Boost Your Career - Part 2
The following is Part 2 of The Advantages of Mastering a Native English Accent
It's unfortunate but true, there is often an unconscious bias towards people with a foreign accent. Significant pronunciation errors, grammatical errors or tonal variance contribute to this bias against the interviewee. However as a native speaker, I would say there is a limit to this - if the person is easily understood, their foreign accent will actually make them sound MORE qualified, not less. This is because the person is demonstrating that they have the discipline and attention to go the extra mile in language assimilation.
Thankfully with accent coaching, errors like these can be explained and corrected, training the person to be confident in their new accent and successfully making that first impression, every time.
Public speaking - everyone’s nightmare, no? More so in your second or third language, right? Accent training as the added benefit of confidence in communication. It is a bi-product for sure, but I have watched people’s confidence soar and their careers suddenly progress when their chief insecurity is addressed - their accent.
If you accent (or your insecurity about your accent) is holding you back, then accent training is for you. Knowing your errors and how to correct them arms you with the confidence you need to make your presentations. You know you are being understood and you can get on to the work of collaboration instead of wasting precious headspace wondering if your audience understands you. Your ideas and proposals are better received and you’ll have increased credibility if and WHEN you are in leadership roles.
During the pandemic, we quickly realized that face-to face interactions are invaluable for workplace harmony. The integration of being together in one space brings a sort of community that is not realized online. Similarly, not being understood puts up a layer of disconnection between coworkers and potential network opportunities. Unseen and rarely considered are the effects to one's opportunities if your network is limited by your intelligibility.
Both in your workplace and in the wider professional world, accent modification breaks down these walls and leads to an expanded and robust professional network.
Have you ever been in a situation where you were sure someone was pronouncing something incorrectly in English but you didn’t want to say anything in case you were wrong?
Accent reduction eliminates that “in case” because you know pronunciation as good or better than native speakers do. Accent reduction gives you that sense of mastery and self-assurance. In today's globally connected world, you often speak English with other non-native speakers.
You yourself become the sought after professional, offering valuable mentorship to your coworkers or team members.
Increased opportunities, career growth and personal confidence are all obvious benefits to accent reduction and make it well with the investment in today’s globalized world. English mastery translates (no pun intended!) to career mastery and I’m here to help.
