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Accents - Voice Coaching Techniques | ||
Tags: Actor/Actress | Accent | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 6179 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 1 of 11 10 April 2012 at 12:08pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Venturing into the world of film and television, we encounter a number of actors who learn to mimic foreign accents. Some of them will be naturally adept at impersonation, think Meryl Streep, and garner awards for their abilities. Others, however, rely on the services of professional voice coaches to help them. I wonder if us language learners could adapt some of their methods. Some of these are,
- Physically copy the movements and body language of native speakers. I wonder if the perception of accent, via subconscious cues, is enhanced by capturing the body language. - Hum a musical scale before practising speech. This is meant to help break the natural tones used in your native accent. Actors also use this method to improve the colour of their voices. - Listen to looped short recorded extracts of one minute or less. This is a technique that some impressionists uses to learn the common phrases of celebrities. - Vocal stretching and warm ups. Think of saying 'Aah' in the doctors but will a lot of different vowel sounds. Does anyone know any other tricks of the trade ? 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| napoleon Tetraglot Senior Member India Joined 5044 days ago 543 posts - 874 votes Speaks: Bengali*, English, Hindi, Urdu Studies: French, Arabic (Written) | Message 2 of 11 10 April 2012 at 12:16pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Reminds me of "The rain in Spain..." scene in the movie: "My Fair Lady"
;-) Edited by napoleon on 10 April 2012 at 12:16pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| dleewo Groupie United States Joined 5846 days ago 95 posts - 131 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Mandarin | Message 3 of 11 10 April 2012 at 2:23pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I've always wondered why I never hear about language learners using accent coaches like
actors. I'm wondering if it's easier for someone to change their accent in their native language vs a second language? I notice there are a lot of Australian actors on TV who have perfect American accents. I'mm constantly surprised to learn that actors in some of my favorite TV shows are Australian. I'm sure there are some, but I can't think of any non-native English speaking actors though that pull off an American English accent. It's also interesting that British and Australian actors seem to be able to perfect American accents, but when you hear an American trying a British accent, it is usually quite comical. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Kyle Corrie Senior Member United States Joined 4857 days ago 175 posts - 464 votes | Message 4 of 11 10 April 2012 at 2:51pm | IP Logged | |||||
Because for the most part, language learners aren't trying to make you believe they're someone else. Dominic West is an English actor who played a Baltimore born detective in 'The Wire'. It wouldn't make much sense if he were walking around with an English accent with the story line that he spent his entire life in Baltimore. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| napoleon Tetraglot Senior Member India Joined 5044 days ago 543 posts - 874 votes Speaks: Bengali*, English, Hindi, Urdu Studies: French, Arabic (Written) | Message 5 of 11 10 April 2012 at 6:05pm | IP Logged | |||||
I am sorry but I will have to disagree. The main reason why most of us do not employ accent coaches has more to do with economics rather than ethics. Call the 'grapes sour' all you want but accent coaches don't come cheap. :) 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 5158 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 6 of 11 10 April 2012 at 7:14pm | IP Logged | |||||
That was my experience when I hired a coach to help reduce my strong MN accent, too. They're INCREDIBLY expensive. At least in southern California, that's the case. It's a pretty big industry there. R. == Edited by hrhenry on 10 April 2012 at 7:14pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Hampie Diglot Senior Member Sweden Joined 6687 days ago 625 posts - 1009 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: Latin, German, Mandarin | Message 7 of 11 10 April 2012 at 7:30pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I've been reading about that quite recently for some reason... It would be really nice to sound like a naitive, and the
voice coaches themselves claim that they can help their clients to achieve this... But £6000 for ten "lessons" and a book is quite expensive for a student, and private voice coaching is even more expensive! Though if I ever get the economy and possibility I'd totally go for it. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| atama warui Triglot Senior Member Japan Joined 4729 days ago 594 posts - 985 votes Speaks: German*, English, Japanese | Message 8 of 11 11 April 2012 at 6:06am | IP Logged | |||||
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A Japanese friend of me has had training as (theater) actress. She knows some techniques to train pronunciation and intonation for the clear, standard Japanese accent you hear when listening to the news at NHK. She helped me to get rid of my German accent.
I'm still not perfect, but now I sound like someone from "somewhere else in Japan", not like "a foreigner". I intend to train more with her. You can't imagine how much "This was 70%, a little softer" - "Okay, 80%, a bit higher" actually helps. Actors also have training sheets which really help to let the words flow instead of "spitting them out", makes speech a lot smoother. Edited by atama warui on 11 April 2012 at 6:08am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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