Be prepared to work hard. Accent reduction requires focus!

The meetups are structured as a course of eight sessions. You can sign up for the full course ($120) at the beginning (March 29, 2014). The full tuition fee includes evaluations at the beginning and at the end of the course;

or,

Attend one session at a time ($15). You may also receive an individual evaluation ($10) after the session ends;

or,

Audit one session at a time ($5). You may listen to the session but you won't be able to participate. If there's time, you can get an individual evaluation ($10) after the session ends.

• Method of Payment.

No checks or credit/debit cards. No online payment. Cash or money orders only.

• Important Equipment.

Bring a good quality digital recorder. At the first session I'll record for you all the sounds of American English with sample words for each. You will then be able to practice them at home.

Also bring something clean to put in your mouth to hold the tip of your tongue down (to learn the American "R.")!

• Scheduling

The meetup dates will usually be on consecutive Saturdays as follows: 3/29, (4/5 - no class*), 4/12, (4/19 - no class**), 4/26, 5/3, 5/10, 5/17, 5/24, 5/31. *I had a conflicting event. **We skipped the 4/19 session because of the Easter holiday.

• What Will You Learn?

In this course you'll learn how to:

• Use the International Phonetic Alphabet as a tool for pronouncing American English.

• Use your mouth, tongue, lips, teeth, palate, larynx and breath to form all the American English phonemes (sounds) correctly.

• Pronounce tricky consonant clusters, as in "bright," "three," "clear," and "lunch."

• Pronounce vowel clusters (diphthongs).

• Slow your speech to make time for the sounds to come out right.

• Pronounce "th" like an educated American.

• Eliminate your confusion between "R" and "L", "B" and "V," and "V" and "W," depending on your language of origin.

• Use "neutral" American vocal inflection.

• Practice sounds by pronouncing minimal pairs like hat/cat, his/hiss, vim/whim, fill/pill, vile/bile, cry/dry.

• Use contractions and shortened words with confidence. As an example, "I wanna see that movie but we've gotta study for that test so we're not gonna go." It's not strictly correct, but every native-born American speaks this way!

• And much more!