When people say you have a thick accent?

The term “thick accent” often applies to a speaker whose pronunciation sounds very noticeably non-native. Or it could apply to someone with a distinctive regional accent.

How can I lose my accent?

The way you reduce or lose an accent is through learning the correct ways to make the new sounds and engaging new mouth positions and muscles. Learning and working with these new sounds and stress patterns. You’ll need to do lots of practice – listening practice and speaking practice.

Is there an app to change my accent?

The ACCENT Kit app is a free download that includes a free accent. You can start your user experience by familiarising yourself with the essential FIVE ELEMENTS needed to learn an accent: Free speech – a 2/3 minute story of personal interest. Foundations – the facial SETTING, the focal ZONE and the TONE of an accent.

What does it mean when someone says you have a accent?

If you have a minor or mild accent, the person might say that you have a slight accent or a little accent. If your accent is more obviously non-native, they may say that you have a strong accent or a heavy accent. These are polite, if uncomfortable, ways of acknowledging your accent.

Is it possible to ‘soften’ your accent?

Today, businesses – possibly aware of the class connotations – promote their services with more euphemistic words; it’s now about “softening” your accent not changing it and speaking “clearly”, not correctly. Yet underpinning this are the same old assumptions, says Dr Sol Gamsu, an assistant professor of sociology at Durham University.

Is it possible for kids to switch accents without knowing it?

Absolutely, yes. My daughter can have a conversation with a group of people and switch accents in mid-stream (British English with me, Californian or New York with others) and never notices she’s doing it. It’s not concious, it just happens.

Do ‘working class’ people change their accent?

“Traditionally, people who are labeled ‘working class’ are more likely to stay where they’re from, surrounded by people with the same accent. There is no outside impulse at all to change how they speak,” Dr Hall explains.