For many years I was very conscious about my Russian accent and quite often embarrassed by not being able to pronounce half of English words properly. Yes, many people say that foreign accents are “cute” but it is more important to me to be well understood and easy to talk to, instead of sounding exotic and unusual. Furthermore, I feel that having a strong foreign accent is a significant detriment to my career. Of course, it only made it more difficult for me that I also have a slight speech impediment. It is not terribly noticeable but is adding another level of complexity to my speech issues.
I feel very lucky that I found Claudette. Her experience, knowledge and impressive teaching skills made it easy for me to get on the path of improving my English. Claudette’s amazing and warm personality creates very friendly and relaxed class environment. It helps me to concentrate on progressing through learning materials and exercises and not to feel too insecure and upset if it takes me some time to achieve proper pronunciation of particular words and sounds.
Before I started my classes with Claudette, and knowing people who lived in States for several decades and yet retained strong accents, I wasn’t very hopeful about being able to get closer to sounding indistinguishable from an average American speaker. I do have hope now and I am encouraged by results after just several first classes. I know there is a long road ahead and it will require patience and work. However, now I am not intimidated by this challenge. Every week I am looking forward to the class with my Accent Coach!