you have to say are dunces who are not worth your attention. Develop an accent, if you really want to, but learn what a person is worth, and be the person you can respect.

Answer 6

Get on-line and do a search for "Dialect Coaching" or "Dialect Instruction for Actors". There are a number of products out there that can teach you other dialects and accents. You never "get rid of an accent" you only replace it with a different accent or learn a second accent. It's much like the initial stages of learning a second language--you must learn to pronounce the sounds of that language before you can speak it.

Answer 7

There are tape sets developed for actors that teach you how to quickly change your speech patterns, but it's got to be a conscious effort right from the get go. You might also try watching movies and pausing them after someone says something and mimicking it a couple times and then moving on to another phrase in the movie and doing the same.
Mostly it's going to have to take a lot of conscious changing of your speech before it becomes natural.

Answer 8

Do you want to get rid of it because you'd prefer to be more mainstream for your own reasons or because silly judgemental people who don't yet know you may draw a conclusion? whatever the reason, learn the phonetic alphabet and try to sound things out phonetically. there are accent-reduction courses you can take. try an acting class. try enunciating and recording your voice and playing it back until it sounds like whatever you want to sound like. So if you cant afford classes, record a speaker you like (radio, friend, whoever) and then try to repeat what they said the way they said it. it helps if you can transcribe what they said phonetically first. remember, we all have accents, but some are more mainstream than others.

Answer 9

English is my third language, but I managed to get a good British accent. Maybe it is because I have a musical ear or something like that. So it helps if you have one.

Something that was very useful to me was singing. I tried to imitate the sounds I heard and it worked (although I sing AWFULLY).
You can try, but don't sing Bob Marley or something like that or it will be worse!!

Answer 10

ewww...you have that gullah accent...*barf* no no just kidding chicka..lol had quite few freinds from there...used to mess with themm...(tho ive never met a fair person from there with that accent)....interesting...

the way to get rid of an accent: practice, practice, practice. see when i moved to florida from louisiana, i had a STRONG creole accent. i mean you couldnt understand anything i said and the kiddies made fun of me....and some of the girls i met from charleston thought i was one of them..lol so i listened to the people around me as a kid and tried to imitate the way they talked.

well, now i can turn my accent on and off. when its on its very thick....when its off, you can barely hear it, though its still there(cant completely get rid of it..lol).... loosen up your mouth and tongue, thats what contributes to the way you talk..so practice. its better when you have freinds with a neutral american accent...GL!

-chai

EDIT: i dont think theres anything wrong with changing your accent esp.if its holding you back, and an accent like yours or mines is VERY hard to shake...but if you cant be in chorus or shout out in cheer leading thats crap...those ppl suck!(your accent must be very thick if it affecting those activities..) now as for acting, you will need to be able to turn your accent on and off. its just something you have to do if you are serious abt acting....you have to be able to play any charcter and imitate any accent...like i said GL!