Feature Stories


Extreme Canadian makeover — The sound barrier
By Margaret Jetelina
If you truly want to embrace becoming Canadian and take your career to the next level, consider the image you present to others, in the way you dress, talk and act. This second of three articles will focus on your speech.

Ahmad M. Ahmad Ahmad M. Ahmad has a soft, soothing voice that could probably melt a few hearts — his dark, good looks don’t hurt, either. But what’s most notable about Ahmad’s speech is its precision and clarity — not bad for someone who came to Canada a few years ago with very choppy English. The Iraqi computer engineer came to Vancouver to fulfill his career ambitions and wasn’t going to let a strong accent get in his way. “There were sanctions against Iraq that made life difficult; the computer sector was hit exceptionally hard. I had lots of ambition and things I wanted to achieve, and the only way for me to do that was to leave Iraq,” explains Ahmad.

When he arrived in Vancouver in 1999, he luckily found a job within a month. “The IT market was very hot in Canada then and there were lots of jobs available; I even had the choice to choose.” But he admits his English skills were poor. “I could communicate, for sure, but I had a very heavy accent. Being a computer engineer, communication was not very essential. Yes, you have to be able to communicate with your team, but you spend most of the time sitting at the computer.”

But Ahmad knew that if he ever wanted to rise to a managerial level, his
English skills would have to improve. “It makes a difference. If you communicate clearly, you can go to next level in your career,” he says.

So he started to seriously work on his communication skills and joined Toastmasters, a club for practising public speaking (see “Raise your voice”).

Toastmasters helped, particularly with his confidence, but Ahmad wanted to take his English skills even further. “One thing I noticed was I was not making much progress in terms of how clear I could talk.”

He then heard about a course through the Vancouver School Board that helped
immigrants reduce their accent. The course, developed and taught by Vancouverite Andy Krieger is based on a five-step method he calls the “K Method” (see www.andykrieger.com).

“I invented it when I was asked by an American movie producer to teach Canadians how to ‘talk American,’ so they would be able to work on U.S. movies and TV filmed locally in Vancouver,” says American immigrant
Krieger. “As Canadians, we don’t use our mouths. Americans speak more slowly; they take the time to put their tongues and lips into position.”

He says Americans also say their words with long vowels and alliterate all the sounds. For example, when a Canadian says the word “sorry,” it comes out fast, sounding like the Indian word, “sari.” Americans say it slower — “sor-ee.” Or, while Canadians will say “goin’,” Americans pronounce all the letters, “go-ing.”

Speaking slower is, in fact, the key to reducing your accent, according to Krieger, who has, over the last 10 years, turned his method from an actor’s tool to a course for immigrants. “I’ve taught more than 5,000 immigrants how to lose their foreign accent,” he says. “When I get them to slow down, get [their mouths] into position and pause, their speech improves.”

Of course, there are those who might question whether reducing your accent is necessary at all. If an immigrant knows how to speak English, what’s the harm
of having a little accent? It certainly hasn’t hurt Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Unfortunately, just like a foreign-sounding name can be a barrier to professional success (see Kamal El Batal’s story in “End Note”), so, too, can a foreign accent.

“An accent becomes a problem when it prevents your listener from understanding what is being said,” says Jay Hiller, a Toronto-based voice coach and speech teacher. “A strong accent can interfere with the process of
communication and make personal interaction difficult. Whether you’re a businessperson seeking a promotion [or] a professional interacting with a diverse clientele … improving your speech through accent reduction will allow you to be more confident and effective.”

Ahmad, who is now starting up his own software company, only wishes he had heard about accent reduction when he first arrived in Canada. “Taking Andy’s course was an excellent opportunity,” he says. “It helped me to better
integrate with Canadian culture.”