How Did You Become An Accent Specialist? My Story

One of the questions that I am asked most often is:

How did you become an Accent Specialist?

Short Answer: I was lucky enough to find great mentors who taught me how to get started. And then I got better with experience.

Long Answer: Keep reading.

I’m a Speech-Language Pathologist and I started specializing in teaching accents, dialects, and English Pronunciation which is sometimes called accent reduction (a term I hate) or accent modification (a little better but still don't love because it is about so much more than pronunciation) about 20 years ago.

Here's how I got into accent and pronunciation training 20+ years ago.

I had recently gotten my Masters degree in Speech-Language Pathology.  I had been out of school for about a year and I was coming to the realization that I did not like any aspect of the field, and I had tried them all!!!

At the time, I was living in New York City and doing Early Intervention in some of the toughest neighborhoods in Queens.  I really did love helping the children and seeing them improve, but I hated the paperwork, the grueling schedule, the traveling, the lack of support from the company I worked for...I just had to find something else. 

But I had just graduated after 6 YEARS of hard work.  There was no way I going back for another degree.  So I started asking myself, "What else can I do with a Speech-Pathology degree?  I just don't want to be a speech-pathologist any more."

Then one day, I saw an ad in a magazine (yes, ad in a magazine...remember this was 2001...a long time ago!)  It was an ad looking for a Speech Pathologist to join the largest private practice of Speech Pathologists who specialized in Accent Reduction, Accent Elimination, and Dialect Acquisition.  The name of the practice was New York Speech Improvement Services, later known as The Sam Chwat Speech Center, and FYI, that long name and long description was exactly what was printed on our business cards.

Happy Ending For A While:  Although I knew next to nothing about accents, dialects, or accent modification, I got the job.  And I loved it. It was the perfect alternative career to traditional speech therapy.

Thankfully, I got great training from everyone who worked there (I was always the youngest so they all felt they needed to mentor me and THANK GOODNESS THEY DID!!) and I stayed there for 11 years, until the director of the center passed away and the center closed.

And that's when a new challenge popped up for me.  After 11 years, I was on my own with tons of experience, but no students.  The client list I had developed and nurtured stayed with the center (it was part of the contract that I signed when I started there) so I had to start my own business from scratch.  I was great at accent work, but I knew NOTHING about business or marketing.

So I started over.  I took marketing courses and hired an ad agency.  I consulted with marketing experts and learned everything I could about how enroll new students.  

One year later, I had my own thriving private practice with an office on 5th Avenue in Manhattan’s Flatiron District.  It was right across the street from the famous weird triangle-shaped building.  You could see it from my office.

But the world was changing.  This was in 2012.  I was seeing almost all my students online via Skype but paying a ton to rent the office space.  I thought about giving up the office and moving everything online but wasn’t totally ready to make that shift.  I thought about it for a year or so.  And then…

I had a baby.  In 2015 I had a daughter named Elise and naively thought that not much would change.  As any parent reading this (and probably laughing at me) knows… EVERYTHING CHANGED.  And changed a lot.

We didn't have any family nearby so it was just my husband and me with a new baby.  We NEEDED help taking care of Elise and I wanted her to be closer to my large, loving, extended family in Pittsburgh, PA.  You can probably guess how grateful I was that I had the option to do ALL of my work online.

Fast-forward to today.  I live in Pittsburgh.  Elise is turning 6 this year.  I have a full-time roster of private students that I see every week from my home office via Zoom.  I also have an online course for non-native English speakers, and an Accent Instructor Training program.  Business is good and growing every day.

After 20+ years and several thousand students, I can honestly say that I have a method of teaching accents and pronunciation that really works. I always get noticeable, permanent results for my students. 

But it didn’t happen overnight and I know it's not easy to get started! I had to learn a lot on my own, through direct work with real students. And it took quite a while before I could actually say, “Hey! I’m really good at this!”

There is still not a lot of information or training out there for someone who wants to teach accents or become an accent reduction/modification specialist.   I’m hoping to change that by sharing my experiences and my best tips and strategies for effective accent training here at Teachers School at The Accent Channel.

I’ll hope you’ll join me here each week for expert tips and free resources for teaching accents, dialects, and English pronunciation.  

Thanks for reading and letting me share my story!

Jessica