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Frequently Asked Questions
Click to jump straight to the question. Please do contact
us if you have any further questions not covered here.
What can I hope to achieve?
We are conditioned to like quick fixes in the
modern world. However,it is worth noting that your body took
many years to develop, and it took you many years to learn
how to speak. Changing how you speak and produce your voice
requires you to re-train muscles and the brain from the way
they have always done things. It is better to think of voice
training as a complex process like learning to drive - you
would not expect to achieve that in one session. But over
time you can make radical changes to how you speak.
How long does it take?
Your trainer will help you improve as rapidly
as possible, and if you practice at home and try to use the
work in daily communications you will soon start to gain control
over your voice and speech. Remind friends and colleagues
not to expect instant change. And give yourself several months
to truly incorporate the work.
You need to progress through several stages.The
first stage is Incompetent Incompetence -
not knowing what you are doing wrong. The second is Conscious
Incompetence - knowing what you are wrong but not
yet being able to change it. The third is Conscious
Competence - you know what you are doing but need
to concentrate on it to get it right. The last stage is Conscious
Competence - your body knows and remembers what to
do and it happens automatically.
Relax and enjoy the work as you progress from stage to stage
until you reach your goal and your voice and speech are changed
for good.
What happens in a class?
This depends on you and your exact aims and
if you are working on your speech, voice or public speaking.
If you are working on your accent and speech
you can expect to do exercises to stretch out and strengthen
the mouth and tongue; exercises to be able to identify and
shape the correct speech sounds of English; exercises to understand
how the different sounds are represented in English spelling
(not obvious); exercises to adopt the stress, rhythm and tune
of English; exercises to make all of this effortless.
If you are working on your vocal production
you can expect exercises to help you find correct posture
alignment; exercises to release excessive tension that is
interfereing with the voice; exercises to release tension
in the throat and mouth; exercises to find correct creation
of sound and connection of that to speech; exercises to help
you increase pitch range and resonance.
If you are working on your public speaking
you can expect us to work directly on a speech (either a real
or imagined one). We will look first of all at how you structure
the story of that speech and relate it to the audience. There
will be exercises to help you find a relaxed, grounded physicality
when speaking; exercises to help you centre and release the
voice; exercises to help you keep an open mouth and make clear
consonants and vowels with this; exercises to help you befriend
and contact the audience; exercises to help you use tune,
gesture and rhythm to illustrate the material; exercises to
help you find and highlight the 'plot' of your speech building
suspense and interest throughout; and exercises to eradicate
any desire to waffle!
What is RP (Received Pronunciation)?
RP or Received Pronunciation is the name commonly
given to the standard, non-regional version of British English.
There is more information about RP here.
Why is English spelling
so difficult?
The problem with English spelling is that the
pronunciation of English has changed radically over the centuries
whilst our spelling has barely altered at all. This issue
was noticed way back in the 16th Century! Big changes took
place to vowel sounds around then. Another big change, not
pronouncing r’s after vowels, happened in the 19th century,
whilst our spelling was standardised in the 18th century.
Add to this that we have 20 vowel sounds and only 5 alphabetical
vowel letters, and that the Latin alphabet doesn’t have symbols
for all our consonants, and you begin to see the problem.
George Bernard Shaw (the famous writer of My
Fair Lady) tried to get changes made to our spelling at the
beginning of the 20th century, but nothing was done. So we’re
stuck with it.
Your trainer will try to familiarise you with
what rules there are, however, so you can guess the likely
pronunciation of unknown words.
What is Phonetics?
As English spelling is so varied, it is very
useful to learn to identify the sounds by the phonetic symbols.
These are symbols that directly represent the actual sounds,
so there are, for example, 20 different symbols for the 20
different vowel sounds in British English. Yes, I know, 20
vowel sounds!. If you get familiar with the phonetic symbols
you make, you can look up the correct pronunciation of words
in the dictionary.
The symbols are different for the vowels, but in many cases
similar for the consonants.
For example:
"Perfectly" in phonetics is /’p3:fIktli:/
In a dictionary, the phonetic version will come
just before the definition (be sure you have a British English
dictionary though, American phonetics are different). The
symbols above may not make any sense yet, but you'll absorb
them effortlessly during the course, and by the end they should
allow you to pronounce the word ‘perfectly’ perfectly!
Will it change my accent
in my native language?
No. Every language has its own pattern of movement
and our faces and mouths adopt a certain comfortable position
to easily allow this pattern of movement. So, once you learn
to adopt the comfortable position for RP/Standard English,
you can still return to the comfortable position for your
own language or accent. You have simply made your face and
mouth more flexible and created another option. It is remarkably
easy to switch between the two accent positions once you have
the habit. Native speakers of English (Australians, South
Africans, Americans etc.) can make the choice whether to permanently
adopt RP as their accent, or be able to switch in and out
as feels appropriate. You may, however, find some positive
benefits to how you speak your own language. Making your speech
system more flexible can improve your vocal tone, articulation
and clarity in your own language, it just won't change the
accent in the mother tongue.
What is an Accent Coach?
To come up with the phonetic alphabet, phoneticians
have studied the elements of speech in great detail. What
an accent coach does is to apply this knowledge practically.
This is usually either to help actors adopt different accents
for theatre or film roles, or to help people with strong foreign
or regional accents to bring them closer towards Standard
English (RP). Accent coaches mostly work in Drama training
institutions, film and theatre.
What qualifications should
a Voice and Accent coach have?
Many of the best qualified coaches in the UK,
including all of Speak Easily’s Trainers, are trained in voice
and accent teaching at the Central School of Speech and Drama,
London. Such trained coaches are in general highly skilled,
with an advanced knowledge of phonetics, voice and speech
production, and the teaching abilities necessary to translate
this into physical exercises for their students.
Can I take a Trial Session?
Our Introductory Sessions (see here
for fees) can be taken on their own with no need for a longer
committment. They give you the chance to experience the work
and be sure that the training is right for you. It also gives
our trainers a chance to analyse your voice and accent in
person and give you the best advice possible as to the amount
of training you need to achieve your goals. Most people then
take a course of 10 sessions for voice work, accent and elocution
training. Public speaking is often more dependant on the particular
situation.
Do I get a Certificate for
completing a course?
We can give you a letter from Speak Easily with
details of the training you have undertaken. This is not a
qualification however.
Is there a Course Book to
accompany the course?
All courses are accompanied by personalised
materials - texts, information sheets and images - which add
up to your own personal workbook for your training.
Accent Reduction courses are also accompanied
by a DVD with over three hours of audio practice materials
and access to our online Flash and Video materials. Our Accent
Reduction Course book is included with our Evening Classes
and Private Tuition courses of 10 sessions. It is available
to purchase for students taking less sessions with us. At
present it is only available to our clients.
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