27. 5 tips to change a monotonous speech into an engaging one

By Olga Smith

The Greek word for "one tone" is monotonia, which is the root for both monotone and the closely related word monotonous, which means "dull and tedious." A continuous sound, especially someone's voice, that doesn't rise and fall in pitch, is a monotone. When someone speaks in a monotone, his voice is flat and boring — plus listeners don't know how the speaker is feeling when everything sounds the same.

When I started my speech training, one of the first things I wanted to learn was how to avoid sounding monotonous. I wanted to be popular and felt that I have wonderful ideas to share, but I felt that no one wanted to listen to me. I was listening to some native English speakers and their ideas were not more interesting than mine, but the way they spoke was so engaging, so they could easily manage to grab people's attention. I said to myself I want to speak like that.

in 2004 I found Linda James, a drama school speech tutor with 35 years of experience. My speech and my life changed in a month. I found Linda's speech training so useful that I have decided to share this knowledge with others and to write and publish a book. To date, Linda and I have published six books and eight apps for English speech mastery.

In this blog post, I would like to share with you a few tips about how to break from monotone and make your speech interesting to listen to. 

 First, I would like to outline the main patterns of a monotonous speech.

1. Number one is that all words in a phrase or sentence unstressed, or all words in a phrase or sentence stressed. Namely, all words are pronounced with the same vocal power, with the tone of voice and with the same pitch level.
2. Number two is the incorrect use of pauses or no pauses at all.
3. Number three is that there is the speaker doesn't show the colour or the emotion of words.

 What you can do to overcome these unhelpful patterns:

1. Stress words, which are important for the meaning of a phrase or sentence.

2. "Throw away" unimportant words.

3. Liaise prepositions and articles to the main word.

4. Use pauses in place of a comma, full stop and before stressed words.

5. Think about the meaning of words and put appropriate emotions to make words alive.

You can practice these speech tools with our apps "Fluent English Speech" and "4Ps, Power, Pitch, Pace, Pause" and with the book "Get Rid of your Accent Part Two, Advanced Level" by Linda James and Olga Smith.

26. Want to speak with impact? Use your voice effectively!

Guest post by Florian Bay – Founder & Lead Trainer – Speak to Lead!

Powerful public speaking is made up of well-structured content delivered in a strong and confident manner. Eye contact and body language are key elements of strong delivery. However, the one that can make the difference between a weak speech and a strong one is the speaker’s voice.

Your voice is a muscle

One thing that singers, musicians and actors learn in drama school is the importance of taking care of their voice in order to maximise their performance. Despite this, vocal training is often overlooked by public speakers and this dulls their impact on potential audiences. Proper vocal support begins with proper breathing and proper posture. When you speak, stand upright with your chest thrust slightly forward and your shoulders slightly backwards. To relax, you can put your hand on your tummy and do 5 seconds sequences of inhaling, holding your breath and exhaling. Voice is all about vibration and resonance so before you speak consider doing some resonance exercises with your mouth and voice box. These exercises tend to feel quite nice, will relax you further and most importantly will help you better project your voice.

The 4Ps

Projecting your voice is important because it is a powerful musical instrument that will support your words and sentences when played well. There are four may ways in which you can play it, the 4Ps of pace, pitch, power and pause.

Everybody has a default pace of speaking, which can sometimes be of up to 150 words or even 180 words per minute. When speaking in public it is advisable to aim for a pace of 120 words per minute. However, this pace can vary slightly during a speech or presentation. For example, if portraying dialogue or characters. Varying your vocal pitch is very useful if your speech incorporates storytelling elements, but can additionally be used to draw the audience’s attention to a particular point.

Having a powerful voice can be a double-edged sword depending on the situation. When seeking to persuade or inspire, it can enhance your message and project authority and conviction. But it can also lack congruence if what you are saying is emotional or requires a softer voice tone. Still, varying the power of your voice is an excellent way to turn a good speech into a great speech. Especially if you want to emphasise a single keyword within a sentence. This is also where pauses can come in very handy to support a message. A short pause within a sentence before introducing a keyword can emphasise it further. A longer pause after a sentence or dialogue can build up suspense and anticipation of what might come next. Pauses can be very effective in technical speeches and presentations too and can enhance informative speeches. Why? Because they provide time for the audience to think about what you’ve just said. Well placed pauses will enhance the understanding of your speech and message.

Clarity is the clincher

While using the 4Ps well, can enhance the clarity of your voice. They are not necessarily the be end and end-all. A couple of other factors influence clarity, especially your pronunciation and your accent. The best way to master hard to pronounce words and sentences is via reading them aloud and repeating them. Never be afraid of asking someone’s help in this matter, especially if you have to sell a product or service with a difficult to pronounce the name. Almost everybody has an accent but some accents can impact the clarity of speaking, especially in front of an audience. My native language is French and I still to this day sometimes struggles with pronouncing words like “history” or “idea” which can have a negative impact when I speak. There is nothing wrong with reducing one’s accent to pronounce words and sentences more clearly. Crisp and clear pronunciation can be the difference between an average presentation and a strong impactful presentation. Especially in competitive fields.

25. 5 most important benefits of elocution lessons

5 most important benefits of elocution lessons.

By Olga Smith

1. Your speech will be clear and easy to understand.

   Elocution lessons involve doing lots of articulation exercises and learning how to pronounce vowels and diphthongs. You can start practising it with the best-selling app Get Rid of your Accent

2. Your sentence stress and use of pauses will make your messages precise and powerful.

   Another important part of elocution lessons is to work on stresses and pauses. You will learn which words you should stress and which “throwaway”, a phrase used by actors. You will also see how powerful the use of pause can be.

3. You will know how to breathe correctly to increase the volume or the power of your voice.

   Elocution lessons will help you if you are worried your voice is too quiet and people ask to repeat what you said often because they cannot hear you.

4. Your posture will be straight

   The basis of breath is posture. Here is the basic thing to check to improve your posture.

   Stand in a well-centred position with feet firmly on the floor, slightly apart, relaxing the knees and hips, and keeping the shoulders down, free from any tension. Feel your spine straightening with your head balanced on the neck, as if it was attached to the ceiling by a piece of elastic coming from the top of it.

5. You will sound confident and become more confident as a person.

   Having good posture and confident speech allows us to conclude that elocution lessons will help you enhance your overall image which in turn will open doors to greater opportunities. Elocution lessons teach you to speak with the accent of the British elite and it is a shortcut to high society. Read about it in our blog Elocution Lessons based on RP.

Book your speech analysis and elocution lessons today, email oriana_r@hotmail.com

Visit www.batcsglobal.com for more information.

24. Preparing to speak in public or giving a presentation

By Olga Smith

Is your speech clear and confident?

Speech preparation takes three stages: writing, editing and practising its delivery. Writing is mainly about what you say, but more effort goes into how you say it. In this blog, I will highlight the important points of speech delivery or how you say it. When you practice it, one of the first things you need to make sure is that people understand what you want to say. The clarity of your speech and the clarity of your messages are absolutely essential. There is nothing worse than a gabbled presentation with an unintelligible accent. There are four main enemies of clear speech: difficult to understand accents, rushed speech, lack of pauses and a quiet voice.

A difficulty to understand accent is a problem

Accents can be very charming, but for the purpose of public speaking your accent should be understood by your audience. When your accent is difficult to understand, people stop thinking about the main idea of your speech as they try to decode your words. They might stop thinking about what you are trying to convey, and start thinking about where you come from, for example. Another thing is that a difficult to understand accent is associated with a lack of education and low class. Thus it even influences your credibility. On the other hand, when you speak clearly, not only you become a pleasant communicator, but it also enhances your image.

Rushed speech

Many people have a tendency to rush their speech. Someone who is uptight and tense, and shows a lack of confidence and anxiety will tend to speak rather more quickly than someone who is relaxed and laid-back. Similarly, a person who is extremely intelligent and bursting with ideas will often tend to gabble as the thoughts come tumbling out. The thing is that people perceive what others are saying at a slower speed. There is nothing worse, when trying to impart a great deal of information to your audience (whether in a business meeting, a lecture room, or a court of law), than discovering that because you are speaking so quickly, very little of this information is being understood. Often the first thing that happens when a speaker is nervous and not at ease, is that he tends to gabble. It is always better to concentrate on speaking more slowly when addressing an audience, particularly if you are not speaking in your native tongue.

Quiet voice

There will be times when it is necessary to change the amount of volume we use when speaking. In normal conversation, no effort or changes will be required. When communicating with an audience, however, the amount of projection of the voice (or loudness) obviously depends on the situation you are in: how big is the room, how many people are you talking to, how far away are they, are you inside or out in the open? When I started public speaking, I was afraid that people cannot hear my speech as my voice was very quiet.

Tools to deliver a great speech or make a perfect presentation

Make sure you pronounce and articulate words clearly. Record yourself and hear how others perceive your speech. I am Russian and in 2004 I recorded my first Toastmaster’s speech. I felt shocked when I was listening to it because even I could not understand what I was saying. I started elocution lessons with Linda James and in about three months my life had changed completely. My speech became clear, confident and powerful. I have decided that Linda’s method and teaching can be useful for people like me. I decided to write a book with CDs. The international success of the book led to producing eight apps, four paperback and five audiobooks in the series Get Rid of your Accent. Two weeks ago we published a video course on Udemy entitled Get Rid of your Accent to provide a total solution for accent reduction online.

Our apps, books and video course content cover the main topics of speech

1. Learning how to pronounce English sounds using received pronunciation (RP) – RP is also sometimes called the Queen’s English, Oxford English or BBC English.

2. Articulation exercises to make your consonants clear and crisp;

3. Learning patterns of English intonation and vocal techniques;

4. Speaking in phrases rather than in separate words; knowing how to link words together.

5. 4Ps, Power, Pace, Pitch, Pace of your voice

More on Get Rid of your Accent | Elocution Lessons

23. The most difficult English sound for many nationalities

Why people have accents

 One of the reasons is that not all English sounds exist in other languages. For example, there is no [th] sound in Russian, French, Hindu, and many other languages. Many Russians pronounce [s,z] instead of [th] and instead of "think" they would say "sink". Indians pronounce [t,d] and instead of "that" they would pronounce "dat". The meaning of the word changes completely and as a result, others cannot understand what they are trying to say. This can be uncomfortable for both the speaker and the listener. Moreover, if one's speech is difficult to understand their job prospects and promotions are at risk.

Ten days ago we have published a video course entitled "Get Rid of your Accent" on Udemy. This course covers all English sounds of Received Pronunciation ( or as it was called in the past Queens English, BBC English, Oxford English). We have a limited-time promotion on it (75% discount). Using this course and our apps which are optimized for tablets, smartphones, and computers you can study anywhere, anytime!

The main benefits of this course to students

 You can watch each lesson several times and master the correct placement of your speech organs for English sounds to perfection. You will get unique tips and techniques for accent reduction which are not in our books and apps.

The enclosed video is lesson 36 from our video course: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEc37sS95u0&feature=youtu.be

If you have problems with this sound, watch this video, then practice this sound with our apps and books for a week, 20-30 minutes a day. We recommend that you slow down your speech to allow yourself time to think before you speak and place your speech organs correctly. When you speak fast there is no time to think about the correct pronunciation.

I hope you enjoy studying with our apps, books, and videos. E-mail oriana_r@hotmail.com to book your speech analysis in order to check your progress and reduce the time and effort to achieve your goals.

Sincerely Yours

Sincerely Yours

Olga Smith

www.batcsglobal.com

22. Benefits of Get Rid of your Accent video course

• Download accompanying video courses Get Rid of your Accent Part One and Part Two where we demonstrate how all English sounds are produced in the mouth.
  We also share useful accent reduction tips for different nationalities which you will not find in our books and apps.

• Click on one of the videos from the Part One course.

• Click on one of the video from the Part Two course.

21. Accent reduction tools

By Olga Smith, a leading expert in accent reduction since 2006

In this blog we tell you about 5 useful accent reduction tips that will help you save time and money:

1. Get your speech analysis done. When students come to us for the first time we record their speech and tell them which English sounds and speech patterns, such as intonation, liaisons, articulation, etc. they need to work on.

2. Work on your accent daily, 20-45 minutes a day. Regularity is the key. People have accents because their speech organs are not trained for English sounds. Accent reduction is similar to your gym sessions' principles.

3.   Use the mirror to check your speech organs' positions. In our books and apps, we explain where to put your tongue, lips, and jaw for a particular English sound. If you have an accent your speech organs will automatically shape in a way you used to. Once you know how you should shape them, check in the mirror to make sure your jaw and lips placements are correct. Watch our video on YouTube and try to do it yourself.

4.   Repeat the same word, phrase, sentence or verse at least 3 times with clear pronunciation. In our books, we teach RP (Received Pronunciation) RP is also sometimes called the Queen’s English, Oxford English or BBC English. The more you repeat, the quicker RP will become your second nature.

5.   Record your speech regularly to check your progress.

More on www.batcsglobal.com

20. Can you afford to wait for society to change?

By Olga Smith

Superprof (an online tutoring database, has 2,868 online elocution tutors offering one-to-one lessons), reported that inquiries for elocution lessons increased by more than 23.5%, compared with the same period in 2015.

Here are some of the reasons to change one's accent which various people stated:

"Since I moved from Manchester to London two years ago, I have been mocked about my accent, which made me think about softening some of my rougher edges. Regional accents not only indicate where we are from but can reveal our social class, while a recent study found that broad regional accents can be a barrier to social mobility."

“I always thought, when I was going for certain parts, that having a northern accent might hinder my chances. When I was 19 or 20, I tried to change my accent a little. I just felt like people would take me more seriously if I spoke better.”

“It was something I was self-conscious about because people think that people with a Birmingham accent are quite stupid,”

 “Outside of parliament, people definitely will use it as a tool to have a go at you,” she says. “They’ll say you sound thick and you’re common and you don’t speak properly.”

Here are the research data about accent change:

1. "The associations between intelligence and forms of middle-class and elite speech and accent are deeply woven into British class structures."

2." A broad regional accent might hold you in good stead in some jobs, but can be a drawback in more upwardly mobile careers. “There maybe some kind of expectation that, if you’ve secured a good degree and aced teacher training, then why didn’t you modify your accent as a linguistic means to signal that you are moving up in the world.”

 3." An employer might send somebody for accent softening, and actually what they mean is that the employee’s voice doesn’t quite sound formal. The difference between sounding formal and informal lies in speaking too quickly, mumbling or reductions in speech such as the glottal stop – an abrupt silence that replaces T and, occasionally, other consonants at the end of words."

4. Other differences, such as TH-fronting, which is pronouncing “th” as “f” or “v”, can affect your employability. “The more somebody says ‘munf’ rather than month, ‘fru’ rather than through, we will consider that to be a marker that they are less employable. Because it is perceived to be a measure of socioeconomic status.”

The Guardian writer who came up with all these facts asked at the end: "Can we change society so that people aren’t told they have to change themselves?" I think if someone has passion, money and time to change the society they can go ahead and do it. It is a question of how long this change will take and whether it will ever change. I prefer to speak with RP now and be successful now. I cannot afford to wait for society to change. Can you?

19. Effective learning is to break the thing you learn into small parts

By Olga Smith

I am learning two things now: how to dance beautifully and speak Italian. I have a private dance tutor who is an incredible dancer. As a publisher of Get Rid of your Accent apps and books and RP (Received Pronunciation, in the past known as Queen's English or BBC English) I always strive to learn what works and what doesn't for students who are trying to learn new skills. In this blog, I want to share with you my knowledge about teaching and learning processes.

Learning to dance is very similar to learning to speak with a different accent. When I learn to dance I learn how to move my body the way I want. This is exactly what you learn during accent reduction: the first thing you learn is how to move your speech organs in the correct way. In our apps and books, the number one thing is to make it very clear how to place your speech organs correctly, secondly, you pronounce the sound on its own, then in words, sentences, and verses. It is a process, in which we break it up into small parts and our students learn very fast because it's simple and clear.

On the contrary, my dance tutor tends to show me a very difficult routine and asks me to repeat it. I cannot do it and then she shows it to me again in a very fast way, and I that doesn't help at all. When I asked her to show me little moves slowly I succeeded. I conclude: the number one thing in learning is to break the thing you learn into small parts and master each part separately. If you rush, you are likely to make mistakes.

I've just come back from Italy where I did a 3 weeks course in Italian. During my course, we were studying grammar and hardly had very little practice. By the middle of my course in Italy, I realized that I speak worse than before. Prior to this course, I practised a lot of speaking, listening and repeating and maybe my grammar was not as good, but I was more fluent. In my opinion, the number two thing in learning a new skill is 10% of theory and 90% of practice. Unfortunately, many tutors do it the other way around, 90% of the theory which makes them speak most of the time, and 10% of practice for students. That is probably why our accent apps and books are very popular because we follow these two rules and our students get the results instantly.

Find more information and tips on www.batcsglobal.com

18. Important rules of speech writing and presenting

A couple of days ago I've taught one of my students. He is a barrister and presents his speeches in Courts. He is highly intelligent and eloquent. English is his native language. When we started working on one of his speeches, we had to cut some words, put stresses and liaisons. My student was surprised by how simple rules that I taught him changed the quality of his speech. He said he never heard of these rules. He encouraged me to write a blog about the rules of speech writing and presenting.

Below is the list of main rules of speech writing and presenting:

1. Never start a sentence with a preposition "and". 

2. Stress the most important words that contain the meaning and the essence of a sentence. As a rule, we stress numbers, names, strong words like "never", "not".

3. Write short sentences and use short punchy words. There is a difference between a written and a spoken word. It' is fine to use long sentences if you write a Ph.D. thesis or a scientific article for a magazine because readers can read it several times if needed. But if you speak in long sentences, then your listeners might feel lost in words and lose the plot. Thus you might fail to deliver your message. Very often when I help to prepare speeches I often cut 30% of words. I would like to give you an exercise:

a) Write your speech, then record it.

b) Read your speech again and delete unimportant words. Record this speech again using pauses and stresses correctly.

c) Compare these two speeches.

You will find rules and practical exercises for speech in our apps "4Ps, Power, Pitch, Pace, Pause" and "Fluent English Speech". They will help you to make your speeches impressive, powerful and interesting.

Yours

Olga Smith

17. They didn't get a chance to get a job because of their accent

23 January 2019

By Olga Smith

A few weeks ago, I was talking to a friend who works as a recruiter in Silicon Valley.

He conducts phone interviews, and if the interviewee is successful, he conducts a personal interview with a job applicant, many of whom are non-native English speakers. He said, “It’s harder to understand someone with an accent, especially on the phone. I feel frustrated because I can’t understand what they are saying.” He further added that regretfully, many job applicants do not have a second interview because of their strong accent.

 On average, it takes between one and three months to neutralize a strong accent and make one's speech clear and easy to understand. People start with a speech analysis, then book a few lessons and practice at home. This process of accent reduction costs around £500-£1,000 on average.

 My recruiter friend also told me an interesting fact, "We have many people already working in Silicon Valley who have strong Chinese or Indian accents. Many of them make $150k per year, however, if they spoke more clearly, they would find it easier to be promoted and could earn up to $500k per year."

 If you are looking for a new job or a promotion, why wouldn't you invest in improving the clarity of your speech?

 Our company, which has helped hundreds of people with strong accents to start a new job or get a promotion, has recently published an easy to use and powerful app, built specifically for business people: Business English Speech. 

 This app will give you four benefits to boost your career. It will:

1. Prepare you for a job interview
2. Improve your business emails writing skills
3. Enrich your business vocabulary
4. Improve your listening skills

 Download the app today.
When you find it useful and if you write a review, you will receive a FREE thirty minutes speech analysis with a written report that will speed up neutralizing your accent (usually it costs £120).

 Contact olga.smith.batcs@gmail.com to book your speech analysis. Visit www.batcsglobal.com to download a free lesson from our new app

16. Business English Speech is our new app

Olga Smith

Tuesday, January 1st, 2019

Here at BATCS, we work hard to bring you the latest and greatest books and apps for accent reduction. So we’re very proud to announce the availability of our newest app, Business English Speech. It’s the best single tool on the market to help you get a job and perform well in your current job and throughout your career.

The thing that makes BATCS stand out the most is our full line of apps, which complement our books. In some cases, we even have several apps to go with a single book.

It took us longer than usual to get this new app, Business English Speech, ready. Why? Because it’s one of our most ambitious apps.

The business book and app both use the speech style and vocabulary of leading business professionals, as you see in leading publications such as the Financial Times (also called “the FT”), The Economist, and The Times of London. And it’s the same speech style and vocabulary that you hear on the BBC and Sky News. The book and app include interviews with top UK professionals in areas such as finance - still the leading business in London - marketing, politics, diplomacy, and the law.

As you use this app, your speech will increasingly resemble what British people see and hear every day on TV and the radio, and read in the British press. This is the style of English that’s historically been called the King’s English or the Queen’s English, depending on whom was regnant at the time, and more recently called BBC English.

 The improvement in your speech makes people more open to and interested in the ideas you are expressing. You become more influential and more effective. As you use the app, it becomes much easier to get a new position and to advance in the role that you already have.

 Our lead app developer, Yury Kravchenko, has made this deep and interesting content available within the same app framework used across all of our Get Rid of your Accent apps, as shown in our app video.

 In the app, you can easily find the most troublesome sounds for your national language of origin. Then, you drill on those sounds, using business-oriented and professional-level vocabulary. The app will record you and help you compare your own pronunciation to pronunciation in a crisp and clear British English accent.

 For the book, we have been told again and again by customers that it immediately helps them to improve their performance at work. The app is exactly what you need as a professional who would like to succeed in this competitive world.

Note: We also recommend that you use our other apps and books to complement your work with the Business English Speech app. Why? Because you will get more complete training. In particular, we recommend two topics. The first is our Beginner book and app because they have the most-used vocabulary that will help in all of your conversations. The other is the advanced level, specialty app, Power, Pitch, Pace, Pause. This app will improve your speaking skills in meetings and presentations.

15. Get rid of your Accent for Beginners is our new bestseller

We are delighted to announce that our new book "Get Rid of your Accent for Beginners" by Linda James and Olga Smith became an instant bestseller.

This new book is a total solution for accent reduction, and helps you to:

1. Get rid of insecurities when speaking English

2. Break the barrier to speak English

3. Become confident and competent speaker of English

4. Enhance your image, get better job prospects and improve your social opportunities.

Join our success story today! Find out more on www.batcsglobal.com

14. Accelerating Success for Immigrants and International Business People

Guest blog post by Bud Smith

There is a phenomenon called "immigrant energy" that makes some immigrants to English-speaking countries very successful. However, mastering English - which increases people's success - often takes several generations:

• The first generation has either no English skills or limited English skills, with a strong or very strong accent.

• The second generation speaks their parents' language at home and English at school, which leaves them with less English skills and either a strong or a mild accent.

• The third generation speaks English at home and at school, giving them full English skills and a mild accent or no accent.

International business people often follow a similar trajectory.

Our Get Rid of your Accent products accelerate this process. We help first-generation immigrants and international business people graduate quickly to a mild accent. That way, people have the energy of new immigrants, but the language skills of the second or third generation.

By reducing your accent and speaking in clear, understandable English, you change the subject. It's no longer, "What country are you from?" Instead, you talk about work, education, fun, family - whatever you want to talk about.

If you don't already use one of our products, we suggest you book a speech analysis on Skype or consider buying one of our book and app combinations today.

13. A purpose of "small talk"​

By Olga Smth

As a typical Russian, I was rubbish at "small talk". I found it boring and useless. I want an instant connection on a deep level. For me, small talk was a waste of my time. A typical small talk is usually about the weather, current events or immediate surroundings, so superficial and meaningless, I thought.

I was wrong. Small talk does have a purpose. It is a great opportunity to size up the other person. We see their gestures, hear their accent and make eye contact. It helps us decide whether we want to carry the conversation any further. Recently I was talking to a friend, a CEO of a consultancy company, he says that it's enough for him to say hello and shake hands with a person in order to understand if he can work with them.

In the UK, your accent speaks louder than words, it is a sign of your cultural background, education, and social status. Once people hear your accent, to coin a phrase, they put you in a box. People make judgments immediately.

This fact explains why RP (Received Pronunciation, which in the past was called Queens English, Oxford English or BBC English is still an accent people want to learn. This accent is simply a shortcut to sound neutral and educated. Elocution, articulation and other vocal techniques help you to enhance your powers of communication further and cultivate a strong presence. Once you have strong presence doors open people want to be around you, have business with you, get a better job and a higher salary, and we can continue this list.

With our accent apps, books and lessons, it usually takes only 1-3 months to learn RP, and the benefits are priceless and will last you a lifetime. To listen to free lessons from our audio accent books visit: http://www.batcsglobal.com/products/

Find more information and tips on www.batcsglobal.com

9. What some English people feel when there hear foreign accents

By Olga Smith

We have recently conducted research. We contacted native English people who work with non-native English speakers. We asked them what they thought about colleagues with a foreign accent that is difficult to understand.

These were their replies:
· Frustration
· Anxiety;
· Doubt if they are being understood;
· Accent distracting them from what is being said.

We run courses for diplomats and professionals in London. We have had people on our courses who have been living in England for many years, but because they never learned how to pronounce English sounds correctly, they sounded as if they had only just arrived in this country. They told us they felt inadequate because they were being asked to repeat themselves because of their bad pronunciation. Only a few days ago, on 24 September 2017, there was a BBC program about a Polish lady who decided to get rid of her accent. Here is the link:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/magazine-41361662/i-want-to-get-rid-of-my-polish-accent

Find more information and tips on www.batcsglobal.com

8. Motivations to get rid of an accent

By Olga Smith

You probably heard how sometimes English people call foreign accents sexy and charming. Why do you think people want to get rid of them? I will tell you why in this article.

We have been running accent reduction courses for diplomats and professionals for the last 12 years. We help people make their English clear and precise and they are no longer being asked to repeat themselves.

Moreover, if you speak with the right accent, namely Received Pronunciation (RP) it also open doors to high society, respect associated with it, and last but not least much more money. Let me present a few examples given to us by our students:

"I work as an IT consultant, but because I speak with a strong Spanish accent and not all what I say is being understood, I am not invited to meetings. I know if I don't start to speak more clearly, I will be starring at the PC screen and have the same salary for many years to come..."

"After your accent reduction course I got promoted to an area manager, and now I want to master my speech even more as it became absolutely clear to me that communication is power."

 "I am a dietician in Chelsea and all my clients have a posh accent (RP). In order to be trusted by my clients, I need to improve my accent".

Our Turkish student working as a Stock Exchange trader in London told us what her manager said to her: "If you don't lose your accent you lose your job". On the trading floor, people are so stressed and have no time to understand thick foreign accents.

My business partner from Silicon Valley told me that many Chinese and Indian IT specialists working there earning peanuts because it's difficult to understand their English. He further specified: they are making $100k now, but if they changed their accent they would make $400.

All I can say the choice is yours - you are either stay sexy and charming earning peanuts, or you sort out your speech and make serious money.

We start our next Accent Reduction course on 22 May, all details are on www.batcsglobal.com

I wish you all prosperity!

Find more information and tips on www.batcsglobal.com 

7. Don't learn English - just speak it!

By Olga Smith

For the last two months, I have been travelling to Thailand, Spain and Israel. I tried to speak with local people in English and realised that the conversation didn't go beyond twenty words of very basic vocabulary. People told me that they learned English for five to seven years in schools, but according to their level of speech, it felt they learned it for two days maximum. How come? It turned out they learned spelling and grammar for those seven years, but rarely spoke.

Also, I met many people who have been living in the UK for thirty years and they still speak in pidgin English. Some of them were PhDs and they complained to me that people treated them like morons because of their primitive English. Well, the reason for their poor English was that they made a choice to stick to their native community (Iranian, Russian, Spanish etc.) and to not pursue English. Interestingly enough, their passive vocabulary was often very good as they could write well, read books and papers, but they didn't dare to use this vocabulary in their speech, because they were not sure how to pronounce it and it made them shy to use it.

One of my friends is a Chinese lady who has been living in London for seven years and has an English boyfriend. She is still hesitant to speak English, she constantly repeats: "I learn English, but it's very difficult... I am not good, it's very hard". No wonder, she learns English for an hour twice a week, but then she speaks in Chinese for the rest of the time.

I decided to do a little experiment with my Chinese friend. Firstly, I told her to say to herself and others that English is easy and that she speaks good English because when she was constantly repeating that her English was bad, to me it sounded like a self-programming for having bad English. Secondly, I gave her three new short phrases a day and asked her to repeat them five times several times a day. Thirdly, I asked her to reduce the time she speaks in Chinese and gradually increased the time she speaks in English and use the new phrases. After just a week her confidence to speak was so much higher and she felt powerful as a person.

For all who learn English I want to recommend three things:

1. Stop learning English, and start speaking it by repeating three new useful phrases several times a day. Your speech organ muscles will get used to English, you will enlarge your vocabulary and gain the confidence to speak. Repeating, repeating and repeating, like parrots!

2. Reduce the time of speaking in your native language and increase the time you speak in English.

3. Listen to English TV and Radio channels, make a note of phrases you hear and repeat them five times several times a day. In the past, I met Greeks, Dutch, Danish, Swedish and their English was advanced. Guess what these countries have in common: English TV channels that are not translated into their native language.

If you have been struggling with your English and want to improve it write to oriana_r@hotmail.com to get free guidance, get our paper-back books with CDs from Amazon, audiobooks in the series Get Rid of your Accent from Audible or download our apps: get rid of your accent uk1 from Google Play and AppStore, and Fluent English Speech from the AppStore.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/developer/olga-smith-batcs-limited/id673687756?mt=8

All our products have audio tracks recorded by trained actors, just listen and repeat after them.

I wish you to be empowered by your outstanding English!

Find more information and tips on www.batcsglobal.com

6. Liaisons and fluency

By Olga Smith

Today I would like to talk about how to achieve fluency in English.

Once you have sorted out your English sounds, your next step would be to work on fluency.

What does this work involve:

1. Using schwa, or neutral vowel in prepositions (for, from, to, etc) and articles (a, an, the), thus "throwing away unimportant words", an expression used by actors.

2. Liaise prepositions with words (eg: in common, at home, etc.), do not make pauses between words and prepositions they belong to.

3. Speak in phrases or "word blocks", rather than in separate words, connecting words in a phrase.

For example in the phrase "I'd like a cup of tea", we have two blocks: 1. I'd like, and 2. a cup of tea.

In our book Get Rid of your Accent, Advanced level, ISBN 09553300017 we give you many practical exercises to master fluency.

More on our web site: www.batcsglobal.com

5. How often and for how long should you practise with elocution books and apps

By Olga Smith

Very often many of our clients ask us: how many lessons do they need with a teacher?

How often and for how long do they need to do exercises from our elocution books and apps to neutralise their foreign or regional accent?

Our answer is this: 

1. Have elocution lessons once or twice a week with a qualified speech tutor. Many of our students told us that when they practice on their own they do not always know their starting point, what exactly they are doing wrong and what is the best way to improve. The teacher with save you time to achieve your goal.

2. Practice daily. 15 min in the morning, 15 min after lunch and 15 min in the evening. Incremental progress is the key to success. It’s better to do it regularly for a short 1-15 minutes, rather than once a week for a couple of hours.

3. Focus on one sound for 3 days. It is believed that to eliminate a mistake you have to repeat it correctly 300 times.

Find more information and tips on www.batcsglobal.com