Think 'lower, slower, and more open-throated' when you speak. In Philippine English the throat is more constricted (tighter) than in American, and the speech is faster. Quick fun exercise: try saying "Hey, pal," stretching out the vowel sounds and with a low pitch dipping slightly at the end of 'hey.' "Heyyy pallll!" Practice groaning "Uhhhh!" with your throat as relaxed as possible. Listening isn't enough. You have to practice letting yourself go overboard with exaggerating the American accent. Can't be self conscious. Good Luck!

You know, I think a key thing to work on for learning accent is changes in pitch. Like the notes of a melody, the syllables of a sentence rise and fall differently in different languages. Usually the way you fake an accent is to distort your vowels a little bit, and then imitate the irse and fall of their native language. Right? I can think of my old french teacher and how she spoke englishj with this beautiful french inflection. So I would practice imitating a sentence in english from a movie. And don't even bother getting the words right at first. Just sing the changes in pitch. For instance, in english often a question will rise in pitch at the end of the sentence. So imitate that first, and get it right, and then fill in the words. You know what? If you did that, I think people would take you for speaking english quite well, and if they didn't quite understand what word you said they might think it was their ears, not you. I'm sorry, say again? Yes, I really do think pitch is a major part of accent. And an opportunity for the student to pick up somethign that will give them greater success when they use the language in the real world.

Very good points, both. One thing to realize is there is not just one American accent. Because the country is so wide, there really are different regional variations. Here are some examples. Some are exagerated, but some are completely real! New York http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apyL9wBWvIk Boston: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbK4cL3QSc0 Chicago: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dTzFigGW6A&feature=related California http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDPsw9pgXS0 Southern http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRyiWKT9L3E&feature=channel Southeastern: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzZcYyape7E Midwest http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DlxCDlIfh0&feature=related Texan http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4di9VBPZogs And this guy not only gets into Canadian accent, he gives a really good comparison of the same word in various american regions as well. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxUvgPSh9uk

Hi Josa, you will need a lot of practice in listening to American accents, which vary depending which state people come from. The following websites are popular with Italki members and will help you. http://www.eslpod.com/website/ There are also videos on You tube such as: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bpatbbhn_k&feature=related You can also watch American news online : http://www.channelchooser.com/tv/watch and http://www.uta.fi/FAST/RE/usgbdiff.html#b2a Otherwise click onto Language Partners at the top and find a native speaker.

Not always exactly as written. But there is a huge taboo about admitting that spoken informal english exists and that it is as distorted as it sometimes is. For example: I'm going to.... becomes I'm gonna but that's as far as we dare write. But actually it is apoken further: I'm owna I'm 'oh Here it is in use, in the kind of sentence where it is naturally found: "I'm 'oh kick yo' ass, boah!" (I'm going to kick your ass, boy!) Proper english? No. you wouldn't talk like this to your teacher or in business. But in america everyone does understand dialect liek this, and many of us talk like this on occasion, often to spice up language to show emotional emphasis.