As a trainer for Soft Skills, over the last 20 years, I always get a mixed crowd of teenagers and working professionals.

The moment I introduce Accent Neutralization, the reaction is one of sarcasm or smirk.

It is only when I tell them the importance of Neutral Accent, do they realize, there is a huge gap which is to be filled.

As far as the English Language is concerned, our learning stops the moment we pass out of school. We ultimately end up starting our career with a very limited vocabulary and wrong pronunciation. The use of idiomatic phrases and one word substitutes is virtually non existent.

I always tell my trainees that we are all prisoners within the boundaries of our own perception. We never think outside the box.

As we are all aware, the English Language has become the lingua franca linking businesses across the globe. So it becomes all the more imperative to be fluent in our speech.

Fluency is a combination of many factors put together.

Fluency includes pronunciation, intonation, using the right word, flow of language and the rate of speech.

Effective Communication is very simple to define. The target listener should understand the message, in the way you want him to comprehend. If there is a mismatch here, the very purpose of communication gets lost.

Professionals, who rise up the hierarchy very fast, are without exception excellent communicators.

Indians have a very strong regional influence while speaking. In professional parlance, it is called as the Mother Tongue Influence (MTI).

When people speak with a heavy regional accent, people get distracted or annoyed, because the pronunciation is not clear. I have seen umpteen cases, where professionals have a good vocabulary, but unfortunately their heavily accented English coupled with the fast rate of speech, creates a huge barrier in the communication process, and ultimately their reputation takes a beating.

This is precisely why Neutral Accent becomes so critical and imperative for a professional's growth in an organization.

Neutral Accent is nothing but globally understandable and comprehensible English Language. This means that a person from any part of the world should be able to understand what you are speaking without having to strain him or interrupt you.

People have this wrong notion that they need to imitate a certain accent, as in, American Accent or British Accent. There is absolutely no need to imitate any accent.

Your English should be devoid of regional influence.

When professionals speak, using the right word, with excellent pronunciation, intonation and the ideal rate of speech, they are seen as classy and command lot of respect. Likewise, a very heavy accented pronunciation, puts off the listener, and thereby the very purpose of communication is lost.

Business today is very fast paced, and in order to survive and excel in this cutthroat competition, it is of utmost importance to articulate in diction, and, be globally understood.

Lot of people have the misconception that Neutral Accent is confined only to the BPO industry, which is totally wrong. Neutral Accent is not industry specific. It is an essential requirement across all industries.

Your voice is the means by which you convey your inner thoughts and feelings to the outside world. It is the outward expression of your inner self.

The English language, its structure and the accent or dialect changes from country to country. Hence, it is very critical to speak in a globally comprehensible English dialect.

I will list down the common problems with Indian speakers in general:

Indian speakers of English are known to speak much faster than people in the West. This means that in many cases Indian speakers of English will make business communication difficult. We need to ensure that we understand and are understood.

Indians do not speak with their mouth fully open. As a result, the speech muscles get tight over a period of time, and the pronunciation gets severely affected. In other words we are not able to articulate properly.

Indians have a very fast rate of speech. The ideal speaking rate is between one hundred forty and one hundred sixty words per minute. Indians speak at anywhere between one hundred eighty to two hundred forty words per minute. At this speed, the listener is bound to lose the message.

In the English Language, the vowels give the sound and therefore the stress has to be on the vowel sound, taking the syllable into consideration. Indians stress on the consonants because of which the word gets horribly mispronounced and this creates a huge communication barrier.

The consonant B is pronounced as P and vice versa.

The consonant D is pronounced as T and vice versa.

The consonant L is mispronounced.

There is no distinction made between V and W sounds.

The vowel U and the consonant Q is pronounced without opening the mouth.

There is no distinction made between the words, their, there and they while pronouncing it.

The ‘th' sound is not clear.

The consonant T is mispronounced.

The above mentioned list is not comprehensive. It covers only those areas where Indians commonly tend to mispronounce a word.

STEPS TO BE TAKEN TO COME TO A NEUTRAL ACCENT

To learn a new accent you need to listen to English again and again. It is not what you say, but how you say it, therefore, get familiar with the feel, tone and delivery of the accent. That adds a lot more meaning to what you say, rather that just the actual words.

Learning a new accent is making your subconscious mind conscious. The critical thing to remember is to relax and speak in a flow, instead of speaking each word separately, to sound clear.

The English Language uses over 45 basic sounds but has only 26 letters in the alphabet to represent them. This means that a word is not pronounced in the way it is written, unlike our mother tongue.

The International Phonetic Association (IPA) has laid down the pronunciation for each word. Special phonetic symbols are used to represent sounds. There are several accepted pronunciations for each word.

Most poor pronunciations happen due to the omission of a sound altogether or swallowing of the last one or two alphabets.

We need to breathe correctly for good modulation and rate of speech. If we do not breathe properly, we cannot speak long sentences. An effective voice is possible only with an effective breath. Indians on the whole have a very poor breathing pattern which needs to be worked on.

Take any article from a newspaper or magazine. Read the article for one minute with your present rate of speech. After a minute stop reading and count the number of words you have spoken. You will get a very clear picture of where you stand. Make the necessary adjustments in your rate of speech which will ensure that you speak at the right pace. This requires extensive practice.

BREATHING EXERCISES

Take a deep breath. Pronounce each alphabet from A till Z by throwing the air out. Initially you will feel lot of pressure on the chest. Do not give up. Keep on practicing this exercise.

With the tip of your tongue touch the back side of each tooth.

Hum any song which you like. Over a period of time you will notice a perceptible change in the quality of your voice.

Record your voice regularly which will help you to understand how far you have progressed and where you are going wrong.

To conclude, a poor speaker is often considered to be inept in all other areas also. People judge you not only by what you say, but how you say it.

HAPPY SPEAKING!!!!!!

Source: Girish Seshamani (Chief Advisor with Shiksha.com)