Guess how long it took me to feel a noticeable improvement to my American pronunciation?
A few weeks at least ❗
I started my American Accent Learning Mission on July 4 last year (Independence Day, what a coincidence, isn’t it?) and it wasn’t until a few weeks into the mission that I could feel my speech transform and become more and more American-like.
Up until then, however – hard work and long hours of speech practicing with little progress made; at times it even felt I’d lost any ability to resemble an American whatsoever…
Basically the point I’m making here in this video is a very simple and straightforward one:
If you decide to improve your English pronunciation and reduce your foreign accent, you can’t possibly expect super-fast results within a matter of a few days!
What Prompted Me to Write This…
The reason I decided to share this with you, my friend, is the following.
A few weeks ago I got a new customer join the Accent Genie program – it’s an American Accent Video Course – and after a few questions asked about it I didn’t hear from him for a few days until…
… one fine day he asked me for his money back.
Fair enough, there’s nothing wrong with that.
I have the 60 day money-back guarantee on all of my products, and it’s an industry standard. I mean – you just have to tell me you’re not happy with the product and I’ll just give you the money back, it’s really as simple as that.
What surprised me, however, was the reason for the refund request – namely, the said customer hadn’t felt any improvement to his English pronunciation whatsoever.
My reaction when I read it was: “You’ve got to be kidding me… Did he REALLY expect to speak like an American within a matter of a few days!?”
Unrealistic Expectations
Well, maybe I’m being too hard on that customer of mine.
Maybe I’m just overreacting.
But hey – the issue I’m having has NOTHING TO DO with the money I had to give back to him.
It’s all about the unrealistic expectations of my fellow foreigner, and it got me thinking: “Hey, maybe THAT is one of the main reasons foreigners find it so hard to reduce their foreign accent?”
A while back I published a blog post focusing on embarrassment as the single most prevalent reason why non-native speakers find it hard to improve their English pronunciation.
Now I’m not so sure what contributes more into the whole thing – being embarrassed of your speech or expecting results too fast.
Well, maybe it’s combination of the two – people typically try to say something by mimicking a native English speaker, they fail, then they get embarrassed of how they sound to others and then they just GIVE UP because they think: “Well, I didn’t succeed now which means I just don’t have the “accent gene”.
In reality, there is no “accent gene” 😉
I strongly believe that any foreigner has the potential of sounding like a native English speaker, so if you decide to go ahead with improving your accent, please – don’t chicken out too soon!
It takes a while to achieve significant improvement in terms of your accent reduction, and remember – if you decide to join the Accent Genie program, you have full 60 days of money back guarantee during which I’m sure you’ll experience at least SOME improvement of your speech.
Cheers,
Robby
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