I really hate my accent.[really long story]

Hello there, I am a Korean student studying in Ireland since 2005.
It's been nearly 2 years exclude the months I spent in Korea during the summers.

I am 19 years old and I came to Ireland when I was 17. I went school in Ireland and I made friends with many Irish,Irish-American,Irish-Australian,Irish-English and Irish-Scottish.

They were born in abroad and grew up in there up till 12~14 and they came back to Ireland.

As I grew up in Korea (there is no need to mention that I am from South Korea, of course) for 17 years I have spoken Korean a hell of a lot more than English. Of course I've been studying English since primary school like Irish people study Irish in school till 17.

So It's been almost 2 years that I started speak English more than Korean and mix with only English speakers.

Despite of being exposed in an English speaking country 24/7, my accent is still the strong Asian accent that I hate so much. My pronounciation has gotten better though. Maybe it's just because of my voice but I am sure that my accent is a strong Asian accent. A strong Korean accent to be specific.

I wish I could come over here when I was very young that I could pick up those uncountable English expressions and vocabulary. Even the accents.
Any accents just not the Asian accents as Korean,Japanese and Chinese accents. I also don't like the Indian accent.

I want to sound fluent. Of course I do study English language and my mates have been helping me out either pronounciation or accent or grammar. But above of all the only thing really matters me is my accent!!!

I feel like somewhat inferior and I am ashamed of my accent. I always ask people. "Do I sound funny?" most times people say "No." generally.
And I know even if I sounded hillarious with my accent the answers would still be "NO" because they don't want to embarrass me or make me up set. But sometimes people laugh their asses off due to my accent.

I whined to my friend "Oh..I really hate going to grinds on saturdays..."
and my friend asked me what grinds I was taking. So I said...
"On saturdays? I have...Economics,Business and Maths." and my friend
busted out laughing and mimicked the way I sounded.

"Eco-nah-mics, hahahahaha Eco-nah-mics." and I asked him what was wrong and talked about my accent. I said to him that I wanted to change my accent and he just talked down to me. "YOU CAN'T CHANGE YOUR ACCENT, oh god~ you are so funny!"

Now I got it fixed and here is another one. I used to say DINNER like
Deener. My friend corrected me few times and he got pissed off after while cuz I kept saying Deener during the conversation unconsciously.

In addition I used to not be able to pronounce the word "SHEET".
Well this is a famous one..that many foreigners can't distinguish SHEET and SHIT in pronounciation but after while I also learnt and was taught that SHEET sounds like [She-eat]. People used to think I was saying shit when I tried to say SHEET.

Like above 3 cases I have a problem with pronouncing long vowels and short vowels. I mean like I confuse long vowels with short vowels.
Now I can pronounce SHEET but..still because of my accent my friends bust out luaghing. I asked them seriously whether I pronounced it wrong but they were all saying "No, It's just your accent it sounds funny."

People often don't know how I feel when I hear people laughing at my accent and how intimidating it is.

My best friends have a mixed American-Irish accent and the most neutral accent in the school. My IrishAmerican friend is from Boston and he still sounds quite American but mixed with the Irish accent. My IrishAustralian friend told me that he used to have a strong Australian accent but now he lost it over time and now he sounds pretty neutral.

I wish I sounded neutral or I had an accent that sounds fluent at least.
When I listen to my friends talking to me. They sound just so fluent..well this is stupid to say but I mean they sound like so natural and as a stream flows smoothly the words link to the next words just smoothly and sounds so good. When I speak maybe due to my influency in English I pause many times..like I am from South Korea so in Korean language every words are so phonetic and I intend to speak every single syllable as it's spelt. Of course it doesn't sound good at all!

Yesterday people laughed cuz I said the word CARAMEL and it sounded funny. I got it fixed but people still make fun of it. Well it's okay I try not to get soar about it. I am trying not to be such a wimp. But still it bothers me. I am staying with an Irish family so I am truly exposed to English language 24/7. I have a book called "American Accent Training" and "English Pronounciation in Use". I studied a bit of them but didn't see any effect yet. Now I've got to study for college so I stopped studying them just for the time being.

People. Please don't give me those common and cheap sympathy.
Don't tell me Being proud of yourself or you are what you are or You can't change your accent etc. Fine you can blame me that I try to imitate my accent or something like that. But think about it I came here to study English and I want to sound fluent like native speakers so I try to get rid of my korean accent and wish to pick up a Neutral or any accents that sound good. What should I do? Should I go to see some speech therapists? I don't think I can afford speech therapists. I always read English out loud and try to tune my toungue to English.

I also have problem with pronouncing "Z" sound...when I try to say
"POSITION" it sounds awful. It sounds like [Po-zee-tion]. Here we go long vowel sound again. I used to say beginning as [Bi-gin-ing] but people actually say it like [Be-gee-ning]. Like I got few tings fixed.

But still people laugh at my accent and ask me what I've just said. Especially people who see me for first time!!!!!! It's really annoying and intimidating...and embarrassing. What should I do?

Is there any hope? If I see a speech therapist for changing my accent, how much would it cost and how long would it take?....Has anyone done this sort of activities? I saw some books about losing accents and getting accents and some of them were for actors..I really don't know what to do
I just want to sound better. That's all. It's my personal liking so please don't blame me. People buy what they want to buy with their money, no harm to others. I try to sound like other native speakers with my own tongue. Would it disgust or harm others?

Some people say it's really uncomfortable seeing people try to imitate some accents but you should know that it's really uncomfortable being laughed and not understood. Thanks for reading

If anyone can help me out personally...well just in case if anyone wishes to learn Korean. We'd co op together...my email address is
xprain@gmail.com please email me if you wanna do language exchange or help me out. I'll apperciate it.

First lesson: Dont care about what others think of you and your accent in general. It is their sole duty to laugh at you and put you down so that they can soothe their inferior egos and degrade you to the core. Learn to be happy when you are down, and learn to be super happy when you are up. Struggle is a name of life. Tell them to speak Korean and I am sure they will also sound funny as hell.

I am an Asian. I pronounce many words wrong. DO I conduct a crime? Definitely not! Once you are aware of your mistakes, there is nothing like practice that can fix them. It is only sheer practice that will pay rich dividents. No speech therapists and tranining books can help you out.


When you listen to native speakers, pay careful attention to their pronunciation. If possible, take a mental note of it and try to imitate it.
There are many software dictionaries that provide audio recordings along with their phonetic transcriptions so that you can learn how to pronounce words correctly (like where you have to put a primary and secondary stress on the word). Eg: "Cambridge Pronouncing Dictionary" is the best dictionary that fits the definition and you can gain further info about it on this very website in its old updates section. Again, there is nothing like pratice, practice makes ones perfect. Listen to a word many times and pronounce it many times as well and eventually you will be able to assimilate its correct pronunciation into your subsoncious mind.

You can definitely change your accent. Tom, who is the author of this website (is a polish citizen) but speaks English with a perfect American accent. He sounds even much better than most Americans. Listen to his clips. All fun lies in the struggle not in the final destination, so enjoy your journey!

Normally I would tell you to be proud of the way you speak, but I understand the difficulties of ESL speakers in English-speaking countries. If you have a microphone, you could record yourself speaking and I could point out any non-native features I notice. I recommend that you read this passage: http://web.ku.edu/idea/readings/comma.htm
You can post it at www.putfile.com if you register.

I am an Englishman in China. I think my accent has improved slightly, but I have had to accept that I will never sound Chinese. I have got to the point where people can understand me easily as long as I don't go off-topic. But I will always be a foreigner as soon as I open my mouth. I would like to improve, but I have to be realistic too.

It's not your accent .... it's your age.

You're 19? Of course you're insecure and hate anything that makes you stick out .... and of course your friends all act like asses and laugh at you!

That's the age when you are most concerned about fitting into a group, and most self-conscious and hypercritical about any (perceived) flaws or differences, and most likely to lack self-confidence or accept your shortcomings.

You'll start growing out of it in a few years. Trust me.

And trust me that if you had the most perfect Irish native-born accent in the world, you would simply obsess over some other (non)issue, like your skin, your hair, your weight, your height, the shape of your nose, the state of your fingernails, etc.

In other words, get over it. You've only been there for 2 years. Rome wasn't built in a day.

Lemme recap Uriel's points in one sentence. People never live happily. It is human nature.

American chicks always grumble about things that they dont have this or that in the USA, 24/7 - send them to Ethopia - then they will appreciate what they have or what they dont have. Always be thankul to God.

Alright fair enough. Thanks for all the responses. I really appreciate it.
I just wanna reduce my Korean accent and sound more accentless. That's all.

Would I any of you suggest me any way to neutralize my accent?

I read out lous in English mostly and try to pronounce things correctly
sometimes I find it hard to read out some words smoothly.
hmm..I'll submit some audio files of my accent if I get a chance then you guys can tell me what to do and what i can't pronounce.

I don't wanna be depressed but wanna get things fixed. Thanks everyone
I didn't expect many people to read my long whinning story!! I am impressed guys, thanks a lot

Thats the attitude, record your voice recordings and post them right here. Moping will not get you anywhere in the long run. Anyways, you have recognized your problem, a first step in the right direction, good for you, it is high time for you to get down to business.

<<It's not your accent .... it's your age.

You're 19? Of course you're insecure and hate anything that makes you stick out .... and of course your friends all act like asses and laugh at you!>>

Enough of your ageism, Uriel. Get out of here! And yes, it's the accent not the age. One can hate their accent no matter what age they are.

Ageism! That's funny! I think of it more as trying to put human nature in perspective, but you can call it whatever you like.

I do have a problem with the accent! Is that a crime?!
I would rather have an accent problem than a grammar one!

PS: what's the pronouncation of Does: (Daz) or (Doz) ???

I pronounce "does" with a schwa.

In most dialects, "does" is pronounced [d6z] or [dVz], rhyming with "buzz".

Here's a cheap way to work on your accent. This is drawn from Suzette Elgin's Success with the Gentle Art of Verbal Self-Defense; the technique was pioneered by Leonard Newmark, who is a renowned neuro-linguist.

Get a tape of the accent you want to emulate; 30 minutes will do. The speaker needs to be the same sex.

Listen and speak ALONG with the speaker with each sentence. Your brain detects a mismatch with what you're hearing, compared with what you're speaking, and attempts to correct this mismatch. You'll be surprised at how different your English will sound. Much of our accents are unconscious.

Repeat each sentence as many times as necessary to copy as close as you can to the speaker's English; 15 or 20 times is not too much. When you're satisfied that your accent is close to the speaker's, move on to the next sentence.

Practice this way until you're satisfied. 100% elimination is usually not possible, but a 95% reduction probably is, if you're dedicated.

How long will this take? 60 hours minimum. 300 hours will be quite effective. Practice an hour each day, or more, or less, according to your wishes.

Good luck.

So Jasper, i want to imitate Edward Norton's accent (hero from fight club movie), also an english teacher graduated from yale. Will your techniques work if i try to listen and repeat sentences spoken by him in the movie?