209. 7 features of British Accent

There are over two hundred accents and dialects in Britain: Southern (RP), Northern, Scottish, Cockney, etc. RP or Received Pronunciation is taught to foreigners because it is understood around the world and is called Standard English. RP is also a compulsory accent for actors to learn in British drama schools. RP is associated with high class and good education, and many learn RP to blend in with the upper classes.

I am an expert in RP, and in this article, I will share my knowledge that will help you learn to speak with RP, the most popular British accent and avoid main pronunciation mistakes. Below are the main characteristics and patterns of the British accent.
1. Pure English vowels
There are five long and seven short pure English vowels. Each vowel has a specific speech organ position. Lean on long vowels; do not shorten them. It's important to mention that the meaning of the word may change if you shorten a long vowel. For example, if you don't pronounce long [i:] in the word "sheet" people will hear another word, "shit". Spend extra time to make sure your vowels are precise.
Pay extra attention to the long [a:] sound as in “dance”. In some American and Northern English this sound is substituted by [æ] as in “cat”. Read my article about the [a:] sound.
2. Crisp articulation
English consonants are crisp, which makes the British accent very clear and precise.I recommend doing articulation exercises regularly. Crisp articulation is important for those who speak on the phone and deliver public speeches. The best app to train articulation is Get Rid of your Accent
3. [t, d, l, n] sounds
In RP, [t, d, l, n] are pronounced with the tip of the tongue touching the teeth or alveolar ridge. It helps to train your tongue. If the tongue is much lower, that creates a harsh "dental" sound.
In the Cockney accent, [t, d] sounds are substituted by a glottal stop in the middle of the word, for example, “water, later”. That makes speech hard to understand for those who are not used to hearing Cockney. In American English, [t, d] sounds in the middle of the word are substituted by the fast [d] sound.
4. Word endings [t, d. s, z]
It is important to pronounce [t, d. s, z] sounds at the end of the word in the past tense of verbs and the 3rd person singular. For example, Spanish speakers find it hard to pronounce [t] and [d] sounds at the end of the word, and that might create an impact that they don't know basic grammar, but it could be just a pronunciation mistake.
5. Spelling and pronunciation are not identical
English inherited foreign words from Latin, French, Dutch, and German. They kept the original spelling but anglicised the pronunciation.
One sound can have several spelling variations. Below are a few examples:
- The [a:] sound as in “father” can be spelt with “er” in words “Derby, clerk, sergeant”
- The [f] sound is usually spelt with “f” in words “ fake, fix, frame”, but it can also be spelt with “gh” in words “laugh, tough” or with “ph” in words “phone, philosophy”
- The [ʌ] sound as in “duck” can be spelt with "o" in words “oven, front, company”, or with “u” in words “bus, lunch, pub” and with “ou” in words “ country, double, trouble”.
6. Silent letters
Many letters are silent in English. For example:
- silent [w] in words “write, who, whimsical, wholesale”
- silent [l] in words “walk, talk, chalk”
-silent [h] in words “why, when, where”
7. The usage of the schwa [ə] as in “the” for speech fluency
The schwa is used to make the speech more fluent because many unstressed syllables and even unimportant words are pronounced with the schwa. It is used in contracting unimportant words for the meaning of the sentence or phrases.

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208. Earn Respect

The ability to own the respect of others is connected to our survival instinct. By and large, people respect us if they can rely on us, trust us, and see that we are useful to them.

I like observing people’s behaviour and reactions. I want to share with you my observations on the topic of respect.

People respect us unconsciously if we possess the following qualities:

1. Straight back and good posture - a sign of physical and spiritual strength
2. Confident eye contact and open gestures. These non-verbal clues signify openness and honesty. People who lie and lack confidence often cannot look straight in the eyes
3. Decent clothes and shoes, groomed appearance. This is the sign of high self-esteem
4. Good, clear speech. It is essential for easy communication. We maintain a friendly intonation that shows a positive attitude
5. Ability to keep a pause and talk to the point. This adds gravitas and weight to our words
6. Measured pace and relaxed way of doing things. When we are relaxed, others feel relaxed too
7. When we are grateful for what is offered to us and respect other people's space and time rather than beg, ask or push for more
8. Ability to listen to others.
9. Honour commitments
10. Respect the values of the society in which we operate
11. Respect people’s privacy

My findings revealed that people do not respect those who (despite their achievements):

1. Talk too much and do very little
2. Neither try to understand nor respect the values of the society in which they operate
3. Have a scruffy and ungroomed look that causes an emotion of disgust
4. Rush themselves and others, thus creating unnecessary stress that increases cortisol levels and damages health
5. Constantly ask for favours, try to take advantage of other people's time, space and resources
6. Rushed, unclear, badly articulated speech; intonation that transmits a toxic negative attitude
7. Make silly jokes
8. Waste their own and other people’s time
9. Do not keep their promise and overpromise
10. Have bad posture and a very hunched back
11. TMI - Give too much information about themselves and others, particularly private and sensitive information. Invade their privacy with inappropriate questions

We can conclude that to be respected, we do not have to earn millions, have a PhD or win a gold medal in the Olympics. To earn respect, we should think of the ways we can be useful and master the necessary attributes and skills that facilitate it. We should also exercise a degree of self-control. Whether we start a new job or join a new social group, often our survival in this group depends on whether we can earn their respect.

Let me bring an example from my life. When I had a strong foreign accent, people looked down on me, and my native intonation sounded a bit aggressive in English culture. These facts hindered my success. When I mastered my speech and intonation, I began to feel respected and even admired.
You can master your speech with the apps:
Elocution Lessons, Get Rid of your Accent, American Accent App, Fluent English Speech, Fluent American Speech, Business English Speech, and 4Ps, Power, Pitch, Pace, Pause.

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205. Nasal sounds /m/, /n/, and /ŋ/

Nasal consonants /m/, /n/, and /ŋ/are pronounced through the nose, however, there are differences in speech organ positions for each sound. Once you sort out the correct positioning, there is no way you can’t pronounce these sounds.

The /m/ sound as in “money” is formed by complete closure in the mouth by speech organs. The soft palate is lowered so that the air is free to pass out through the nose. The lips come together so that the breath cannot be released through the mouth. It escapes through the nose where the sound is produced.

Speech organs position for the /n/sound as in “nun”
The tip of the tongue is on the teeth ridge so that the breath cannot be released through the mouth. It escapes through the nose where the sound is produced.

Speech organs position for the /ŋ/sound as in “ring”
The tip of the tongue is behind the bottom teeth, and the back of the tongue rises to contact the soft palate, so the breath cannot be released through the mouth. It escapes through the nose where the sound is produced.

In our experience, Spanish people often substitute the /m/ sound for the /n/ sound and visa versa.
Chinese students struggle with all three sounds, particularly at the end of the word.
The /ŋ/ does not exist in Russian, for example, and they say /dʊɪng/ instead of /dʊɪŋ/.

The /ŋ/ seems the most difficult for most people to pronounce, even for native English speakers. People with a heavy New York accent pronounce it as /n/, they say /dʊin/ instead of /dʊiŋ/ and so on. Because the /ŋ/ sound is spelled as “ng” some Brits add /k/ and /g/sounds, and instead of /dʊiŋ/ they say /dʊink/ or /dʊing/.

Another spelling variation for the /ŋ/ sound is “n” before “k” as in the words:

Spelling - Phonetic
bank -/bæŋk/
honk - /hɒŋk/
wink - /wɪŋk/
As you can see in this case /k/ is pronounced.

You can master these and all sounds of English with the apps ‎Elocution Lessons, Get Rid of your Accent UK1, ‎Business English Speech.

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204. How to create a promo video

Essential criteria

1. The length of a promo video is 30-90 seconds. It is short and sweet.

2. Its purpose is to showcase your product or service in a way that attracts and motivates your target audience to buy it.

3. Conduct market research and identify your target audience's demographics, motivations and pain points

4. Make sure your visual elements and graphics reflect your company's values and please your target audience

Content creation

1. Define your core messages.
   For example:
   - what is my product/service
   - where you can buy and use it
   - what is the competitive advantage or unique benefit of your product/service for yout customers

2. Identify call for action (CFA)

3. Use story telling technique

4. Use short words/verbs

5. Avoid convoluted language, complex terminology and jargon

6. Ensure your content sounds natural and conversational

Promo video delivery

1. Record your video several times and ensure good speech articulation and compelling intonation. You can master these skills with the apps ‎Elocution Lessons, Get Rid of your Accent UK1, ‎Business English Speech and ‎Fluent English Speech

2. Use pauses and modulate your voice. Download the app and Power, Pitch, Pace, Pause to practise these powerful techniques.

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200. How do you get started mastering your speech?

How do you get started mastering your speech?

If you are confronted by enemies such as laziness and procrastination there are tools that you can use to overcome them:
1. 5 sends rule. Do not allow your brain a chance to be lazy. As soon as you want to do something your brain will try to find reasons why it would be better to do nothing, So you have just five seconds to start with what you want to do, count 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and get started.

2. The power of small steps.Do small actions regularly. Small actions are not frightening for our brain and we choose to do something simple. Our brain likes to do not what is important but what is simple. Break an important task into baby steps and do them regularly. Speech is a very technical subject. To master your speech effectively break it into simple steps and exercise regularly. My favourite app based on RP is ‎Elocution Lessons because it is very easy to use.

3. Develop a habit of achieving small goals: set up a goal, do small steps, get results, reward yourself, acknowledge your risen self-esteem, set up a higher goal and repeat the same circle. When can we be sure that a desired action is our habit? There is a common opinion that it takes 21 days for a habit to set in. I disagree. Some habits take longer. The habit is set for sure when doing something is more comfortable than not doing it. Many people have developed some bad speech habits: they mumble, do not articulate, use too many parasite words, rush their speech, etc.

4. What do all great people have in common? They have great goals. Imagine the benefits of having good speech and how it can help you achieve other important goals.

5. Surround yourself with people who have good speech and motivate you. It can be a public speaking club and other societies.

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199. How to maintain good pronunciation and articulation

After taking our courses and classes students recognise that their speech became better but they fear that after some time bad speech habits might creep in. They are not wrong. I have been travelling to Italy for the last five years and have been learning Italian. I have noticed my foreign accent returned when I speak English although once my English speech was close to perfect.

I have started working on my speech with our apps and in this blog post, I will share my tips about eliminating a strong foreign accent and maintaining clear English speech.

1. Working on speech and maintaining good speech is similar to working in the gym in order to develop muscles and stay fit. The muscles of our lips, tongue and jaw should be regularly trained. This means training regularly for 2-45 minutes every day every other day.
   I recommend that you always start with a warm-up: muscular and articulation exercises. You will find them in all our books and apps. Do them for 2-3 minutes at the beginning of your training session.

2. After that work on the English sounds that make your speech difficult to understand. In our experience, almost all students need to work on pure English long vowels. Work on the same vowel for 3-4 days.

3. Prepare what you will say in advance and record your speech. Listen to your recording noting areas for improvement; record it again several timers if necessary until you are happy with the result.

4. Read a short text out loud and record yourself several times

5. When working with the apps copy not only the sounds but also intonation patterns and sentence stress

6. Slow down your speech and avoid saying too much with bad pronunciation. Remember that how you say it is often more important than what you say.

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198. Accent and voice

The main issues that our clients have are:

1. A strong regional or foreign accent

2. Weak voice

3. Rushed speech

To neutralise a regional or foreign accent we recommend doing an individual speech analysis and work on Received Pronunciation - a neutral British accent. After the speech analysis, we can tell how many lessons a student might need to neutralise their accent. Accent work involves working on pure English vowels and diphthongs as well as consonants to make articulation sharp and crisp. We have three apps that help with that:
‎Get Rid of your Accent UK1, ‎‎Business English Speech, Elocution Lessons.

Accent reduction tips

1. Identify English sounds that are difficult to pronounce for you and your nationality. For example /w/ sound does not exist in French and French substitute it with /v/ sound.

2. Learn the placement of the tongue lips and jaw for sounds you need to practice

3. Use the mirror to control the correct place your tongue and jaw for a particular sound

4. Listen to the model pronunciation, copy it, then record yourself and compare your speech with the model. Do three repetitions of one exercise
   

   The main features of a weak voice are bad articulation, lack of voice power and high voice pitch. Students can master their voice with the app Power, Pitch, Pace, Pause. To enhance voice power we recommend breathing exercises.

   This app also helps with rushed speech.
   There can be a number of reasons to speak fast. I will focus on the two obvious:

   1. Feeling nervous. To overcome nervousness, we recommend that you take a couple of nice deep breaths to release the tension.

   2. Fast brain 

   A fast brain is something people are born with, you cannot change it.

   One may ask: can I learn to slow down and overcome my fast brain that forces me to speak fast?

   There is a simple yet very effective exercise that can help you to slow down:

   1. When you speak, try to separate each idea of thought by using pauses. Count 1, 2, 3 in your head after each idea and allow yourself to breathe and relax. Don't link all ideas; don't deliver them all in one breath.

   2. In a conversation with another person, make a pause after each question, do not jump on the answer straight away.

   3. Read out loud using the punctuation. In your head, count 1,2,3 in place of a full stop, and count 1 in place of a comma. Make even longer pauses between paragraphs.

For best results, we recommend one online or in-person lesson a week and working individually with the apps for 10-15 minutes a day.

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197. How long does it take to speak like native English?

It depends on five factors:
1. Your age
The earlier you start speaking English the easier it will be for you to talk like a native English speaker. When you start speaking in your native language your tongue, lips and jaw muscles are trained for your native language and the older you are the more difficult it would be to retrain them for English.

2. Your environment
Even if you live in an English-speaking country but your family and friends, peers and teachers speak with foreign accents you will unconsciously copy their accents. If you listen to music, watch films and news in your native language and not in English that too will contribute to you having a foreign accent. If you want to speak like a native English avoid speaking in your native language.

3. Hearing abilities
If you have good hearing abilities your chances of speaking like a native are higher than for those with poor hearing abilities

4. Time and effort you are prepared to invest in mastering English
To learn to speak like a native train daily for 10–30, rather than once a week for two hours. Regularity and consistency are the key.

5. Method of learning English and teachers
Choose an effective method with professional apps and a qualified speech tutor.
We had many students with strong foreign accents who told us they had a degree in English. In EFL colleges pronunciation is often neglected and qualified speech/accent tutors are very rare. The difference between an English teacher (TEFL) and a speech or elocution tutor is vast. EFL teachers focus on grammar, use of English etc, whilst speech tutors know how sounds are formed in the mouth and by listening to students they know exactly if their tongue position is too low are the law position is too closed, for example.

In conclusion, I want to mention that there are many accents and dialects in Britain: Northern, Scottish, Cockney, RP and many others. RP or Received Pronunciation is taught to foreigners because it is understood around the world and is called Standard English. RP is also a compulsory accent to learn for actors in British drama schools. American accents vary too: Southern, New York, Boston, etc.. You can learn to speak with a General American accent which is an accent of educated American people who have mastered their speech such as news presenters, diplomats and presidents. It involves working on your articulation, pronunciation and intonation.

You can master to speak like a native with professional apps based on RP:
‎Elocution Lessons, Get Rid of your Accent UK1, ‎and ‎Fluent English Speech (British English) or ‎ American Accent App and ‎Fluent American Speech (based on General American accent), and Power, Pitch, Pace, Pause.
There are also two accompanying video courses: Get Rid of your Accent Part 1 and Get rid of your Accent Part 2.

The apps are available on the AppStore and Google Play. The functionality is ideal: read, listen, record and compare your speech with the model (actors with perfect pronunciation were used to create soundtracks for these apps). The apps have spelling variations for all English sounds and mouth diagrams to help you make the correct speech organ positions in words, phrases and poetry.
When starting your practice with these apps, go to “How to use this app” and click on: the difficult sounds typical for your nationality, then click on your nationality to work effectively with a more focused approach.

The apps contain:

1.       A CD function, recording and comparing functions

2.       Spelling variations for all sounds

3.       Fluency and difficult speech patterns exercises

4.       Intonation and sentence stress exercises

5.       Pronunciation and articulation exercises

6.       Words, sentences, verses and tongue twisters to make your speech clear

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194. When /r/ is pronounced and when not?

In British English /r/ is not always pronounced:

1. In three vowels /ɑː/ as “car” and /ɜː/ as in “Sir”, /ɔː/ as in “fork”.

2. In the three diphthongs /eə/ as in “pair”, /ɪə/ as in “ear”, and /ʊə/ as in “sure”

3. In place of schwa: doctor, teacher, sponsor
   
   N.B: Unless it is a linking /r/ as in “car accident, under arrest” where the first word ends with /r/ and the next word starts with the vowel sound.

In American English /r/ is always pronounced, and they have two schwas:

1. Coloured schwa where /r/ is pronounced in words such as “sponsor, doctor, teacher”

2. Schwa in words such as “away, agree, the”

The /r/ sound should be pronounced between two vowel sounds in words such as “cherry, carriage, marriage”.

The /r/ is difficult to pronounce because of a particular tongue position.

Speech organs position for the English /r/ sound:
The tip of the tongue curls back slightly in the roof of the mouth, just behind the alveolar ridge, and the breath squeezes past whilst the tongue is still and not vibrating.

Some people with lazy tongues substitute /r/ with /w/ sound, Johnanat Ross does that, instead of “red roses he says “wed woses”. Some people do not pronounce /r/ at all. Japanese and Chinese often pronounce it as /l/ sound and they say “lead” instead of “read”.

You can master all sounds of English including the /r/ sound with the apps based RP:
‎Elocution Lessons, Get Rid of your Accent UK1, ‎and ‎Fluent English Speech (British English) or ‎ American Accent App and ‎Fluent American Speech (American English), and Power, Pitch, Pace, Pause.
There are also two accompanying video courses: Get Rid of your Accent Part 1 and Get rid of your Accent Part 2.

The same apps are also available on Google Play. The functionality is ideal: read, listen, record and compare your speech with the model (actors with perfect pronunciation were used to create soundtracks for these apps). The apps have spelling variations for all English sounds and mouth diagrams to help you make the correct speech organ positions in words, phrases and poetry.
When starting your practice with these apps, go to “How to use this app” and click on: the difficult sounds typical for your nationality, then click on your nationality to work effectively with a more focused approach.

The apps contain:

1. Spelling variations for all sounds

2. Fluency and difficult speech patterns exercises

3. Intonation and sentence stress exercises

4. Pronunciation and articulation exercises

5. Tongue twisters

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193. The difference between "sh" and "ch" sounds

Many students make mistakes when pronouncing "ch" and "sh" sounds. I am a phonetician with 17 years of experience. In this blog post, I explain the difference between these sounds and give you precise instructions on how to pronounce them correctly.

1. The sound “sh” has a phonetic symbol /ʃ/

Speech organs position:

The tongue tip is near the bottom of the mouth and the air escapes along a passage in the centre of the tongue with lips slightly rounded. This makes [ʃ] sound.

[∫] sound

Spelling variations for the /ʃ/ sound: sh, ch, s, ss

Highlighted bold letters pronounced as /ʃ/

sheep, shirt, push, wish, fashion, cashier

moustache, champagne

pressure, session, Russia, sure, Sean

2. For the sound “ch” with a phonetic symbol /tʃ/ an extra effort is required to add /t/ to /ʃ/.

Speech organs position:

Make the [t] “two” sound at the same time as making the [ʃ] “shall” sound. This makes the [t∫] “church” sound.

Spelling variations for the /tʃ/ sound: ch, tch, t before u

Highlighted bold letters pronounced as/tʃ/

Church, Churchill, chap, which, orchard, achieve

catch, butcher, clutched, matched, Thatcher

literature, posture, moisturise, architecture

The examples are taken from the app Get Rid of your Accent UK1.

The same app is also available on Google Play. The functionality is ideal: read, listen, record and compare your speech with the model. The apps have spelling variations for all English sounds and mouth diagrams to help you create the correct speech organ positions in words, phrases and poetry.
When starting your practice with these apps, first go to “How to use this app” and click on: the difficult sounds typical for your nationality, then click on your nationality to work effectively with a more focused approach.

The apps contain exercises for:
1. Difficult and connected speech patterns
2. Natural flow of speech
3. Intonation and sentence stress
4. Pronunciation and articulation

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192. Get Rid of German Accent

Three things distinguish German accent:

1. Germans do not distinguish between voiced and unvoiced consonants.

2. Lack of liaisons

3. Intonation patterns

1. For example, the words “sad, mad, Dad” with voiced /d/ ending and “sat, mat, debt” with unvoiced /t/ending have different meanings, but Germans pronounce them in the same way.

2. The second feature of a German accent is they often tend to separate words in a phrase while English glide from one word to another and use liaisons.

There are three main skills you need to master in order to speak fluent English:

1. Contractions
   In good fluent speech the particle “not”, verbs “to be” (“am, is, are”), “to have” (“has, had”), “will” and “would” are shortened. The shortened version of a word is called a contraction.

2. "Throwing away" skill, an expression used by actors. That involves using schwa, or neutral vowel in prepositions (for, from, to, etc) and articles (a, an, the), thus "throwing away unimportant words", an expression used by actors.

3. Connected speech patterns or liaisons; liaising prepositions with words. In our app ‎Fluent English Speech, we list eight connected speech patterns and have a whole chapter devoted to each with practical exercises.

4. Speak in phrases or "word blocks", rather than in separate words, connecting words in a phrase. For example in the phrase "I'd like a cup of tea", we have two blocks: 1. I'd like, and 2. a cup of tea.

3. Often Germans speak English in a monotonous way which makes them sound dull and boring.
To sound more interesting we recommend working on the sentence stress and inflection.

To get rid of German accent we recommend apps based on RP:

‎‎Elocution Lessons, Get Rid of your Accent UK1, ‎Business English Speech and ‎Fluent English Speech (British English) or ‎ American Accent App and ‎Fluent American Speech (American English), and Power, Pitch, Pace, Pause.
There are also two accompanying video courses: Get Rid of your Accent Part 1 and Get rid of your Accent Part 2.

The same apps are also available on Google Play. The functionality is ideal: read, listen, record and compare your speech with the model. The apps have spelling variations for all English sounds and mouth diagrams to help you create the correct speech organ positions in words, phrases and poetry.
When starting your practice with these apps, first go to “How to use this app” and click on: the difficult sounds typical for your nationality, then click on your nationality to work effectively with a more focused approach.

The apps contain exercises for:
1. Difficult and connected speech patterns
2. Natural flow of speech
3. Intonation and sentence stress
4. Pronunciation and articulation

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190. Get Rid of Japanese Accent

We had many students from Japan and the main reason why their speech was difficult to understand is that they had bad articulation. What can they do to make their English clear?

We have identified six areas of English speech which are particularly difficult for them:

1. There are long and short vowels in English, in Japanese, all vowels have the same length.
2. They have difficulty pronouncing English diphthongs and they separate the two vowels in a diphthong.
3. English consonants are crisp and well-articulated. Japanese speakers of English often do not make a distinction between /l/ and /r/, /b/ and /v/, /n/ and /m/.
4. In good English speech, pronouncing/t/ and /d/ and /s/ and /z/ endings is important. Japanese often do not pronounce them at all.
5. They often separate words and do not know how to speak in a connected way and use liaisons.
6. Their intonation patterns are quite different from English and they often stress wrong syllables and words.

What can we recommend to overcome the difficulties mentioned above?
1. When learning English words, practice them with the correct pronunciation. Most online dictionaries and Google Translate offer the sound version of a word. A more advanced step would be to memorise the phonetic symbols of English sounds.
2. Practise pure English long and short vowels and diphthongs. Pay attention to word stress.
3. Do articulation exercises every day for 2-5 minutes. It takes time and effort to build your speech organs muscles for English consonants.
We suggest that you practise English vowels and consonants with the apps Elocution Lessons and Get Rid of your Accent and the accompanying video course Get Rid of your Accent Part 1. In all these apps, there is a link in “How to use this app” to the page: the difficult sounds typical for your nationality. Click on Japanese to work effectively with a more focused approach
4. Practise word endings, liaisons and sentence stress with the app Fluent English Speech and the accompanying video course Get rid of your Accent Part 2. The same apps are also available on Google Play. They are based on bestselling books in the series Get Rid of your Accent.  Here, you will master all English sounds and intonation. The functionality is ideal: read, listen, record and compare your speech with the model. The apps have mouth diagrams to help you create the correct speech organ positions in words,

To get the best results we recommend that you book a few elocution lessons

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188. Teaching Received Pronunciation to kids

We are often approached by parents who would like their children to speak with RP. Received Pronunciation (RP), the standard accent of British English which is characterised by clear and precise articulation and other qualities.
RP is an accent taught for many decades since the BBC popularised it and many know it as BBC English. In the past, it was called Queen’s English and Oxford English. RP is the accent that boys learn very quickly in schools like Eton if they do not want to be mocked for their regional sounds. Clearly, RP is associated with the quality of one's education and a certain social and economic position. It is interesting to note that a study revealed, that the more refined the RP of a person the higher their social status and the better their economic situation. No wonder that parents would like their kids with regional or foreign accents to master RP.

Parents complain to us that their kids pick up bad habits that make their speech difficult lazy and difficult to understand. Some parents tell us that they want their kids to blend in with kids who already speak with RP which they developed in their families and private schools.

Below are a few things to consider.

1. First of all let's talk about the ideal age to start learning RP. 11 years old is the earliest age to start learning RP. If you begin too early your child might find it too technical and boring.

2. Secondly, lessons should be light-hearted and last no longer than 45 minutes. Do not bore the kids with too much theory and technical explanations. 

3. We recommend lots of rhythmic and articulation exercises. Specifically for children we have published a book and an app based on RP:
‎‎Get Rid of your Accent for Beginners (book)
Elocution Lessons (app)

The book and accompanying app contain plenty of short phrases, sentences, poems and verses. Your child would enjoy learning to speak RP with them. They will master all sounds of English and intonation. The functionality is ideal: read, listen, record and compare your speech with the model. All our apps and books contain 10% theory and 90% practice.

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186. Does correct pronunciation come with time as we learn new words and phrases?

Correct pronunciation depends on many factors:

1. At what age do you start learning English

2. How good is your listening/copying abilities

3. Have you learned English from the start with correct pronunciation

If you start learning English as a child in an English-speaking country from people who speak RP then your pronunciation will be good.

If you start learning English words and phrases abroad at the age of 26 from non-RP speakers (like I did) then you will likely have a foreign accent and bad pronunciation.

I have decided to master my pronunciation and with my partner, speech coach Linda James, I have created a full line of apps for iOS and Android, paperback, audio and e-books, and video courses:

Elocution Apps for iOS
Android Apps
Elocution Books
Elocution Video Courses
New# Elocution Courses

Useful links:
How to prepare a 2-minute speech
Think and speak with power and persuasion

How to proceed with accent reduction:

• Book a speech analysis via Skype to get a personalized assessment and recommendation.

• For steady progress, buy an elocution course suitable to your needs

• For the fastest progress, add in-person lessons in London or Skype lessons to your book/app/video course combination.

Accent reduction tips

1. Identify English sounds that are difficult to pronounce for you and your nationality For example /w/ sound does not exist in French and French substitute it with /v/ sound.

2. Learn the placement of the tongue lips and jaw for sounds you need to practice

3. Use the mirror to control the correct place of your tongue, lips and jaw for a particular sound

4. Listen to the model pronunciation, copy it, then record yourself and compare your speech with the model. Do three repetitions of one exercise

5. Download the apps ‎‎Elocution Lessons, Get Rid of your Accent UK1 and ‎Fluent English Speech (British English) or ‎American Accent App and ‎Fluent American Speech (American English)

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182. Get Rid of Indian accent

We had many students from India and the main reason why their speech was difficult to understand is that they spoke very quickly. This fact leads to two issues when they speak English:

1. They clip long vowels and diphthongs and do not lean on them. Failure to create long vowels and diphthongs makes speech difficult to understand

2. They fail to make appropriate grammatical pauses to separate their ideas. As a result, what they said becomes difficult to absorb.

As well as that, because many English sounds do not exist in India, Indian speakers of English have difficulties pronouncing:

1. The /w/ sound as in “win”, they substitute it with /v/ as in “vet”

2. /θ/ and /ð/ sound as in “think” and “that”. They substitute with /t/ and /d/ sounds as in “tick” and “Dad”

3. /r/ as in “rat”, they vibrate the tip of the tongue and as a result, it does not sound English. In English Standard pronunciation, when pronouncing the /r/ sound the tongue is curled and kept still.

Our first recommendation would be to practise long and short vowels and their comparisons first, and after that practise all diphthongs with the apps ‎‎Elocution Lessons, Get Rid of your Accent UK1, ‎and Business English Speech. The same apps are also available on Google Play. They are based on bestselling books in the series Get Rid of your Accent and have audio and recording buttons. Work with these apps together with the accompanying video course Get Rid of your Accent Part 1

Once all the sounds are sorted, we suggest working on sentence stress and intonation with the Fluent English Speech app and the accompanying video course Get rid of your Accent Part 2.

The real game changer would be to slow down the pace of the speech with the app Power, Pitch, Pace, Pause.

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181. Should I learn to speak with an American or British accent?

I have mastered the British accent spoken by the upper classes in Britain. It is called Received Pronunciation (RP).

Then I went to the USA, New York and researched American accents. What I have found out is that the most sophisticated General American accent is close to British RP.

I personally prefer British RP as it is regarded in the world more, but if you plan to live in the USA then I recommend that you master the General American accent. When I was in an airport restaurant in New York and asked the waiter to bring me a fork, he could not understand me as I pronounced it in the British way. In the word “fork” Americans always pronounce the /r/ sounds whilst in British RP it is not pronounced. Also in the long vowels /ɑː/ as “car” and /ɜː/ as in “Sir”, and in the three diphthongs /eə/ as in “pair”, /ɪə/ as in “ear”, and /ʊə/ as in “sure” the ruling applies.

Another point is that British English is more crisp because in RP consonants are well articulated. For example, in the American accent where the /t/ sound is between two vowel sounds as in “later” is pronounced as a fast /d/, in British RP it is a well-articulated /t/ sound.

I have developed and published apps for both British RP and General American pronunciation.

You can master which one you need with the apps ‎‎Elocution Lessons, Get Rid of your Accent UK1, ‎Business English Speech and ‎Fluent English Speech (British English) or ‎American Accent App and ‎Fluent American Speech (American English). There are also two accompanying video courses: Get Rid of your Accent Part 1 and Get rid of your Accent Part 2.

The same apps are also available on Google Play. They are based on the bestselling books in the series Get Rid of your Accent and have audio and recording buttons.

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177. How can I improve my English as a non-native speaker?

For all who wish to improve their English as a non-native speaker, I want to recommend six techniques:

1. Stop learning English, and start speaking it by repeating three new useful phrases several times a day. Your speech organ muscles will get used to English, you will enlarge your vocabulary and gain the confidence to speak. Repeating, repeating and repeating, like parrots!

2. Reduce the time speaking in your native language and increase the time you speak in English.

3. Listen to English TV and Radio channels, make a note of phrases you hear and repeat them five times several times a day. In the past, I met Greeks, Dutch, Danish, Swedish and their English was advanced. Guess what these countries have in common: English TV channels that are not translated into their native language. Listen to audiobooks in the series Get Rid of your Accent from Audible, or download our apps: get rid of your accent uk1 and Fluent English Speech. All audio tracks were recorded by trained actors, just listen and repeat after them. There are also accompanying video courses Get Rid of your Accent Part 1 and Get rid of your Accent Part 2.

4. Practice 15–45 minutes with the apps
The most useful tool for learning English is the app Elocution Lessons. You will master the most commonly used words and phrases, verses and passages with correct pronunciation and perfect use of English. You can listen, record yourself and then compare your speech with the model - all in one app.

5. Write 8–10 sentences a day on a particular topic

6. Read a short article in English 3 times out loud (250 words)

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172. Who's more eloquent Stephen Fry or Russell Brand?

Stephen Fry is more eloquent. Russell Brand is very witty but he has speech inadequacies, he does not know how to articulate the /r/ sound as in ”red”; he produces this sound using lips and pronounces /w/ instead of /r/. He would say “wed, wed woses” instead of “red, red roses”.

Speech organs position for the English /r/ sound:
The tip of the tongue curls back slightly in the roof of the mouth, just behind the alveolar ridge, and the breath squeezes past whilst the tongue is still and not vibrating.

There are other pronunciations of the letter "r" or sound /r/:
In other languages, the letter "r" is pronounced differently from English.
For example, the French vibrate the tongue towards the back of the mouth.
Russians, however slightly vibrate the tip of the tongue very quickly as the breath passes through.

In our experience of teaching speech, the English /r/sound is particularly difficult for Japanese and Chinese students. They often pronounce the /r/ sound using their lips and the result is the /r/ sound replaced with a /w/. Russell Brand does the same.

Tips to pronounce the /r/ sound correctly:

·        Do not vibrate your tongue, keep your tongue still

·        Do not use the lips to pronounce /r/

·        Practice lesson 41 and articulation tongue exercises with our apps Get Rid of your Accent UK1, Elocution Lessons and Business English Speech.

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171. How effective are the accent reduction training programs?

The answer to this question depends on three factors:

1. The teacher’s competence and work experience

2. The student’s ability to hear the differences in sounds and the amount of time and effort he/she is putting into the accent reduction process

3. The quality of training material: books, apps, video courses

Which teachers to choose?
Accent reduction should be taught by a qualified speech tutor (in the past speech tutors were called elocution teachers). A qualified speech tutor knows how sounds are produced in the mouth, the exact position of the tongue, lips and jaw for a particular sound. This is the key. To achieve the best results book a few elocution lessons.

What is expected of a student?
To reduce an accent one must substitute old habits of speaking with new ones which takes time and effort. It is a process. Usually, we recommend mastering a sound minimum for a week. Some sounds are easier and some may take longer to master. For example, /w/ sound does not exist in Russian. It is produced with lips going forward in a tight whistle and requires certain lip muscles. If the muscles are not trained it might take a while to train them to produce an energised /w/ sound. It’s a bit like going to the gym. If I tell you to go to the gym and come with a six-pack after one session you know that it will not happen. It is important to practice regularly, every day for 15-45 minutes rather than two hours once a week.

How to practice? Which books and apps to use?
I recommend that you download professional accent reduction apps ‎Get Rid of your Accent UK1 and ‎Fluent English Speech (British English) or ‎American Accent App and ‎Fluent American Speech (American English).
There is also an Elocution Lessons app to master essential English and a Business English Speech app that contains business vocabulary (both are for British English).
All the above apps have accompanying video courses, Get Rid of your Accent Part One and Get Rid of your Accent Part Two.

It is also a good idea to listen to good RP speakers, copy a section at a time, and record yourself.

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168. How do you deal with people who don't communicate directly ?

As Oscar Wilde once said: “The first duty in life is to be as artificial as possible.  What the second duty is no one has as yet discovered.” In English-speaking, Anglo-Saxon culture people see directness as a form of aggression, and being polite is above being sincere. It is absolutely vital to pay attention to subtle details of communication. Learn and understand these subtleties if you would like to build good business and social connections.

I recommend the following instructions if you want to master the art of subtle communication:

Master your listening skills

1. Create eye contact with a speaker and look at them with empathy and a smile. People relax when you smile at them

2. Observe the way a person speaks. Namely intonation, tone of voice, speech speed, loudness, etc. You can learn more about it in the book Get Rid of your Accent Part Two, Advance Level, and the apps Fluent English Speech and 4Ps, Power, Pitch, Pace, Pause

3. Learn to read between the lines and pay close attention to words, voice, intonation, and facial expressions. Listen to the feelings and emotions behind words and voice, and respond to them appropriately

4. Imagine that you are a psychotherapist who is talking to a patient and that you are paid for listening

5. Allow a pause after what was said and connect with what was said

Work on your messages

1. Substitute negative words with euphemisms, for example instead of saying “poor” say “not bad”, instead of saying “I disagree” say “maybe I understand it differently”, and so on

2. Avoid giving orders, ask or request instead, for example, instead of saying “Do it!” say “Would you like to do it for me, please?”, and so on

3. Use a friendly tone of voice and intonation even when speaking about something difficult. You can master it with the app ‎Power, Pitch, Pace, Pause

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