Find an accent coach in Nottingham

Nottingham Particulars

The Midlands, in general, is a lovely region but no town or city nestled there claims quite as much notoriety as Nottingham. Famous for the legendary Robinhood, tourists and travellers the world over boast this beautiful burg on their list of places to see.

Besides noteworthy architecture - particularly in Old Market Square and the Lace Market, Nottingham stands out for its homogeneity. Unlike other cities and towns in the Midlands, Nottingham's population is overwhelmingly White native English, with small enclaves of Asian, West Indian and African populations scattered around town.

Despite that nod to diversity, nearly 90% of the population in Nottingham speaks English. By contrast, the next most-spoken language is Polish, spoken by only a little over 2% of the population. The other 18 cited languages select inhabitants of Nottingham speak are regularly used in fractions of a percentage of the population, save for Urdu, spoken by a few more than 4000 inhabitants.

With all of the linguistic homogeneity, why would anyone in Nottingham need accent reduction lessons?

Dialects Heard in Nottingham

Just because a person conducts official transactions and completes their shopping using the English language, that doesn't mean that their spoken English isn't heavily accented. Let's focus on Nottingham's second-largest linguistic group, Polish speakers, as an example.

Not only is this Slavic language far more guttural-sounding than English, but its grammar and syntax are also vastly different. Thus, native Polish speakers flexing their English speaking skills might order their words differently, leave out verbs altogether and use the wrong prepositions. And that's on top of pronouncing words according to their native language's rules.

By far the most distinctive dialect heard in Nottingham is the native East Midlands dialect.

Until about 50 years ago, it was common to use 'thee' and 'thou', in true Robinhood-era tones. Even though that practice has fallen by the waysides, pronoun usage in Nottingham can be difficult for a non-native to understand. For instance, if you're not talking about Y'usen (yourself), you must be talking about Thisens (themselves).

If native Nottinghamers never intend to leave their charming city, how they speak English probably wouldn't be a problem. Probably... because there are reasons for even those who stay close to home to tone down their accent.

Reasons to Reduce Your Accent

Nottingham hosts many annual festivals that draw tourists from around the world. And, while visitors from far-flung places might speak English to any given degree, understanding what tradesmen, merchants and hoteliers are saying is much harder if their ears aren't trained to understand the local dialect.

Also, the BBC's East Midlands offices are headquartered in Nottingham, providing local access to anyone hoping for a career in broadcast journalism. But did you know that to become a news anchor or radio broadcaster, you have to speak using the UK's standard English dialect, Received Pronunciation?

Or maybe your career goals are much more aspirational. Plenty of film crews are set up in Nottingham; you might find a gig as a film extra or a part of the crew's catering staff... but only if you speak standard English. Where could those opportunities lead?

What if you want to move away from Nottingham, maybe even find your future in another country or a different city in the UK? Quirky and fun as it is, your Nottingham dialect will make what you're saying incomprehensible to anyone everywhere else in the country, let alone around the world.

Finding Accent Reduction Coaches

Those few examples demonstrate that it's not only those who speak English as a second language that needs accent reduction lessons. Fortunately, Superprof has just the accent reduction tutor you need.

Whether you prefer face-to-face lessons or working to reduce your accent via online lessons, Superprof accent reduction coaches have the skills and experience needed to help you achieve your goals.

In and around Nottingham, you will find seven such tutors to work with and, if your schedule only allows for online lessons, you will have access to nearly 150 such professionals.

You needn't worry about your accent reduction lessons putting a huge dent in your pocketbook; some Superprof accent reduction tutors price their lessons as low as £13 per hourlong session. A number of them even offer their first lesson at no charge.