Accent reduction businesses thrive off international college students

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An actress from the South wants to speak perfect English without a hint of southern accent on screen. A customer-service operator in India speaks fluent English but wants to reduce his accent to make him more clearly understood by Americans. And a Chinese college student studying broadcast journalism in the U.S., who needs help on pronunciation and articulation to be more confident on camera.

These are typically the clients of accent reduction specialists, a new industry brought on by the growing wave of immigrants and international students to the United States.

“Sorry? Pardon me? I don’t understand you.”

As a non-native English speaker, these phrases are what I hear most, now that I’m in America. And my journalism reporting classes made me realize even more how my accent would be a handicap.

At the suggestion of my professor, I started to look for an accent reduction coach.

To my surprise, I found hundreds of classes online. So I called Derra Huxley, a speech pathologist, who has a very high rating on Yelp.

My first lesson at her house in Hollywood was free. And the first step was diagnosing my problems. For instance, I struggle with consonant clusters, like the beginning of the word "spring."

After a one-hour lesson, Huxley offered thirteen classes as a package costing $100 an hour. According to Huxley, many people are willing to pay at this rate.

“They want to improve their chances of getting a better job or getting promoted in their jobs, or they want to make sure they are clear in their jobs," Huxley said. "If they are doctors, if their coworkers and patients don’t understand them, mistakes could be made. Teachers, professors that have really strong accents, that’s kind of unfair to the kids, especially they pay for a class."

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, more than 50 percent of the Los Angeles population speaks languages other than English at home.

“In LA, of course, it’s a very cosmopolitan area, so there’s a lot of people from other areas,” Huxley said. “So of course it’s popular here.” 

Professor Mary Ann Murphy, who teaches English as a second language at USC, said a person’s major is an important factor in determining whether he or she is interested in accent reduction classes.

“I think it depends on what their goals are," she said. "And what environment they are going to work in. If you have a student from Korea who wants do East Asian studies, the probably it would not be such a problem. But if you have a non native English speaker who wants to work in an environment with few people from outside the country, people will see the accent as negative."

As for my situation, Murphy said that people on TV are expected to be perfect.

“If people hear an accent sometimes, some people would be willing to work with, and other people would close their ears," Murphy said. "As a broadcaster, you would have to appeal to all these groups."

So she strongly suggested me that I take a one-on-one accent reduction class. 

Then what should I expect for my $1,300 on classes with Huxley?

“I ... explain to people that they are not gonna lose their accent most likely," Huxley said. "But they do become clearer. They’d have people say, 'What did you say?' less of time."

And yes, “What did you say” is what I and most others in my situation want to hear less often.