It’s NOT What You Expect: The #1 Trick For a Better Accent

Today we’re talking about an exercise that is  the magic ingredient. It takes all the other  

work you’re doing as you work on English, as you  work on your pronunciation and it supercharges  

it. It makes it really work for you. I’ve been  teaching pronunciation for over a decade and I  

have noticed some students reach their goals and  transform their voices pretty quickly and others  

do it very, very slowly. And I looked at these  two groups of students and I thought what’s the  

difference. They’re all in the academy with the  same materials, they’re getting the same teacher  

feedback, it doesn’t have to do what their native  language is. So then what is it? When I figured  

it out, I made a course in the academy and we’re  taking one of those lessons and we’re doing it  

here together today. So, this is going to help  you with your confidence in speaking English,  

it’s going to make you a better English  speaker if English isn’t your native language.

First, let me say when I figured  out the difference between my most  

successful students and those that  took longer to meet their goals,  

I didn’t really like it. I mean I accepted it but  I didn’t want to touch it, I didn’t want to teach it.

It embarrassed me a little bit because it’s  not about the actual work, the actual training.

In my mind I was like you either got it or you don’t  but then I thought wait, that’s not fair, I want  

to give every student every tool I can to help  them succeed so I sat down and I made this course  

but the first lesson in this course is actually  called, “I’m embarrassed to make This Course.”

So, I had to work through that to bring you  this lesson. Basically, the tool that we’re  

going to use in this lesson is the same tool that  professional musicians use, professional athletes,  

CEOs. It has to do with the mind. Yes, I’m talking  about visualization. I realized it really matters  

how my students see themselves. The students  that get better, faster that reach their goals,  

they see themselves as their potential. The  students who sort of creep along and don’t make  

much progress, they see themselves as their  problems. And that slows them down so much,  

I felt like I had to address it. So I made  this course that goes over visualizations  

you can do to visualize yourself as  a better speaker of American English.  

You can’t just do this. My students also do all  the other work in the Academy, the understanding,  

the training but this is the magic ingredient  that takes that work and supercharges it so  

that they reach their goals faster. A lot of  people don’t realize they’re not actually that  

open to change and actually, this right now is making me think what goal do I have in my life that I’m  

never going to reach because I’m not actually  open to the change required for that goal. I  

can think of one or two things. I’m going to need  to put a pin in that and come back to it later.

So, let’s jump right in with this  visualization. It is a good idea to  

do it maybe once a day for several  days in a row and just see if that  

changes your energy about your practice.  I’m excited for you to do this exercise.

I felt embarrassed about the course because  I’m much more comfortable talking about  

concrete things that you can do. But there are  actually is a lot of research that supports that  

visualization does help people get better  things. So, we hit this up, we talk about,  

“Are you ready to change?” we start addressing  the mindset. Then, we visualize relaxation,  

we visualize your American persona, and  here, we’re going to do an exercise from  

visualizing yourself speaking English, we’re  going to do the lesson on the coffeeshop.

Sit comfortably, or you can lie down  and close your eyes. Today you’re going  

to visualize yourself having a spontaneous  conversation and being able to think quickly.  

You’re going to be able to naturally say what  you want to say and express yourself completely.

Picture a coffee shop. A  picture that is known to you.  

A place with seats where people linger to  read or work on a laptop or meet with friends.

Today it’s crowded. You’re there sitting. You’ve  already gotten your drink. Now, really picture it.  

As you sit there, look into the  coffee shop. What do you see?  

Hear the sounds that you would hear if were there.  

Feel your body sitting in the position  that you’re picturing for yourself.  

Feel it. Hear it. See it. You’re there.

There’s an empty seat next to you and someone just  approached it. This person is American and only  

speaks English. In your imagination, see him. He’s  looking at you like he’s about to say something.  

“Is anyone sitting here?” He says. You smile and  say no feeling very relaxed. He sits down.   

Now you know he’s going to start talking to  you in English. He's going to speak quickly  

but something wonderful happens.  

Picture it in your mind. He starts asking you  questions about yourself. What you do for work  

or what you study, where you’re from. He asks you  about your family. You have a great conversation.  

You’re talking effortlessly. Picture the scene.  You sitting there, him sitting next to you.  

You don’t need to imaging what is being said,  just imagine this visual. It’s like watching a  

video on mute. What you’re seeing with your  mind is smiles. Gesturing, understanding  

and an engaging conversation.  

See that with your mind and feel the confidence  in your body, feel the happiness of being able to effortlessly

respond to his questions. You express yourself  exactly the way you want to. You’re confident  

in your vocabulary, in your pronunciation  and in the way you put phrases together.  

You understand everything he says to you.  

You just feel so great. You’re using  your English like a native speaker.  

Keep feeling this feeling as you picture  this conversation happening in your mind.

As soon as he asks you a question, you know what  you want to say. It comes in English effortlessly.  

It’s clear as if you’re speaking  in your own native language.  

You’re focused on the content and ideas only  not trying to use English. The way you speak is  

sophisticated, feel that. Feel that confidence in  speaking sophisticated English. Keep watching this  

video in your mind. This conversation, you, him  in the coffee shop and feel that confident feeling  

On your real face, here now, smile. Feel it  in your chest. Feel warmth and satisfaction.  

Feel relaxation and confidence. Breathe  in to that as you watch this video of  

your conversation with him, say in your head: I  feel completely confident in this conversation.

Doesn’t that feel so good? Your whole body is  vibrating with positivity, ease, happiness,  

satisfaction. Say again in your head:  I feel confident in this conversation.  

You’re able to express yourself  just the way you want to.

All  your goals are met. All your hard  work has paid off. Good for you.

Keep this image of yourself in your head.  Keep these feelings of positivity, excitement,  

confidence and ease in your body. With your mind,  you can put them there. The more you work on it,  

the greater the effects will be. Put this positive  feelings in your body with your mind and relate  

that to your own confidence in speaking English.  The more you do this and the more positivity  

you bring to your practice sessions, the more  effective every minute spent working will be.  

You, my friend are a wonderful  speaker of American English.

Are you seeing yourself as the  speaker you want to be? Of course,  

do this not just with English but with  all your goals, it really does help,  

it changes your attitude towards it  and I think it makes to work more fun.

If you’re interested in other visualization  lessons and you’re in my academy,  

just go to the courses tab and find the  visualization course. If you’re not in the  

academy and you want to transform you voice,  your spoken English, your American persona,  

check out rachelsenglishacademy.com,  this visualizations course is a very  

small part of what we offer. Most of the  lessons teach you how Americans speak so  

quickly but are still easily understood, how to  understand them and how to yourself sound very,  

very natural speaking English. Of course, we cover  all the sounds, vowels, diphthongs, consonants,  

all of the rhythmic qualities. Thank you so much  for watching my lesson here on Youtube. Be sure to  

check out this video to keep your learning going  now and do subscribe with notifications on.

I absolutely love being your English teacher. That’s  it and thanks so much for using Rachel’s English.