Accent Reduction
for speakers of Japanese & Korean
This is the overview of the Accent Reduction and Pronunciation program for Japanese and Korean languages speakers. While Japanese and Korean are unrelated languages, they share many similarities in grammar and to a certain degree phonological structure. Specifically, being mora-timed as opposed to stress timed like English, these languages conceptualize a syllable differently from English does. This results in distinctive intonation and rhythm problems for these speakers.
Language-specific areas of focus
Japanese
Japanese has a very limited number of sounds and very constrained syllable structures. Besides having trouble producing consonant clusters, Japanese speakers often have trouble producing the numerous vowels of English, with Japanese having only an inventory of five vowels
“I'm working on my accent reduction and Adrian's lessons are very effective. He knows both English and Japanese pronunciation and specifically teaches common mistakes by Japanese English learners.”
— Yusuke, Tokyo
“It was a really interesting lesson for accent training with Adrian. There was a lot of findings I didn't notice through self-study.”
— Yoshio, Tokyo
Korean
Korean has a greater number of vowels and more complex syllable patterns than Japanese but is still fairly restrictive as compared to English. Korean speakers also have a distinct word stress pattern and a major focus of the coaching will focus on this area of intonation.
“He is very supportive. Whenever I practice English with him, I can feel that he puts a lot of his efforts into developing better class materials and finding better ways to help his students improve their English. Thanks, Adrian.”
— Jungjin, Seoul