L2 Accent Reduction

One Day Intensive Accent Reduction Workshop

accent reduction — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 15:00:33 +0000

On Sunday, April 15^th 2012, we held our first full day intensive workshop at our accent reduction training center in Kerrisdale. The attendees received a day long training, our accent reduction course book, and access to our online training software for a full year in order to achieve their goals as well as a free lunch.

By strange coincidence, one attendee, Ming Ji, was actually instructor Jeff Madigan’s past student from 12 years ago. At that time, Jeff was working for Coquitlam College’s vacation study program and Ming Ji had just arrived from China. “I remember that Jeff took us to Squamish to hike “the chief”. It was my first real experience in Canada and I have gone back there a few times with my friends.” Ming Ji said. Now, 12 years later, Jeff and Ming Ji are learning new things again. Vancouver is a small city in that way.

Jenny was also very happy with the one day workshop. She said “To further improve my pronunciation, I still need to work hard on it—that’s how your online practice system works. I am happy to have attended—it turned out to be a wonderful study experience forever!”

Our next intensive one day accent reduction workshop will be on Sunday May 13^th from 10am to 4pm. Click here for more information. or visit us at http://l2accentworkshop.eventbrite.com/

Social Media and the Job Market

accent reduction — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 01:22:25 +0000

Last night I attended a presentation about social media and branding by Marc Smith from Amuse Consulting Inc. L2 Accent Reduction sponsored the Human Resources Management Association event. Many Human Resource Directors admitted that social media is changing how companies recruit. For many, they no longer consider references and instead prefer to Google someone’s name.

A few months ago, I was speaking to a recent immigrant from Iraq. In her first three months in Canada, she said that she realized that one of the most common answers people gave her in response to questions she had was, “Just Google it.” The internet is changing how we do things, and how we find information.

Unfortunately, many New Canadians do not engage in social media. Even though we know social media is quite active all around the world. For example, the use of Twitter in the Egyptian protests over Mubarak’s leadership. However, if the immigrant Canadian has not created a Linkedin profile, they are losing the advantage that being visible on the internet gives to other prospective job candidates.

Such online presence can validate a immigrant’s skills, and carry far more weight than a traditional reference. Traditional references these days have too many side bar issues with liability. Most of the time, all a reference will say is “Marc worked here from 1999 to 2004 and left on good terms”. However, through your personal branding on social media, an employer can know a lot more and that can be an advantage in the Canadian Labour Market.

Did Social Media help a revolution?

Writing Skills Workshop By L2 Accent Trainer Jeff Madigan

accent reduction — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 15:00:03 +0000

From the feedback given by attendees at some of our accent reduction workshops, we realized that there was also a demand for writing skills improvement. On March 7, 2012, instructor Jeff Madigan conducted a new workshop at S.U.C.C.E.S.S. for writing skills. L2 Accent Reduction has clients for both speaking and writing. Some professionals feel that their writing just has too many errors for the level of work that they are doing. Jeff recognized that some aspects of writing are not very well dealt with at very high levels in your typical grammar text book. Wednesday’s workshop focused specifically on preposition usage. Prepositions are especially problematic. They occur in phrasal verbs, such as kick out, in set combinations with nouns (on TV), adjectives (free of) and verbs (believe in), and in adverbial phrases. While the first two can be memorized, it is rare to find a grammar book that outlines using prepositions adverbially. The workshop went over these usage systems and simplified aspects out of linguistics text books into a succinct form for attendees to grasp. The workshop reviews were positive so expect to see more of these in the future.

Write more Clearly at Work

Speaking as an Art – Toastmaster’s Club at 38 West Pender Street Vancouver BC

accent reduction — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 15:00:13 +0000

My father is terrible at drawing. He told me a story about drawing once. In one of his university courses for teacher education the teacher asked the students to draw a picture of an elephant sunbathing on a beach. He couldn’t recall the purpose of the activity; perhaps it had something to do with multiple intelligences. He just remembered being extremely embarrassed by his poor drawing ability. And while it’s true that some people are better at drawing, it is a skill that can be learned with practice.

Almost two years ago, I joined the Talk for Success Toastmaster’s Club at 38 West Pender Street. At first, I felt it was good for me as a native speaker of English to join a club that was mostly non-native speakers because many of the members were looking for more opportunities to interact with native speakers of English. I didn’t realize how much I could benefit and develop professionally with my public speaking skills. Although having strong fluency of a language helps to give a presentation, I was often humbled by some very engaging and moving speeches that were delivered by members who do not speak English as their first language. Just like with the art of drawing, music, and writing, the more you do it and the more you experiment with different techniques, the more well-rounded and better your skills will become.

If you are interested in visiting us at our Toastmaster’s club, feel free to drop in. We meet every Wednesday at 12 noon at 38 West Pender Street in Vancouver, BC.

The Art of Speaking

Vancouver Public Library Accent Reduction Workshop a SUCCESS

accent reduction — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 05:41:03 +0000

The Speak Clearer Accent Reduction workshop hosted at the Vancouver Public Library on March 6 had a huge turn-out. Unfortunately over 20 people had to be turned away at the door as the Peter Kaye room was filled to capacity.

Jeff Madigan Accent Reduction Trainer – See video clip when on page click “Jeff Madigan Accent Reduction Trainer” to play video.

In the short video clip, we see this large group of 60 interested participants reviewing the pronunciation of the /t/ sound. Because of the large demand, L2 Accent Reduction will be offering a supplemental workshop for those who were turned away at the S.U.C.C.E.S.S. office located at 38 West Pender in the near future. Our next Public Library workshop will be offered at 7pm on May 17th, 2012. Check back on with our website http://www.l2accent.com/index.php to stay up to date on where the next community enrichment workshop will be held.

L2 Accent Meets Diane Finley

accent reduction — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 22:27:44 +0000

The government’s new plan is a great benefit to immigrants of Canada. It may now be easier for immigrants to apply for jobs here since the government is pouring money into this new project to advance the immigrants’ international diplomas to a Canadian standard. I have encountered several people who, in their home country, had high levels of education and well-paying jobs, but when they arrived to Canada, most of them were under employed. It was quite difficult for them to find jobs due to the fact that their degrees were not recognized in Canada. Therefore, if they wanted to continue with the same occupation they had back home, they most likely had to go through a lot of training and examinations which may have been challenging due to the language barrier. Now that new immigrants’ will receive more help to get their educational degrees recognized, they now have a chance to continue to pursue what they enjoy doing. This new project will certainly develop a more multicultural workforce.

Thomas Tan CEO of S.U.C.C.E.S.S., Diane Finley Minister of Human Resources, Maysaloon Albadri Skilled Immigrant with Engineering Degree, Jeff Madigan Director of Learning at L2 Accent Reduction Centre, Suddhodan Raj Baidya Labour Market Specialist

February 29, 2012 Pink Shirt Day to Counter Attack Bullying in the Workplace

accent reduction — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 23:03:44 +0000

On television we watch commercials of kids being bullied, but we never see commercials of adults being bullied at work. According to Christian Codrington 50% of adults will be subjected to bullying at some pointin their careers. A lot of times, there is no where to turn. As a former Director of schools, I saw first hand the poor treatment of individuals at work. I had to hear things like “Oh, she doesn’t work as hard because isn’t an immigrant or reversed” I only hire immigrants because they work harder and will take less money.” I saw people being asked to come in on Sundays to finish the boss’s work while the boss enjoyed a weekend at a spa in Whistler. I saw people being called “stupid”, “can’t you do anything right,” “ you will never succeed here.,” I even heard “I will make sure that everyday you come to work will be hell.” There was really no recourse for these individuals but to quit. Although companies can put legislation in place, the real onus lies with upper management and their ability to handle the matter. I watched entire departments turn over 3 or 4 times, and yet nothing was done. There has to be better legislation and laws to help people combat this. It amazes me that workplace bullies are able to treat people so poorly and when management finally catches on that bully just goes to a new playground. So please on February 29, 2012 support Pink Shirt Day to counter attack Bullying in the workplace.

CGA Accent Reduction Workshop in Vancouver BC

accent reduction — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 05:14:39 +0000

On February 21^st, 2012, Jeff Madigan and Jennifer Madigan facilitated an accent reduction workshop through CGA. The Certified General Accountants (CGA) office located at 1867 West Broadway hosted the workshop in their executive boardroom which contains what is likely the largest board room table in the city. The Certified General Accountants Association of British Columbia is committed to offering training and support for its members and was happy to partner with L2 Accent Reduction Centre to showcase how speech training can increase job performance. Interest in the workshop was very high and the 30 available spaces filled up quickly and in fact a waiting list has been put in place. L2 Accent Reduction Centre will be repeating the event in the near future due to the strong interest so please check back either with L2 Accent Reduction Centre or the CGA website for the next date.

On March 6^th, 2012, instructor Jeff Madigan will be conducting a workshop at the Vancouver Public Library, Library Square (downtown branch), in the Peter Kaye Room, starting at 2pm. Please contact the VPL to register http://www.vpl.ca/cgi-bin/Calendar/calendar.cgi

Jeff Madigan

Jennifer Madigan

Learning English Online – What You Need To Know

accent reduction — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 15:30:43 +0000

It’s the 21^st century, and everybody is addicted to the computer. We’ve become so reliable to the internet that we do everything on there, from shopping, to entertainment, and even learning. Learning something online has become very popular these years, and everyone is trying to make the most of it.

First, it is important to choose what exactly you want to learn at the moment, and be specific. There is no point in learning something you will never use. If you are an English teacher, you would most likely never have the urge to learn how to put together a car. On the other hand, if you are someone who would like to learn English online, you would have to be more specific. You can choose how to read English, write English, or speak English. You may want to master all of these within a few years, but when it comes to learning something new, starting one step at a time is a good idea.

Next, you want to take advantage. Think about it, the internet contains millions of information about billions of things. What is the point if you do not use as many of those sources related to your topic as possible? Let’s go back to the person who is learning English online. The internet would be a great source of practice. On the web, you can find many English-related quizzes and games to play in order to improve your grammar and vocabulary. In addition, there are many videos and articles you can take a look at to advance in your studies.

Hopefully this has helped to change your view on online learning, and provided you with a clearer path on experiencing success when learning online.

accent reduction techniques - accent reduction tools

Accent Reduction Training – The Past, Present, and The Future Perfect Tenses

accent reduction — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 15:30:15 +0000

In accent reduction training, people often discover that the way they learned to say a sound isn’t always the way that the sound is produced. This is especially true in spoken English with regards to the perfect tenses. English has the Past Perfect (I had studied English), the Present Perfect (I have studied English) and the Future Perfect (I will have studied English). These tenses have rules of course, and should be used correctly with appropriate adverbs such as already, yet, before, and so on. The problem is that native speakers rarely apply these rules. In accent reduction training, we can improve our stress and rhythm by reducing auxiliary verbs. However, we can also consider avoiding the Perfect tenses altogether and thus avoid those tricky auxiliary verbs.

Jim had been there before

Can also become:

Jim was there before

Grammatically Correct	Commonly Spoken

Have you eaten yet?	Did you eat yet?
Have you already finished?	Did you already finish?
I had been there before.	I was there before.
Have you ever broken a bone?	Did you ever break a bone?
I had had one after.	I had one after.
I have never seen one.	I never saw one.
I have seen that movie five times.	I saw that movie five times.
I will have done it by this time tomorrow	I’ll do it by tomorrow.
I have been studying all day.	I studied all day today.
I have been working the whole day.	I worked all day long.