No Stupid Questions

My sibling in Christ, just relax and be yourself. You’ll pick up the accent more and more over time, that’s how it works. Forcing it is disingenuous. Imagine if my goofy midwestern ass moved to the UK and started to try to speak with Brits forcing their accent.

Pretend to fall and hit your head some night out with friends. Not enough for them to force you to stay up and get a cat scan, but just enough. Just enough to leave some doubt. Then start talking American the next day

Your approach is defeating your purpose. Muricans would be loud and outspoken so everyone around knows

There is not a slow enough change for that to unnoticed. People will notice.

Also ... just why? Why American? There are so many nice accents to choose.

I won't go into the reasons why you're doing that. Instead, I'll just focus on your plans, because I don't think a gradual change of accent will go unnoticed. Just do it. Embrace the American accent you love so much and live it to the fullest. And if anyone asks you what happened, just say you're tired of your own accent and are trying something new. Explain it clearly to others and own up to it. This will make you feel good because you're being honest by telling others why you have decided to change.

However, you should bear in mind that a language is much more than just an accent. It also includes people's choice of words and idioms and expresses the way they see the world. It would be strange if I decided to speak Brazilian Portuguese with a Portuguese accent (from Portugal). Those who know me would be confused because this "Portuguese character" in me speaks the local language perfectly with the wrong accent. How come?

Disconnect yourself from absolutely everyone you know and everywhere you usually go; take a long vacation somewhere relatively close but isolated enough from where you live.

Then, pretend this is actually a trip to America. You can fake photos online, AI makes this very easy for you today. Return to your normal life and carry on with the American accent. Continue taking fake (or if you can, real) holidays to America to justify the accent.

Singing lessons. I'm honestly not even kidding.

I'm an American who grew up in a part of the country called Appalachia. My native accent is often associated with being uneducated and stupid, so I learned how to change it when I was a young adult.

The thing that helped me most was voice lessons that taught me how to control the muscles in the nasopharynx, throat, tongue. The reason that's difficult is because you can't see the way those muscles move when someone else speaks or sings, so you can't just mimic what they're doing. It takes a little bit more effort to learn.

Learning how to sing classical western music (opera type stuff) allowed me to learn how to speak in that kind of just generic Midwestern American accent that has less negative social associations.

Now, that being said, I also have Indian friends who grew up in the United States who still speak with a similar Indian accent as their immigrant parents, and it's really no big deal. So you could just roll with your native accent.

(And also, I still code switch back into my native accent when I'm talking to my family or I visit my home region. Your native accent never goes away even when you learn a different way of speaking.)

As an American myself, I encourage you to keep your natural accent. We're a nation of immigrants built from people who originated all over the world. So there's not just one recognizable accent here. Nobody's accent is superior to others. I've known people from other countries who are self conscious about their accents. In response, I tell them honestly that I appreciate the way they sound. Variety is the spice of life, as the saying goes.

We sound stupid though...

When I was a kid, I had a friend who was trying to do different accents, and he wasn't joking when he said "it's not fair that I have to practice all these different accents, but if anyone wanted to copy mine, all they have to do is just talk normal."

He honestly thought that EVERYONE had a Northwest PA accent by default and that everyone else just chooses to talk in an accent.

So, I guess, just talk normal. 🤷🏻‍♂️😂

So first of all, which American accent? There's no single accent.

Secondly, if you try to transition slowly, odds are you're going to get made fun of a whole lot along the way for nearly every single American pronunciation you make, because each individual change will stick out more in context. so we're talking about months or years of people thinking you're weird, stupid, or have some kind of speech impediment instead of getting it all out of the way in one go. I have a fairly strong Philadelphian accent, and even here in my home turf I've had the odd person try to make fun of my pronunciation of things like "water" (wooder,) generally it's pretty good-natured fun, but once in a while you get some asshole with a stick up their ass about proper pronunciation. You're setting yourself up for a long time of that, and it will only get worse up until you're actually able to pass as an American.

Third, don't try to be cool, it never works. The coolest thing out there really is just having the right amount of confidence. Trying to change your accent because it sounds cooler kind reeks of trying too hard, like weebs sprinkling way too much Japanese into their conversations for no good reason, or people using big words to sound smarter, or whatever the fuck Elizabeth Holmes does with her voice. It's basically the verbal of equivalent of a neckbeard wearing a fedora (is that still a thing or am I dating myself?)

If you're actually dead-set on changing your accent, the best way is to just live in America and immerse yourself in it and come into it naturally, and you'll pick it up, and then it gives you a solid reason to say how/why you picked it up. You're going to need to spend some significant time here though, months at a minimum, probably years, otherwise at best people will just think you're an obnoxious, maybe naive weirdo who's huffing their own farts about how well-traveled they are, or at worse think you're some sort of weeaboo type obsessive nutjob about America (Google "Rawhide Kobayashi" and you'd get a pretty good sense of how people might think of you)

Last thoughts on the matter, if there's American slang you like, go ahead and use it, but do it naturally, don't force it. I sprinkle all kinds of weird shit into my speech that I've picked up from all over the place, things I've read, heard others say, movies, tv, the internet, but it's never been a conscious choice, it just happens naturally, trying to force it never makes it feel natural. "Stop trying to make fetch happen."

Step 1: Buy a gun

By "American accent", do you mean the style of speaking that's commonly used in American movies and TV? Because that's an intentional neutral/ambiguous accent, based primarily on the styles used in the Midwest.

It doesn't actually match any region, and it certainly doesn't match all regions of the US. The accents in New York, California, Texas, and the Deep South all have stark contrasts to this, and to each other.

When you see them next, immediately greet them in a heavy Brooklyn accent. When they ask you what that's all about, apologize profuse in a thick Nawleans cajun accent. When this is met with blank stares from your friends, immediately rush into another apology, this time with your best MinneSEWta flavor. After they finally come out of their stunned silence, revert to a generic American accent. They'll never notice.

What country are you from and what's your original accent?

You don't really say why you don't want your close ones to realize that you're picking up an American accent. Maybe it's just fear about being ridiculed?

If you're looking for justification for changing your accent, there's definitely arguments that can support you. But the important thing is for you to understand that you can do whatever makes you happy. And if your friends are any good, they'll understand that.

They might notice, but does it really matter if they do? It's nice of you to think of how your actions impact other people but in this case it seems like you're focusing too much on that aspect of it. If you want to speak with an American accent then you should do it.

I really don't think anyone will make more than a passing comment about it. You can say "I'm working on speaking more clearly" or something like that. If people don't accept that answer then that is their problem to deal with.

Maybe mention that you're 'taking lessons' to change/Americanize your accent to the people you're familiar with and then fairly rapidly incorporate your new dialect into your speech? This kinda changes something you may be embarrassed about into something more akin to learning a new language. I'm sure after a short bit, your new speech will just become normal sounding, and everyone will forget about the change.

Two options, just tell them that you want to practice your American accent, or use it when you quote your friends. The second one works best if it's close friends who enjoy making fun of each other a bit.

careful. people might not recognize you

In any case, you could always talk to a speech coach.

I won't delve into the reasons you shouldn't based on 'coolness', but...

There are half-ways between the pronunciation you're mentioning: the short 'a' sound can be used (common in British English), and wouldn't seem so jarring to me.

You can drop your Ts for weak Ds in things like 'water', so the tip of your tongue gently taps the roof of your mouth instead of pronouncing the typical British hard T (a lot of us don't pronounce it like that, mind you).

However, "speak like an American" doesn't necessarily mean one accent, as there are many in the US. Choose one, I suppose.

Foreign accent syndrome:

a medical condition in which patients develop speech patterns that are perceived as a foreign accent[1] that is different from their native accent, without having acquired it in the perceived accent's place of origin.

Foreign accent syndrome usually results from a stroke,[1] but can also develop from head trauma,[1] migraines[2] or developmental problems.[3] The condition might occur due to lesions in the speech production network of the brain, or may also be considered a neuropsychiatric condition.[4] The condition was first reported in 1907,[5] and between 1941 and 2009 there were 62 recorded cases.

Here's to becoming number 63!

Are you in the US? If so it makes a bit of sense if you want to "fit in" socially, but it's also fine if you just like the accents. If you don't live in the US then it might seem bizarre to people if you switch up your english accent (whatever it currently is). Bare that in mind.

But it's your life, you do what you want. Plenty of people have elocution lessons for various reasons. If you feel embarrassed for whatever reason then tell people you're taking elocution lessons. You could tell them you've chosen an American accent as you like the sounds, or it helps you project confidence or even because you feel it will open doors for you when communicating with other English speakers as it will remove bias or prejudice against your current accent.

There are lots of ways of justifying it if you feel the need. But hopefully your friends and family will just understand if you say you just like the way it sounds.

Scorched earth method. You are now John Black, you have no friends or family. You are an American with nothing but a pack of bubblegum and a desire to take names (of your brand new friends)

Like others, I won't comment on whether this is a good idea or not.....

Consider that all of the changes happened over time. (Unless you're speaking with a Queen's English accent, which is a posh fabrication created by the upper class BUT I DIGRESS)

So, for example, take the word "water". Look at the first syllable, 'wat'. Imagine it with a British accent, then with an American one. Think about just the vowel, the A. Try to say that vowel out loud in one accent, and hold it, then slide to the other one.

It will take lots of careful thought but you can do a similar "slow slip" for consonants and entire words too.

Good luck, I guess?