But will they "sound American?"

I was talking to a client today who outsources to India, and he asked me if I could guarantee that participants in my programs would "sound American" and "meet his expectations" when they were finished. This gave us an opportunity to discuss what his expectations were, which he defined as "not distracting clients with foreign sounding speech."

Of course, it's difficult to assess improvement in terms of "sounding American" beyond pronunciation, and the client admitted he outsources to a variety of places, including South Africa, and has not visited India himself. I suggested that cultural issues play a big role in one's ability to "sound American" - what you say is just as important (if not more ), than how you say it, such as how assertive/passive you are, what kinds of questions you ask, how you respond and make decisions, take action (or don't), make comments and communicate with clients is largely culturally-driven and can be just as important as having a clear accent.

I pointed out that some people just aren't as motivated as others to acquire an American Accent, and living outside the US creates an extra challenge. "Sounding American" means both wanting to and immersing yourself in the culture enough (even if vicariously)to know how to do it.

We discussed a variety of ways to do an immersion outside the country: watching Good Morning America, CNN, American tv shows & films - recording and replaying, while focusing first on comprehension, and then on developing an "awareness" of tone, expressions, pacing, mouth movement, pausing, jaw movement, phrasing, vocabulary, idioms ... and the list goes on.

We also talked about hiring people who are already motivated ... not only to do the job, but to actively acquire an American Accent. I remember meeting with a visitor from India from a client company who told me he resented having to learn an American Accent just to keep his job. On the other extreme, I've met people in India who know more about our culture than I do ... (literally all kinds of facts & figures I'm not aware of), merely out of interest to truly develop a deeper understanding of our culture. There are people out there interested pursuing with a passion anything from candy wrappers to cheesy soap operas, but one could argue that's a bit extreme to be healthy.

The answer to the question? "Sure, they'll sound more American ... probably."