American Dialect Training
Apr 25th, 2009 by Alan Yu
I was talking to my agent over the e-mail the other day and he said that one skill that is important for casting directors is your ability to speak in an American dialect. This has always been an interesting topic for me as I always considered my accent as just plain North American English.
However, apparently a lot of Canadians speak way too polite that drives American nuts they say. For example, many Canadians end their sentences with an apology. Think of it like if someone needs direction they say an American is more likely to say “excuse me” only. A Canadian though would say something like “Excuse me. Sorry to disturb you”.
There are other ones that I have never really heard myself in a regular conversation. Apparently many Canadians pronounce the word “about” as “A Boot”. I guess I grew up watching too much TV that is American based as I never pronounce that word like that.
Never had this problem before, but then again I don’t exactly get to talk to many Americans so I can’t exactly say if one would recognize any odd Canadian accents from me.
