Friday, January 22, 2010

Growing the Business

Now entering my 5th year of full-time American Accent Training in the Silicon Valley (and has it ever been an interesting experience!), the biggest challenge is how to grow the business! I'm glad to have met all of you who are reading this blog because connecting with professionals in related areas is the key to success. It's a lonely business and there's so much to do if we don't have each other. Those of you who have reached out to meet or discuss topics always make my day, so please continue to do so!

This year I'm into partnering with other consultants. There are so many related fields with overlap and so little knowledge about what we really do in this field! I recently posted an ad for Speech Coaches to see who I would attract and to find a good person to mentor, and I met some really interesting people. One of them speaks fluent Mandarin but was born and raised here, and that could be an interesting niche. This person specialized in leadership training but didn't focus on the accent as part of "speech" coaching, and I am always so curious how that happens. I've had "speech" coaches tell me they focus on areas "outside of accent" and don't work with clients who mispronounce words or exhibit other accent-related issues.

The most interesting to me is this concept of "vocal variety." Can you imagine being given the advice to "add" it and not having English as you first language? How would you have any conceivable idea of what that is?

I was once hired by an all Spanish-speaking real estate firm that had taken speech training from a recognized expert in real estate sales (I won't mention the name here), and after taking several of these courses that instructed the crew to use "vocal variety," they were all completely disillusioned and self-questioning about their English fluency. We ended up doing "script" rehearsals with full accent modification techniques to "relearn" and in some ways "unlearn" what had been focused on in these sessions. To native speakers, "vocal variety" can be demmonstrated and understood, but to non-native speakers ... especially those who already bring their own first language's patterns to the table, "vocal variety" is a completely nebulous and unachievable goal! The seminars and workshops that were meant to be motivational served only to disillusion them ... maybe real estate professionals should be my next focus!

I think I'll do a broader reach and begin working in the area of intercultural communication ... more posts to follow on this topic in the oh-so-near future!

Sunday, January 17, 2010

New Focus for the new Year

This year I'm focusing less on marketing to a specific country or working with a specific accent and more on making services more widely avaiable and also branching into cross-cultural communication. There is such an overlap!

I'm working with a colleague in strategic communication, and I plan to "bone up" on intercultural communication, a subject I enjoyed a great deal in my linguistic-study days but have paid admittedly less attention to in the last 10 years since graduating from the master's program.

In the meantime, new material has immerged. In addition, it's interesting to note how much focus there is in current cultural training on understanding various cultures and "bridging the gap" as opposed to focusing on communication in general with the intercultural parameters in mind (like polychronic vs. monochronic time, directness vs. indirectness of approach, etc.) and how these factors affect communication (as well as what we can do/say differently with these insights in mind). There is a wide variety of information available and I'm sorting through it with a focus on "communication" and tailoring the content to the audience - a corporate cross-cultural focus.

In November, I'm co-presenting with an Indian cultural expert to an HR group(about 1500 members). She'll be covering the cultural components, and I'll be providing insights to an HR focused audience on communications issues related to attracting and working with Indian talent in the Silicon Valley.

I'm also offering a couple of all day short courses through the community college Foothill/DeAnza. Short Course Registration The course description is listed in the Communications/Psychology section - course 037.

One of my most interesting clients is a Catholic seminary. I'm working with aspiring Catholic priests from all over the world, helping them to speak American English with clarity and confidence. Priests are largely recruited from other countries these days, like Vietnam, Colombia, Mexico, Costa Rica, and Poland.

It promises to be another thought provoking and eye opening year of cross-cultural experiences!

Rebecca Linquist