Reddit reviews American Accent Training, 2nd Edition (Book + CD)
We found 2 Reddit comments about American Accent Training, 2nd Edition (Book + CD). Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
The reason why this happens is because you are setting unrealistic expectations for yourself. Chances are you are comparing yourself with a prolific casual speaker who have the personality for being outgoing and talkative, and not to mention the near lifetime of him/her talking everywhere.
Get to the training wheels again. You do this by taking time every week (about 30 to 1 hour everyday if possible, more if you have extra time) to train your speaking skills. Emulate actors from TV shows and movies. Take accent training courses. Read an entry level book on the art of rhetoric.
Organize your thoughts clearly by using mnemonic techniques to remember the structure of your thoughts point by point. For example, you could divide your explanations into 10 or more "ideas" that you can easily remember. Select a keyword for 10 of those ideas and remember those 10 words with the mnemonic techniques. To remember your ideas, remind yourself of those 10 words, one at a time, and chances are, you will speak more clearly.
The beauty of using memory techniques is this will also increase your attention span as a side benefit so your 2.) will not happen in future.
Let me give you a roadmap that you can tinker and fit to your own lifestyle:
Monday to Friday: 1 hour from 5 AM to 6 AM (assuming you need to get out of the house after 7). Do 4-5 exercises of accent training course. Select a TV show, for example, say Brooklyn nine nine, since they use exaggerated way of speaking for each of the characters and repeat the lines exactly like those characters. Pick a character that has a personality that you wish to have. And choose two or more characters for shorter duration so that you can have some speaking flexibility.
Saturday and Sunday: 2 hours.
It can be in the morning, evening or night time, but stick to that period from that point onward if possible. Do your usual Monday to Friday routine. And after that, Practice giving speeches. Do the mnemonic techniques to remember ideas from a non fiction book and try to give speech yourself for 3-10 minutes at a time. Do a weekly recording of yourself speaking in your smartphone so that you can track your improvement over the course of the coming months.
I was talking about this set (book and 5 CDs)
https://www.amazon.com/American-Accent-Training-2nd-Book/dp/0764173693
It's been around for years now.
I don't really know anything about AJ Hog's course, except the name.