Here’s a great article about a program at Arizona State University’s business school that helps foreign-born students to adapt to American culture — specifically, business culture — by providing specific training in American mannerisms and speech patterns. They call it “a crash course in Americana”. The article includes interviews with MBA students from Venezuela and India.

I really appreciate the comments made near the end of the piece by Pragya Pandit from India…

Though the program teaches students how to properly annunciate English words, Pandit said that she does not like the term “accent reduction.” “Americans would say I’m reducing my accent, but I say I’m learning an American accent,” she said. But [ASU’s Assistant Director for Graduate Career Development Kathleen] Taylor said the aim of the program is not to strip the international students of the values and customs of their homeland. “I think their cultures are very strong,” she said. “They will never lose their culture. They’re just opening up to the American experience.

I don’t like the term “accent reduction” either. As Pandid says, rather than reducing an accent (which is negative, and implies that something is broken), I also prefer the positive approach of “adopting a new accent”, and opening one’s self up to a new experience!

Can you relate to any of the experiences mentioned by internationals in this article?