Accent reduction

Aaaaaaaaand I’m back!

This blog post is quite interesting to me. I’ve only found out about this subject recently when I was looking up actors for one of my other posts. 

I never really knew what an accent reduction was. However, now I’ve learned that accent reduction is a way of modifying your own accent into a new accent so the old one is erased.

The best way to reduce your accent is by training. Whether it’s with an accent coach or by constantly mimicking the accent you want, the more you train your brain to get used to talking with a new accent, the easier it will come out without having to think about it.

Apart from Portia de Rossi, who I’ve mentioned in a previous post, another actress that is an example of accent reduction is Charlize Theron (Snowhite and the Huntsman). Charlize Theron is a South African actress but once I’ve looked up some of her interviews to hear her South African accent, I’ve noticed that she just has a regular American accent. In an interview, she mentioned that she spoke more Afrikaans, which is the South African language, back at home so she had a horrible accent since she didn’t know much English. It was when she moved to the United States as a model at sixteen that she learned to speak English properly, hence the American accent.

Accent reduction is most commonly used for people that move into an entirely different country or city so they try to adapt the native’s accent to sound more “normal” to the people around them. You could take accent reduction classes almost anywhere now. Did you know that even the University of Windsor offers accent reduction classes? Pretty cool, eh?!



P.S. Doesn’t Mme Mantysaari kind of look like Charlize Theron?


Sources:
http://www.thesouthafrican.com/entertainment/an-evening-with-charlize.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accent_reduction

Adios, Arrivederci, Aurevoir

Unfortunately for my fellow readers, this will be my last blog post. As I write this last post, tears are streaming down my face. Just kidding! I am jumping with joy. However, I did genuinely enjoy exploring accents since it was the subject of my choice. Although in the beginning, I thought I would be an expert and know all about these accents, there were still a lot of things that I learned. For example, I am a big fan of Alex Pettyfer’s movies and was completely shocked when I found out he was British because he pulls off the American accent extremely well.

I started to like accents when I noticed the chance of French accents from Belgium and Canada. To be honest, I hated the Canadian French accent at first, but then I got used to it and now I quite like it and love to copy it from time to time. Once I learned English, I discovered a whole other world of accents that I never knew before. Of course, the British accent was the first one and also the easiest for me to master. The Australian accent took me a while to figure it, but now I speak with the accent all the time. On the other hand, now I sometimes mix both British and Aussie accents together but without knowing. I would switch from one accent to the other.

Another accent that I want to explore is the South African one. I’ve looked into it briefly, but I can’t quite figure the real accent because a lot of people that imitate it in videos use the stereotype of the accent.  In the future, I would hope to speak fluently with an Irish accent, as well as the New Zealand accent. I really love the way these two sound, but they’re much harder for me to imitate. Wish me luck though!

Hope you liked this little trip of accents around the world. I would love to hear you try some too! Leave a comment on which one is your favourite or which one you would love to master. Good day mates. :) 

Stereotypes

I found an interesting quote online that sort of represents what stereotypes are: “Heaven is where the police are British, the cooks are French, the mechanics German, the lovers Italian, and it is all organized by the Swiss. Hell is where the chefs are British, the mechanics French, the lover’s Swiss, the police German, and it is all organized by the Italians.” ¹

Just like race, culture, nationality, and other things that differentiate a group of people from another, accents have stereotypes too. Stereotypes can be both good and bad; unfortunately the bad ones are most common. With bad stereotypes comes a lot of discrimination and prejudice.

Speakers who have foreign accents to the country they live in could possibly suffer from discrimination. For example, employment wise, they can be assigned to lower status positions compared to someone that speaks with the standard accent. This discrimination happens because the owner or manager could feel as if the foreign speaker lacks in communication skills due to their accent. However, I know many people with a foreign accent that can speak with a vocabulary just like any regular “normal” speaking person. In fact, some even have a better vocabulary than the norm, but it just sucks because others have difficulty understanding them because of the accent.  

In all honesty, most of us have a first thought that comes to mind upon hearing an accent. According to me, I think this is how some people think of when speaking with this accent:

British accent = Proper. Cup of tea in hand. Very classy.

French accent = A lot of oui oui’s. French hat. Croissant. Eiffel tower.

Canadian accent = Snow. Lots of snow… Hockey eh?

Italian/Spanish accent = Add o’s at the end of every word. Say a bunch of Italian/Spanish foods.

Californian accent = Surf’s up, dude!

Australian accent = Kangaroos. Koala bear. Ay mate!

Indian accent = Funny. Never taken seriously.

Jamaican accent = Ya man!

I know some of you have had at least one these thoughts. Don’t lie. Or maybe you’ve had some of your own, but as long as you can see past those thoughts and truly appreciate the accent for what it is, then everything’s fine.

Although some stereotypes could be offensive, some are also useful to recognize them in a game of charades. Here’s a fun video of Ellen and Ben Affleck playing charades with accents:

Sources:

¹ http://www.humanaccents.com/truth-about-accents.html#accentstereotyping

Actors with accents

To become a successful actor, one does not only have to be able to perform a variety of emotions while portraying a story, but if your character has a certain accent, the actor has to adapt and make it sound real with the help of a dialect coach. Therefore, the accent the actor uses in a movie is necessarily their real accent. I find more and more foreign actors that play in American movies, such as Hugh Jackman (Wolverine), Robert Pattinson (Twilight), Chris (Thor) and Liam Hemsworth (Hunger Games), Theresa Palmer (Warm Bodies), Robert Sheehan (Mortal Instruments), Gerard Butler (300), Alex Pettyfer (I Am Number Four), etc. The following actors have either surprised me with their own accent or with their story behind changing their accent.

Idris Elba

I recognize this actor from numerous movies I’ve seen, such as Takers, Daddy’s Little Girls, American Gangster and Thor. While looking up a few of his interviews, I was very surprised to hear that he has a British accent. After doing some research, I found out that he was born and raised in Hackney, London, England. He recently came out with a movie where he portrays Nelson Mandela with a great South African accent in Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom.

Saoirse Ronan

Academy Award Nominee at 13 years old, this incredible actress can act with a variety of accents and makes it look effortless. Although Saoirse Ronan was born in New York, her family moved to Ireland when she was only a baby therefore she speaks with an Irish accent. You might know her from Atonement, The Lovely Bones, Hanna, The Host, or other movies she has played in.

Portia de Rossi

Although this actress and former model was born and raised in Australia, she has completely lost her Australian accent and has adopted the American accent while living now in East Hollywood with her wife, Ellen DeGeneres. Portia de Rossi admits in an interview that when she moved to America, she worked hard to get rid of her Aussie accent. I assume it was to blend in more and so it could become easier to book American acting roles. However, I wish she had kept the accent because I don’t think it makes much sense for her to say she’s an Australian but not talk like one. She should be proud of her nationality. 

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idris_Elba
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1519680/bio
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/05/07/1052280317160.html