When I tell people that I'm an accent reduction and public speaking coach, their first question is nearly always,

'What sort of people do you coach?'

Over 12 years of doing this, I've worked with hundreds of people; mostly individuals, some in groups.

And I've fielded enquiries from hundreds more who were curious about changing their accents or polishing their speaking skills, but who didn't go on to book a course with me (my door's always open, friends).

Several patterns have emerged - sure, everyone is different, but actually there a few types of people that I meet again and again.

Do any of these sound like you? Or someone you know?

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The question I'm asked most often by people who take my accent reduction courses is this: How Do I Know Which Sounds to Use in Which Words?

Looking in detail at the differences between one speaker and another, with broadly the same accent, reminded me that although RP is its own distinctive accent, it's tempting to observe that no two British English RP speakers sound the same!

A few listeners might notice your impressive vocabulary or spotless grammar. What they remember, though, is when you spent the whole presentation talking about 'copyright' and pronouncing it 'corporate'.

Does it work to have 'two voices'? Or do you have to settle for one sound, one accent, in order to truly be yourself?

There's some challenging ideas here for me as a practitioner of what I still call 'accent reduction' and sometimes 'elocution'

Bias: you can try to be colour-blind, but how about accent-deaf? I took a quiz on accent bias to find out whether I can overcome my own inherent biases…

I’ve recently come back from my first trip to Northern Ireland, and I learned some things about the famous accent… especially when I tried to do it myself…