Learning British UK Accent (RP)

British Accent Training Presentations

In answer to Ben and the other readers who have asked about the training presentations:
Head over to : http://www.learningbritishaccent.com/british_accent_video.html where you can find all the presentations currently available.

Thank you!
Alison

Membership Site

I just wanted to test the waters before I go any further with my idea -but I was wondering whether any or all of you fine Learning British Accent followers would be interested in joining a British Accent membership site? I was thinking of a small monthly fee to have access to audio and video content, direct contact with myself once a week to ask questions and get specific help with whatever words, phrases, sentances, sounds you need. Weekly updated content to help your improve your british accent.

I'm not sure about the structure yet - it may be a 3 month/6 month plan or could be open-ended in terms of time. I would have to figure out whether I could create enough content to keep you all interested and wanting to learn more. I know several of you have asked for Videos of myself speaking to help learn the correct use of the facial/mouth muscles. I think this would definately be included within the membership site. If you have any thoughts as to what content you think would be useful do please let me know.

AS always I would love to get your feedback on this idea. Both positive and negative thoughts are both welcome. If you think its a terrible idea than please do let me know!

If I do go ahead, and you know anything about setting up membership sites I would be most grateful for any advice you may have

Again thanks so much for your continued support.

alison

Discrimination in the Workplace because of an Accent - Accent Reduction Online

Claro Accent Reduction by Judy Tobe

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (www.eeoc.gov) is responsible for enforcing federal laws that make it illegal to discriminate against a job applicant or employee because of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age (40 or older), disability or genetic information. The EEOC includes accent bias in its definition of employment discrimination on the basis of national origin. An employment decision based on a foreign accent violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 unless it "materially interferes" with that person's ability to perform the duties of the job.

Because linguistic characteristics are a component of national origin, employers should carefully scrutinize employment decisions that are based on an accent to ensure that they do not violate Title VII.

An employment decision based on a foreign accent does not violate Title VII if an individual's accent materially interferes with the ability to perform job duties. This assessment depends on the specific duties of the person in question and the extent to which the individual's accent affects his or her ability to perform job duties. Employers must distinguish between a merely discernible foreign accent and one that interferes with communication skills necessary to perform the job.

Do you feel that you have ever been discriminated against because of your accent?

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Fears for 'bit of Britain' in India

BBC News - Home

There is concern in India that a historic stretch of Shimla, a former British hill station, could be unstable owing to unplanned building work.

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Short vs. Long Vowel Sounds: The Purchasing Power of Words

Accent Reduction Blog | Accent Neutralization Blog

A word’s meaning is often shaped by the way it sounds. A few examples will make this obvious. Take, for example, the exclamations “Wow”, “Cool”, and “Yuck”. But did you know that the way words sound can actually influence our buying decisions?

This phenomenon was described, as an aside, in an Op-Ed article by Daniel Gilbert in Sunday’s New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/17/opinion/17gilbert.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper. Mr. Gilbert talked about the link between what linguists call ‘short’ and ‘long’ vowels and how we subconsciously associate words with ‘smallness’ and ‘bigness’. Short vowels (like the ‘i’ in “thin”) tend to make us think of smallness and words with long vowels (like the ‘uw’ in “hoop”) connect us with a feeling of bigness. Here’s how it works in terms of how we choose what to purchase. According to Mr. Gilbert, prices that end with a short vowel will seem less expensive than prices that end with long vowels…even if their numerical value is larger. That’s phenomenal.

vowel sounds

Gilbert describes a study where “one group was shown an ad for an ice-cream scoop that was priced at $7.66, while another was shown an ad for a $7.22 scoop. The lower price is the better deal, of course, but…shoppers who were offered the scoop at the higher price of $7.66 were more likely to buy it than those offered the price of $7.22 — but only if they’d been asked to say the price aloud.

Isn’t it interesting that $7.66 ends with the ‘i’ sound associated with smallness and $7.22 ends with the ‘uw’ sound associated with bigness? We’ve known for sometime that colors, facial expressions, and ‘subliminals’ influence our purchasing decisions. But the fact that short and long vowels had a connection to the PayPal process? This was news to me. As a phonetician, here’s my advice: Read the price, silently, before hitting ‘submit’.

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