[by:www.21voa.com]
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[00:00.16]Some immigrants in the northeastern state of Maine
[00:04.00]are learning to lose their accents.
[00:08.16]Some of the immigrants speak English fluently,
[00:11.84]but have a difficult time being understood
[00:15.76]because they have heavy accents,
[00:18.52]reported the Portland Press-Herald newspaper.
[00:22.24]Assouma Nyirabahizi says she left her home and job in Rwanda two years ago,
[00:29.64]coming to America on a green card "in hopes of a brighter future."
[00:36.76]Nyirabahizi has a master's degree in computer science and speaks English fluently.
[00:45.04]She says all of her classes in Rwanda were taught in English,
[00:50.40]"but here I have to learn again because of (my) accent."
[00:55.96]She attends a free class to reduce her accent with seven other students.
[01:03.16]The city of Portland conducts the class.
[01:07.72]Marta Greenlaw is the teacher.
[01:11.08]She is also a speech therapist.
[01:14.52]She says immigrants who reduce their accent have better success at work.
[01:21.64]And they can communicate more easily with store workers, teachers, doctors and neighbors.
[01:30.64]"It's a basic need to be understood,"
[01:34.08]Greenlaw told the newspaper. "It affects every part of their lives."
[01:40.52]Greenlaw begins the class by telling students the 44 sounds of the English language.
[01:50.28]Those sounds include vowels, consonants
[01:54.26]and other sounds that give American English its unique sound.
[02:00.92]Later, students speak about the food in their home countries.
[02:07.28]Sometimes, Greenlaw corrects their pronunciation.
[02:12.16]She tells them to pronounce the word "onion" as "unnnn-yunnnnn,"
[02:17.40]and the word "potato" as "poe-TAY-toe."
[02:21.44]She tells the students "how the lips and jaw work to form the word."
[02:28.64]Greenlaw tells the students that some American English pronunciation rules
[02:36.24]"don't make a lot of sense."
[02:38.52]But she says they are important to learn
[02:42.40]if immigrants are to be understood by Americans.
[02:47.24]Losing one's accent is especially important for immigrants who live in Maine,
[02:54.28]which is one of the least diverse states in the country.
[02:58.92]More than 90 percent of the population of Maine is white.
[03:04.04]Many people who live in Maine have not heard foreign accents
[03:09.68]except in movies or on television.
[03:13.60]Greenlaw says some Mainers are impatient
[03:17.12]with people who speak English with a heavy accent.
[03:21.80]Her students say some Mainers ignore them
[03:26.56]or are unfriendly toward them because of their accent.
[03:31.64]They say this makes them less likely to speak.
[03:37.04]"Imagine waking up every day
[03:40.24]knowing you are going to have that struggle," she says.
[03:44.28]I'm Christopher Jones-Cruise.
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