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| TELL US YOUR STORYFeatured Article
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We would like to hear from you and are very interested in the story of how you have created a successful and prosperous life in the United States.
We are featuring one such story in this issue.
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OUR PROGRAMS
Transforming
accents from
communication
barriers to
charming
cultural flavors!
Individuals-Groups
Basic Level:
Compton P-ESL
Specialized:
Medically Speaking
Regional Dialects:
Speak Standard, Too!
Advanced: MEEC
Guided Self-Study:
Accent Master
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We are passionate about helping our clients speak English clearly and with confidence! YOU CAN DO IT and we will help you! You can make your dreams come true.
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We at Triangle Speech Services are licensed speech-language pathologists who specialize in foreign accent and regional dialect modification. This month we are featuring an inspiring story by a former client who arrived in Seattle from China in 1997 with her suitcase and a dream!
In response to the speech challenges described by our "Seattle" client above, we have also included a short article about American English speech called, Relax, Slide and Buzz!
And again, we have a special coupon at the bottom which rewards former and current clients for referrals by giving them a substantial discount on a one-hour review session!
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MY STORY by S.B.
[S.B. was our client in the summer and fall of 2006. Her story is very compelling and inspiring. She is a person of courage and determination who balances her responsibilities as a wife, mother, daughter and dental professional. She has made her dream come true!]
I came to Seattle, Washington from China, all by myself, in 1997 at the age of 29. My dream was to become a dental hygienist in the United States! All I had was in my suitcase. I soon discovered that my conversational English was not very good even though I had been studying English in China since I was twelve. We had been taught mostly reading and writing and our teachers were Chinese and spoke with an accent. I had continued studying English at Shanghai Finance University where I earned a B.A. and also had attended an intensive language school.
I took some pre-dental courses in Seattle and also worked as a dental assistant for a wonderful dentist who helped me improve my English. I met my husband in Seattle and we later moved to the Triangle area of North Carolina where our daughter was born. We speak mostly English at home because my husband is American, but I also speak Mandarin to my daughter so that she can talk to her Chinese grandparents.
In 2005 I enrolled in the Dental Hygiene program at a local college and worked very hard on my studies and on my English. For the entire time I was studying to be a dental hygienist, I would see the Triangle Speech Services ad in a local Chinese language newspaper. I promised myself that I would call to find out about their accent modification program as soon as I graduated. On the day after I graduated I called Ms. Bergman!
Just after I started working with her with the Compton P-ESL program, I found out that I had achieved a perfect score on the North Carolina Dental Hygiene Board Examination! She was very proud of me. We role-played so I could practice speaking clearly for job interviews and I was successful in finding a dental hygienist position. As I advanced through the program, we continued to work on words that my patients had trouble understanding. For example, I asked a patient if she had "pen" when I was trying to say, "pain." Once I told the dentist that a patient had to leave early to get his "niece" x-rayed when I was trying to say, "knees."
We have moved out of the state and I now have a position in my new location. I still have to remember to speak slowly. Sometimes, when I have an uncomfortable feeling that I am exaggerating my mouth movements, my speech sounds quite clear to my American patients! I hope my story inspires others who have come to the United States to keep working to make their dreams come true, as mine did.
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Relax, Slide and Buzz!
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 S.B. mentioned that she has learned to "exaggerate" her mouth movements (compared to the way she moves her mouth when she speakers her native Mandarin). Facial muscles are used differently in the speech patterns of other languages. American English is spoken with very relaxed cheeks and upper lips. When muscle "tone" increases it usually involves the lower lip as in the "p" in "people." A tongue which is too tense will change the resonance and the tone of vowels.
As students of yoga know, tight muscles have a restricted range of movement. Many vowels such as the "ay" sound in "pain" are made with a sliding movement. Also, American English has "diphthongs" made up of two vowels sliding together such as "ah" + "ee" or "eye" in the word "wide." If a dental hygienist asked a patient to "Open wad," there might be a delay before the patient could figure out what to do!
Saying "niece" and meaning "knees" really meant that S.B. was turning the final buzzing "zzz" sound into a hissing "sss" by devoicing or not using her vocal cords. Mandarin Chinese, Spanish and many other languages do not have the same final voiced sounds that are in American English. We teach our clients to "s t r e t ch" out the vowel that comes just before the final voiced consonant /b/, /d/, /g/, as well as /z/ (and other sounds) so that the "buzz" of their voicing will extend into that last sound!
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Click on Triangle Speech Services to visit our informative website. We hope you have been informed and inspired by reading our monthly newsletter. This month we would like you to forward this newsletter to your dentist and to any colleague or employee who might enjoy reading it.
Sincerely,
Judith L. Bergman M.A. CCC, Founder & Director
Triangle Speech Services |
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