Thoughts from an Accent Coach in London: A Voyage Around our Accents

Hello there!

Astonishingly, it is nearing the end of June and we are approaching the longest (and possibly hottest!) day of the year.

I have just been watching the contestants from the recent Race Across the World talking together about their amazing journey. They talked so inspiringly and generously about how their experiences built and transformed their individual relationships with their partner to an extent that none of them could have imagined.

What was uppermost to me was the fact that they had all found a real and fundamental shift in their personal confidence and in their ability to take on further and further challenges.

Each time we challenge ourselves no matter how small or how majestic those challenges are, we find out so much about our ability to move forward and, then, we can then begin to test ourselves even further.

These experiences can release a real desire to stand up and take the floor, often from a place often of stasis and fear. To place ourselves firmly on the floor, look out and say this is who I am and what I wish to share with you will be a rich and achievable goal!

Presentations in the work space, standing up in front of an audience are often extremely stressful and can cause us to hold back both vocally and physically. We might be frightened our accents will not communicate well enough and so we rush through whatever information we have to offer. Some of us are reluctant to put ourselves on the line at all even though we might yearn to experience something further, beyond ourselves, that we believe we have to offer.

Take a look at this wonderful poem, Sea Fever by John Masefield — one of his most well known. Its content and theme seem akin to what the Race Around the World people experienced — personal freedom and a desire to go where we believe we belong and live the life that is suited to our nature.

Let reading this poem aloud build your confidence and your engagement with the listener for your presentation and for any instance where you have to speak in public. Be confident that your own habitual accent sounds will be as clear and muscular as they can be. Use your accent sounds with pride and generosity. The main focus should always be to communicate our stories.

Sea Fever by John Masefield [1878-1967]

I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,

And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,

And the wheel’s kick and the wind’s song and the white sail’s shaking,

And a grey mist on the sea’s face, and a grey dawn breaking.

I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide

Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;

And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,

And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.

I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,

To the gull’s way and the whales way where the wind’s like a whetted knife;

And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow rover,

And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick’s over.

Because of its wonderful rhythm and tune this poem is so easy to remember and recite. Freedom and passion are its themes.

Find your vocal energy and intention!

Whatever accent you have is good and right! Let it carry you forward and find the sheer boldness and desire to share this story with your audience.

Feel your feet firmly placed on the floor, feeling your toes in your shoes or barefoot, fulfil the full length of your spine and look out directly with generosity, feel a brightness in your eyes and face; then breathe from your belly and begin to speak these words.

Find all the final consonants, fully use all the vowels that are yours, find all the syllables in each word. Allow yourself to use the wonderful rhyme and experience the desire the writer has to be bold, free spirited and independent!

Now, begin to take that fearlessness forward into your own story and text, finding a muscular and immediate delivery, wanting each and every word to be heard and allowing those words to land.

Enjoy this journey for June!

Ros