Customer Reviews

Lose Your Accent in 28 Days (CD-ROM for Windows, Audio CD, and Workbook)

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In spite of the fact that I am a professor of English with 8 years of teaching experience and that I have been living in Canada for 4 years, people kept asking me the question: "Where are you from?" on a daily basis. It was my accent that always gave me away. However, having done the exercises in "Lose Your Accent in 28 Days" people no longer ask me about my origins. I learned in a very easy way the proper pronunciation of those critical sounds that posed difficulty for me. I especially liked the CD-ROM that comes with the workbook as it is extremely easy to use and very straightforward in presenting, through pictures, the correct placement of the jaw, lips and tongue when articulating vowels and consonants. Highly recommended.

I was tired of being asked where I was from the moment I opened my mouth and of being treated as a tourist in what I consider my own country now. Then I found this toolkit and it did miracles - people no longer ask me where I'm from, I am at much more ease to express myself and I feel much happier and more accepted.

Here is how I used this material to achieve my results. I spend about 1.5 hours every day (now I'm down to about an hour) doing all the vowel exercises, where my geatest difficulties are. Each day I do ALL vowel exercises (takes less than an hour) and a few other exercises. I've been doing this for a couple months now, even though I got the desired results within a month. The tough part is that if I skip just one day my accent comes back - to a much lesser extent, but enough to be asked where I'm from. So, I guess it will take a while.

You may also want to buy "American Accent Training" by Ann Cook, which got tons of valuable tips on intonation patterns, while Judy Ravin's kit is focused mainly on pronunciation. Personally, I found it easier to work on my pronunciation first. Once I got the pronunciation down, I gained a lot more confidence to play with my intonation as well.

I actually ordered this book from amazon but it was gonna take forever to ship so i cancelled ordered from b&n instead. of course it's now on sale so now is the best time to get it.

I'm more like an advanced english speaker. I'm the kind who writes well and gets A+ in my college english comp classes. I have spoken english ever since i was 6 yrs old but of course i didn't live here and even when i came here, people said oh, your english is very good and they'll often ask how long i've spoken english. However, people could still tell i have an accent. And i do. Its always, the "where are you from?" or the "you have a lovely accent." for some it's more of "you have a LITTLE accent."
I got this book and i'll say i haven't been using it as recommended, i mean i practice a day or 2 and don't pick up again till 15days later. First of all, this book complements Ann cooks american accent training, which is great with the intonation.

Anyhow, when it comes to pronunciation, this book is the what you need. I mean you can listen to a tape and it will tell you to stretch the e in 'feel' and the feel sounds something like feeyel-uh (as i heard from the AAT). The thing is if you learn the pronunciation techniques, you would not necessarily need to put in the y and add the uh. Why? because after you learn how to place your mouth to make the 'e' sound and the final 'l' sound, it come natural.

To be honest i started with Ann cooks and i really got lost when she mentions voiced and voiceless consonants. By learning the techniques in this book, i know which sounds i make by just pushing air out of my mouth and which ones i do by using my voice. That way, i don't need to memorize what voiced or voiceless consonant is cuz it's natural to me now.
I started to use the CD version and i've only listened to it once. Well, laziness is not a virtue when it comes to modifying your accent. I've found that with practice, i've been able to make the sounds that used to frustrate me when i started. i just started to follow the author's advice of practicing the sound and also reading a newspaper that targets the sound. i actually read a book cuz i don't care much about the news. One reviewer said the video is too short. I totally disagree.
One HINT is that you can pause it to see a exactly where the placement is - u just have to be good on the timing. i had a problem with saying two consecutive words that have th sound. what i do is that i say the first word with a th but the second with a 'd' like i usually do. On the video, she says something like these things blah blah... First, these and things are 2 different sounds. the first is voiced, the 2nd is not voiced. By pausing the video when she made the second sound, i figured out what she does when she has to make the second th sound in things. well, she doesn't bring the tongue out completely like u do for the first one (these) but it still comes between the teeth enough to make the th sound for the 2nd sound (things) and now i mastered it!

This book is definately worth the money!!! Will you hire a speech pathologist for 100 bucks an hour to help you make the sounds or will you speand 50bucks and sit in the comfort of you home and learn the same thing the pathologist will teach you?

I will also suggest getting a pocket dictionary such as m-w. Loose your accent teaches you to make the sounds. Once you get that down, you can always look in the dictionary to know the correct pronunciation for a word. It can be a common word you say everyday. Chances are you're prolly using sounds of your language and have been saying it the wrong way with the wrong intonation.
Also, One thing you would need to help you with your accent is to fine tune your ear. You prolly never paid attention to what americans say because you understand them when they speak and you've told yourself you speak english. record your voice and as painful as it might be for you, it'll help realize you really don't speak the english Americans speak. Try to listen to the intonation patterns as well as the pronunciation.
IF YOU DON'T FINE TUNE YOUR EAR, YOU'LL NOT SEE THE DIFFERENCE IN THE ENGLISH YOU SPEAK AND WHAT AMERICAN'S SPEAK. YOU'LL THINK YOU ALREADY KNOW HOW TO PRONOUNCE THE SOUNDS. IF people tell you "you have a accent" truth is YOU DON'T know how to make the sounds. You THINK you do - you don't.

So, get this book, practice the pronunciation techniques and when you get frustrated, just remember practice makes perfect. Trust me, when i was having difficulty with a sound, i'll get frustrated, stop and then come back to it and oh, after practice, i get it right. It's really easy and fun to change your accent. I actually love using the CD-rom. Sometimes i get into the book soo much i don't wanna stop.

Fine tune your ears. Listen to how americans pronounce words and how they stress words. Personally, now that i have the sounds mastered, i can tell which sounds are used in a particular word when a native says it so i don't have to look it up in the dictionary. i just say it back with the sounds i heard them use and it's amazing what a difference that makes.

when you are watch tv, listen to how you can hear the same sentence said with 2 different intonation to mean to completely different things. it really helps you with your accent training. And sometimes, think of the sentence said and think of how you would have said it with your accent. and then practice the different way. The next time you say it, you're likely to say it the right way. You can not memorize a set of rules to help with your intonation. Well, there a few but english is not math with fomulas to memorize - it's fluid and so you really need to understand it, the cultural indoctrination and whatever else comes with it. So fine tuning will help you understand it.
And oh, like the Judy Ravin suggests, practice the sound you learn in conversation settings.

This book really works. Some people can't tell i have an accent and some can. i've not used this book for 28days yet. i've done 10 days or so even though i've own it for a over 2months. But it's still made a difference and i'm gonna devote more time to it now.
So one last suggestion: Accent modification is not for the lazy!!! Hopefully, you are much better than me and practice every day. Trust me, you will note a big difference. My philosophy teacher thinks i was from one of the states in the midwest. I'm surprised she didn't pick up i have an accent - i mean i argue a LOT in class. Of course i started the class after i'd nailed down my sounds from THIS BOOK and practiced basic intonation from the Ann cook's book.

It doesn't matter what your country of origin is. Most accent books try to target countries with most immigrants like china or india. I'm African, speak english,french , spanish, among others, and this worked fine.


And oh, why didn't write a review earlier? cuz i wanted to make sure the book and software works. I'm a amazed at how my english sounds now even thought i'm not halfway through the programme. The more you practice the cd, the more you hear the subtleties of the sounds, and see the difference in how you said it wrong the first 3 times you practiced and how you said it right, say the fifth time. And then you think of what you did that fifth time to say it exactly right and repeat it till it becomes 2nd nature to you.

Also, Research shows it takes about THREE MONTHS to develop strong mouth muscles for speaking a new language. So don't start, master the sounds and stop. You will go back to saying them the way you used to. Keep practicing. it will seem stupid practicing something you are good at but the thing is, it makes your mouth used to saying it the right way so that when you talk in regular conversations, you naturally say it the right way without focusing on how to make the sounds.

How about an accent reduction course that comes with a CD-ROM showing the mouth and lip positions for all the consonant and vowel sounds, plus an audio CD with extensive practice in connected speech, such as blendings and reductions? Great, huh? The CD ROM works really well: both video and sound are very clear. However, intonation is sacrificed for the sake of "clearer" pronunciation of vowels and consonants , as it is the case in final nasal consonants in words such as "working", pronounced with an irritating "g" sound - so forget about using the video on the CD-ROM to practice intonation. But then again it's an excellent visualization tool for the positioning of mouth and lips in consonants and vowels. The overall layout of the book is very pleasant to the eye, with a highlighted box at the beginning of each chapter and clear instructions of the production of the sounds. There's also this Glossary of Idioms at the end of the book , completely dispensed with, as there's no link whatsoever with the preceding chapters. Oh, and the title. Anybody who claims you can lose your accent in 28 days is way off-base. At any rate, the CD-ROM , notwithstanding the annoying over-articulation of some sounds , makes the whole package quite an interesting choice.

Took me 3 days to finish it. Mainly because all the stuffs are either already know or I have no problem to pronounce them.

April 20th
Unit 1 Chapter 1 - 4

April 21st
Unit 1 Chapter 5 - Unit 2 Chapter 19

Didn't do anything on 22th (^^;)

April 23rd
Unit 2 Chapter 19 - Unit 5 Chapter 23

"It's not enough to just hear the sounds, you also need to see how they're pronounced." It is not really necessary if you are an intermediate learner. I doubt it will be even helpful even if you are a beginner because the video clip is so short and it is often laggy and doesn't help me at all. I still prefer listening more than watching the video clips.

The thing I dislike a lot about the CD-ROM (Video clips for vowels/consonants) for the first two units, is you have to manually click each and time time when you going go the new set of words. Which is really annoying as there are so many of them. Often in one vowels, there are like 10 sets of words. And you have to click 10 times. Am I lazy? Well, 10x isn't too bad, but when you do 10 x 23 + 10 x 22 (About 450x). Now that really builds up. Although I have to clear that I do a lot in one day because there is hardly any helpful information for me)

Half of the book is useless for me. Now, onto the rest 3 units. I do not like how it does not have the phonetic symbol next to the word, you have no clue what phonetics made up the words at all. You will just blindly going through the words by repeating them.

The stress, linking etc are just briefly gone through. I was expecting more, yet it was the end already.

Exclude the bad points, the good thing I like about this set is you have enough of times to repeat the sentences/words. I actually did learn a few things. About 4 or 5 or so. Don't ask me if it is worth it lol... (Not worth it at all, that is like 1 tip for $10, the tip is one time usage, you don't get to learn to how to apply them)

Final conclusion, if you are an intermediated learner who are looking for:
- Learn phonetic so you can pronounce most new words if not all
- Looking for pronunciation tips that you can apply to English pronunciations
- Seeking guides that will help you practice your stressing/linking
- Reduce your accent (This book seems..pretty helpless..)
Then, this book is NOT for you. (Please read careful, it is a NOT)

However, if you are a beginner learner who has troubles practicing individual words, not clear or sure of how each word or sound is made. Then this book will probably be good for. Although, I still feel it is too pricey to worth it.

Overall for me, I do not notice any difference in my speaking, maybe very very little bit. Really unhappy for spending so much on this book where I could've learned the same stuff from a different book with less than half of this book's price (Yes, I do have the other different book). Could it be that I only spent 3 days on it? I highly doubt. Then again, I am not a beginner in English anyway. So if you are an intermediate learner trying to improve your English pronunciation, avoid this book =/

The CD-ROM contains pronunciation of every consnents and vowels with video demonstrations. It definitely works!!. Other accent reduction books just show you pictures and descriptions, but you'll never understand it unless you are studying with native speaker. However, This book is great when you are studying along, it is like having a private tutor!.
CD-ROM and Audio CD are great, however, the workbook contains very little amount of information. This book is basically all about the basic pronunciation. So i recommend you to start with this book and then workout with 'American Accent Training'. It is another great material, however it has very different purposes and methods. it is more focused on the intonation.

Although it is a great book, you might hesitate to buy it because of its price. Then Listen up, I have a great news!. I looked up the databases of local community libraries, and most of them has this book. So you can study it for free. Once you check this book out, you'll definitely want to buy it! Changing pronunciation takes long time and needs exercise everyday. But it's not painful at all, it fun and easy. just give it a shot, you'll love it!

Yeah, nice product. The only problem with it that IT DOES NOT WORK.

I worked it through, from cover to cover following every instruction and prescription, and I did it all twice. Well, my accent is still with me, untouched, and people around haven't noticed any difference, whatsoever.

There's no doubt that this program is a lot better than many others out there. Anyone who's done any research on accent elimination knows that most programs that are available are slow, boring, and generic. I commend Mrs. Ravine for creating a concise, 80-page booklet with photographs of sounds and some quick exercises that won't bore you to death.

Having said that, I browsed this program but actually stopped short of completing even half of it. This traditional approach to learning individual sounds simply has nothing to do with real life. Oh, it can be very effective for beginners and intermediate speakers who want to move from 20% to 60%, for example. But for someone like me, who came to this country at age twelve and is actually "almost" there but not quite, and whose goal therefore is TOTAL accent elimination (as opposed to "accent reduction"), there's just no way it can dramatically improve my particular slight accent. I already pronounce most of the sounds correctly, according to those photos. However, an accent is about more than individual sounds, it's also about the way you hold your mouth and move your tongue and don't feel any strain.

There's one other issue with this program. When trying to copy someone, you have to imitate someone of your own gender, because men and women articulate speech slightly differently, not to mention the pitch. So males need to listen to native-born American males to get a better idea of the sound.

Someone below said that they actually used this program and were able to achieve a state where no one asked them where they were from. That's not really an accurate assessment; some people politely won't ask but that doesn't mean they don't hear an accent. The only way you know for sure is when a very large cross-section of people consistently tells you that you have no accent, and are very surprised to learn about your origins. As soon as at least one points out an accent, however, it's back to square one.

Having taught English as a Second Language and Accent Reduction Techniques from more than a decade at universities and for corporations, Judy Ravin is the also CEO of English Communication Services, an accent reduction training company. In Lose Your Accent In 28 Days, linquistics expert Judy Ravin draws upon her many years of professional experience to develop a system for accent reductions that includes an instruction book enhanced with an interactive CD-ROM and an audio CD that shows the learner how to produce the sounds of the English language. This provision of a visual and audio reinforcement to the typical audio cassette for language instruction is a major advance, along with Ravin's provision of 80 distinct techniques for better pronunciation. Lose Your Accent In 28 Days is applicable to students of all language backgrounds and would be of special value for immigrants aspiring to succeed in the American corporate, academic, broadcast journalism, or entertainment industries.

This book has reduced my accent tremendously. My friends see the difference in the way I speak. You might not lose your accent completely but it reduces your accent if you practice.