Hey guys! It is Aiko with Schwagirl. I am an American English pronunciation coach.

Welcome to my podcast “The Voice of English” Season 2.

Season 2 focuses more on communication. In each episode, I bring a guest and he/she will give us tips to become a better communicator as a person who speaks English as a second language.

In Episode 25, I invited Maki Takashima who is a British English Accent Coach based in Japan.

Maki Takashima is a British English accent coach, diction coach and translator (English/Japanese, written and spoken). Maki was raised in Tokyo until the age of 15 when she moved to Dusseldorf, Germany, due to her father’s work. She then attended a British school for three years where she acquired British English. She has two degrees; one from Sophia University (BA in German Language with Linguistics) and the other from Royal Holloway College, University of London (BS in Physics with Music). After her return to Japan in 1992, Maki worked in Classical Music and many other industries, where she always acted as a translator/interpreter on top of her main role in PR and marketing. In 2004 she became independent and started her own business of English language services; teaching and translating/interpreting. She was also a PR representative for Maestro Seiji Ozawa in the 2000’s. In this capacity she dealt with national and international media and travelled extensively with Maestro’s projects. Maki is currently based in Tokyo and is known as one of the very few Japanese who can speak and teach British accent, namely RP (Received Pronunciation). She runs her own English language school where she teaches individuals and groups. Her background of music education and singing experience has led her to teach diction to Japan’s renowned professional singers, whilst she also enjoys teaching amateur singers and chorus groups.

website: https://www.maki-takashima.com/
FB: https://www.facebook.com/maki.takashima 
blog: https://ameblo.jp/reginacecilia/ 
twitter: @makiuk

Here is the IPA of the words we talked in the episode

  • Box : West coast American (WA) [ɑ] / Received Pronunciation (RP) [ɒ]
  • Talk : WA [ɑ] / RP [ɔː]
  • Door : American (A) [ɔɹ] / RP [ɔː]
  • Can I have a glass of water? : intonation goes up in A, down in RP
  • Glass, have : A [æ] / RP [ɑː] *RP of glass sounds like “gloss” to American
  • Water : WA [ɑ] / RP [ɔː]
  • Cold/called, hole/hall : WA cold [oʊ] called [ɑ] / RP cold [əʊ] called [ɔ]
  • “ou” sound : A [oʊ] / RP [əʊ] / in General British English [əʊ] (but it sounds slightly different from RP.)

Enjoy the episode!

If you have any questions regarding English learning or pronunciation, living in the US, working in the US, or if you would like to be a guest on this show, please contact me through http://schwagirl.com/contact

You can download each episode from this link: http://thevoiceofenglish.libsyn.com/

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If you are interested in learning pronunciation from me, visit http://hatsuonkyosei.com/ for more information. Group courses and private coaching are available as well as online self-study materials.