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Start by reading glossaries of southern "colloquialisms," or vocabulary. Learning more about your own speaking habits will help you to recognize when you're slipping into a a more "southern" speech pattern. Then, use vocabulary-building books to find more neutral alternatives to replace these local colloquialisms.. Start a vocabulary journal to help you learn and remember the new words. Focusing on the new words will force you out of your accent comfort zone, and will go even further to help you present a more educated and professional image For example, minimize the use of "ain't" and "y'all, replacing them with "am not" and "you" or "you all," respectively. Additionally, say "preparing to" instead of "fixin' to." Some grammatical constructions not only seem quaintly southern, they're also incorrect or confusing to non-southerners. Use concise and concrete language to provide directions or descriptions. For example, don't use an extra pronouns in instructions: "Go get you a stapler from the supply room," emphasizes a regional dialect, while "Go get a stapler from the supply room" is straightforward and correct. Avoid double-prepositions like stating that an object is "Up under" something. Instead, just use the preposition "under." Southerners tend to speak more slowly than Northerners, so picking up your pace a bit can offset the impression of a drawling speech style. "Clip" or shorten your vowels. The vowel "i" often gets drawn out in southern speech styles, which is called "glide deletion," so when saying the pronoun "I," for instance, pronounce with the sharper "ai" rather than the softer "ah." You can try to speak with your mouth in more of a circular shape to achieve the effect of rounding out your vowels instead of flattening them. Try it with the word "wine," so that you're saying "waiyn" and not "waihn" Place the accent on the second syllable of words such as cement and umbrella. For example, the word "cement" should be pronounced "suh-MENT" and not "SEE-ment" Leaving out letters sounds less professional, and also indicates a regional accent, and so gives a less polished impression. For instance, pronounce the "r" in "library," to avoid saying "liberry." Other examples are the "y" in "crayon" and the second "a" in "caramel;" Without those letters, they sound like "crown" and "carmel." Include the final /ng/ sound at the ends of verbs and gerunds, such as "walking," so that you say "Are you walking to the park?" instead of "Are you walkin' to the park?" Be sure to include both words in short phrases like "going to" and "want to," and avoid saying "gonna" and "wanna." Some are specifically designed to help you reduce your southern accent, such as Say Goodbye to Your Southern Accent, a book and CD set. These texts provide information and practice exercises to help you to change your speech patterns through exposure to neutral dialects and repetition exercises. You may feel nervous about practicing in public at first, so try a repetition method that will allow you to become more comfortable. Try listening to national radio new broadcasts and repeating the sentences back while you drive to work or run errands, or while working around the house. Consider recording yourself repeating the words or reading some text. You can then listen to yourself and make notes about problem areas. You can then try the whole process again until you feel confident that you've modified your southern accent to a more neutral one. Watch yourself in a mirror so that you can monitor your mouth shape as you speak. Find a friend with a more neutral American accent and ask him or her for help. Plan to meet them in a comfortable place where you can talk about a variety of topics, like a coffee shop or on a shopping trip, and explain your plan to practice speaking with less of an accent. Decide, with your friend, how you will practice. You might ask your friend if he or she notices any words that seem particularly accented, and you can practice repeating those words back to your friend in a more neutral accent. You might also simply have a conversation, as usual, with your friend will occasionally stopping you to point out accented speech or southern colloquialisms. You can then discuss and try new ways of saying the same things. Trying out your new standard American dialect on strangers might feel awkward to you, but it's a powerful way to practice in real-life situations. Try speaking to baristas in coffee shops, servers in restaurants, store clerks, and flight attendants, since you may not see these particular service personnel again and you can avoid later embarrassment if you feel uncomfortable.
Develop a large vocabulary. Work on your grammar and sentence structure. Pronounce your vowels and consonants more clearly and quickly. Pronounce the consonants and vowels in the middle of words. Read a book about accent modification. Practice imitating your new accent in private. Practice your new accent with a friend. Practice using your new accent with strangers.