Fellow Nepalese, I honestly need some help here. Here's the deal: I have been in the United States for more than three years now. As you guys might guess, I can speak English pretty fluently but I still have a pure Nepali accent. I wouldn't mind having an accent as long as people understand me but the problem is some people have a hard time understanding me. There are around 7 Nepalese students in my college and it seems I am the only one who has this problem. All the other Nepali students seem to have picked up an American Accent.I have been getting scholarship all these three years, have a good gpa and a good job( right now I am doing an internship as a computer programmer) but this accent thing is bugging me real bad. Whenever I have to speak English in front of a Nepali, I become over conscious of my accent and sound real nervous.

I know I am a totally loser( after spending three years in the U.S. I am writing this in sajha so that people can suggest me ways to improve my accent--I know this proves how big a loser I am) but I just wanted to post this message in sajha so that you guys can advise me ways that would help me improve my accent


Mr. loser

Read the first few words of the second paragraph as

I know I am a total loser(.....................

Don't call yourself a luzr coz because somebody does not speak english or has an accent does not mean the person is not smart. Japanese people don't speak English but look at their robotic technology. Even the american robotics people might hide their tails beteen their legs.....

Anyways, first things first, stop hobnobbing with eating-rice-with-hand people, right now as we speak.

Walk English, Talk english, do everything english. Watch english programs and even when driving listen to NPR or listen to some channels that have nothing to do with music.

Just like Rob Schneider said in the Waterboy " You can do it (all night long)".
Good luck now.

[The writer assumes that the thread initiater is in the United States of America.]

Go out... talk to more people.... make more american friends....... try to watch things americans watch on tv like sports so you can participate actively when others are talking about which team kicked whose asss. Bottomline, make more american friends!!!

Practice makes a man perfect.. so you need to gain that confident and actually start speaking with people.. you learn from your mistakes bro!! jsut dont repeat it twice... watching english movies, listening to local fm, news channels would definetely help you...

Thanks for the replies. I think I should give more info. about myself. I am in U.S. I have been here for more than three years now. As I already mentioned, there are only 7 Nepali students in my college and I hardly meet them. I live on-campus with 3 American guys and 1 Spanish guy. I am the only south-east Asian at my work. So what I am trying to say is that I already have enough exposure to the English Language. It seems no matter how hard I try, how much I talk in English, how many American friends I have, I can't modify my accent. I started making American friends and hanging out with them with an aim to improve my accent but the only thing it did is that it improved my fluency, it didn't have any effect upon my accent. Another problem with that is that once you start hanging around the same group of people after sometime they get used to your accent and you don't realize that you still have the same old accent until you meet a new American who says, "can you say that again".

guys, please give me some suggestions. I have worked really hard to be an academically good student. I know many Nepali students in the U.S. have a hard time paying tuition fee and finding a good job after graduation. I don't think I will have these problems. I don't want my inability to change my accent to ruin all my hard work. It really makes me feel like a total loser.

seriously dude! theres nothing wrong wit accent thing! AS long as ur good in other things y bother bout it! U seem to b an A in studies n seems ull b gettin a pretty good job soon-- - Just keep up wit ur studies - Just keep on talking more.........i guess.. No ones good accent in the worlD! just b confident in urself n do wat u think is rite aite! ....PEace

Here's what you could do to start off!
1. Speak Slowly ( we naturally speak pretty fast which poses a problem for Americans to understand us )
2. Sing English songs and try to imitate yourself as an American.
3. Open a dictionary and try to pronounce the words according to the dictionary ( how many of us can pronounce alligator just like an American can? )
4. Get over this loser crap. The most important thing is being able to convey the message correctly and ensuring that your message is well understood. Look at Arnold. How many years has he spent in the U.S. ? Has his accent changed?
5. Don't be a hypocrite. A lot of us Nepalese tend to be hypocritical. There are instances and occasions when we're better off talking in Nepali but great hypocrites we truly are, we NEED to speak english regardless of our accent and grammatical errors.
6. Grammatical corrections. Try to make sure that you are grammatically correct. Work on it! An average makes more grammatical errors while writing than a good Nepali student but when it comes to speaking, the difference is clearly seen. If you make grammatical errors while speaking then the listener perceives that you have poor English and everything that goes off your lungs after that seems ununderstandable from the view point of the listener. It's the mindset. Imagine an American trying to speak to us in Nepali. No matter how good/fluent he is, at first or if we prejudge that he can't speak clearly then we're going to have hard times understanding him. Keep an open mind!
7. Be yourself. We're not Americans. By trying to "Americanize" ourselves, we're doing nothing but making fun out of ourselves!
8. Last but not the least, MAKE SURE that there are limited grammatical errors. " They doesn't want to eat.. " , "Did he went .." are some absolutely shocking grammatical errors that we Nepalese tend to make!
Like I mentioned, emphasize on conveying your message correctly. Your accent will improve gradually. We're not native speakers so there's no need to feel bad. Some of us are gifted and pick up accents pretty fast while some of us have hard times!
Hope that was helpful enough!

I just spent 15 mins of my quality time ( 1 final down, 4 more to go ). Hope it doesn't go down the drainage. Print it off and try it. You won't lose anything for trying!
Peace-O
Balbhadra!

Corrections..
No 6...An average ( American )

Most of us have that problem and it's not going to go away completely. We can improve, if we want and take a few simple measures. Here are a few things I can think of:
1) (as many suggested above), make American friends, hang out with them, talk to them more.
2) Listen to them attentively how they say each word---one at a time. Find out where/how you pronounce that word wrong. For example, Broccoli. We call it "borocauli". Americans call it "brokli". Once you know how they pronounce a difficult word, silently repeat it many times. Use it when you can by pronuncing it the American way. Do it with other words you have problem with.
3) Listen to NPR, watch CNN and other program.
4) When you hear someone pronounce a word differently (more accurately or in the American way), repeat it silently.
5) If you have a good American friend, you can ask him/her to correct you totally ruin some words when you pronounce. Don't feel ashamed when they do that. Take it as an opportunity to improve. Because it's your friend catching you.
6) Some colleges, universities, and churches have a program called Accent Reducer (or something similar). In those classes, you speak and others analyse your pronunciation and help you improve it.
7) Remember that some accent is considered "Very Sexy" by a lot of American girls.
8) If possible, find a part-time job that requires you to be on the phones most of the time (for example customer service or call center). This helps a lot.
This much should already help you a whole lot.
DP.

Thanks Balbhadra. I will make sure that I don't let the 15 minutes you spent giving me suggestions go in vain. I will do my best to properly implement your suggestions.

Thanks DP

You just gotta remember these few things:

1. Don’t try to speak like Americans because you simply can’t.
2. Who said that you would improve your speaking skills significantly in three years? It does not work like citizenship that you get in 5 years after green card. People have been here for decades and still have problems communicating.
3. Speak slowly.
4. Look for a way to hang out more with students who only talk in English.
5. Cut down on your porno movies - they have very less communication involved.
6. Don’t worry too much about what other thinks while you’re speaking.
7. Buy a Rapid English Speaking course if the problem continues.

don't focus TOO much on the speaking part as if you feel you're speaking with an accent, you'll end up messing up more as you start doubting yourself...The key, my man, is self confidence. This will get you anywhere. Rise up, downtrodden foo,l if you have had scholarships for all 3 years so far, you are no loser in my eyes !! Now go and talk with confidence to the white chick sitting next to you in the computer lab!!

confused bro!!!!

Here is an honest reply.
Try to speak like americans. If you cant copy whole lot hust try some words that you use regularly and ehich are easy to copy.

Example: NO DOUBT ABOUT IT. = NO DOU BOU tit.
THank you= tank ya.(fast)
what are you doing= wat do u doin?

just try it with confidence. Do not be over coutious while speaking. Try it with your Nepalu frens too.

I had the same problem I used to be over coutious of the accent. I did the same thing but now people think I am american born.

hehehe .. tanna nepali ma mukh chhadnu parchha bro .. jai Nepal jai Nepali jai Nepali Accent

Your problem is not your accent, your problem is your insecurity, and only you can change that. There are thousands of homeless people in the street with perfect accent, but can they do your job. If you're good on technical things then you don't need to have perfect accent.
so wha the heck if you have to repeat your sentence , repeat it 3 times, who cares... if there was some pill that could fix your accent problem, pretty soon you would be here again saying they look down on your cuz you're a darkie... if there was pill to make you white, then again you might be here saying i have a small pee pee... there is no cure for insecurity.. you have to correct yourself from within....
it makes me sad , as a professional and talented person as you claim to be, you are so frgile from inside...

my suggestion is , take a break from some technical books.... read some self - inprovement books.. books about sociology, biographies and up lifting books about living with dignity... seriously... don'tget mad.. it iwll help you....

Don't read books dude, go talk to some people, get involved, talk slowly.

By the way why do you want american accent ?
When I call customer service for troubleshooting my computer and other computer related problem , i can hear desi accent all the time.....man you are lucky that you are in computer field and don't have american accent ...talk like those MF desi's and you rule.....I mean if you have desi tone and work in computer field..these freaking americans think you know everything...so chill out...grab some beer and talk in american accent.....