“In addition to working with my accent, Dr. Ojakangas helped me with presentations I had to do for high management (several CEOs), reviewing the contents, making it clearer, correcting and helping me to stand and say my speech! I would definitely recommend Accent-American to anyone needing help with American English!”

"I worked with Dr. Ojakangas for about 3 months on pronunciation and oral presentation skills. For me, the course I took at Accent-American with Dr. Ojakangas was extremely helpful. When you begin such an endeavor, you don’t know what you don’t know. With a detailed evaluation, Dr. Ojakangas was able to identify my pronunciation mistakes and what I was doing in my public speaking that was not as effective as it could be. So it was important to understand the mistakes I was making in terms of pronunciation, intonation, and text organization. With her expertise, Catherine taught me to hear and pronounce the differences between my native Portuguese and American English. We worked on the pronunciation and intonation of American English, how to improve my vocabulary, and how to present material orally in high-pressured work situations. Dr. Ojakangas also taught me how to practice. With her extensive background, she knows the most optimum techniques for learning new speech habits as quickly as possible. The examples that Catherine gave were very practical. The books and audio recordings and the practice methods were very effective. I think the methodology works. To improve maximally, you need to really be committed at home because it’s a fast-paced course. If you do that you can really see the results. I believe I have seen them. I am a very busy person. If I had more time to practice, I would probably be at an even higher level. But, I think if you commit the time and understand how to practice the materials accurately, you can really improve. In terms of return on investment, I got what I needed - especially because the course was tailored to my needs. I explained to Dr. Ojakangas that what I needed was not only to learn the pronunciation, but also how to present materials professionally and in an effective way. Catherine tailored the course to meet those needs, and I think that was very effective. I brought examples from work, and we practiced those examples. I could use the course setting to practice and to hear feedback. All in all, the course I took at Accent-American was extremely helpful. I think I improved and it was definitely worth it! I’d recommend it to anyone who has come to America from another country!"

"Catherine is a great accent/communication coach for American English. She teaches in a way that is very different from typical English classrooms. At the beginning of the course, Catherine did a detailed assessment and planned the course with a very specific focus on identified problems. During the 20-class period, I have improved immensely in the accuracy of pronunciation. Also, Catherine did post-course assessments to measure the improvements. I strongly recommend Catherine's course to anyone who is not a native English speaker and wants to improve your conversational speaking significantly."

“Catherine at Accent-American gave me the tools I needed to considerably improve my accent. The first-week evaluation was instrumental in identifying my weaknesses, communicating my goals, and establishing a plan of action tailored to my needs. During my 17-week program, Catherine designed coursework content in accordance with our plan of action and provided personalized advice (both during our coaching meetings and through emails) and tools (e.g. audiotapes, personal recordings, workbooks, guides, homework assignments) to help me achieve my goals by the end of the program. I am very satisfied with the progress I made during the program and I would not have improved that quickly without Catherine’s guidance. Accent-American’s program provided me with effective communicative skills and helped me feel more confident when speaking English.”

"Catherine was really great to work with and helped me considerably improve my North American English skills. First, we started with a rigorous quantitative assessment of my listening and speaking skills that helped to identify key areas of focus. Second, she created a tailored learning plan to tackle the biggest areas for improvement, while recognizing other things that needed some fine-tuning or quick fixes. Third, the learning was based on very well structured textbooks complemented with Catherine's own materials. And last, but not least, Catherine was a pleasure to work with -- she is knowledgeable, nice, fun and cares deeply about her students. I enjoyed our work together and benefited from a 60%+ improvement across virtually all areas we tackled."

"T.This was the first time in my life to learn native English so systematically. After learning essences such as the IPA, word intonation and word linking, I realized that my speaking skills in English, as well as the listening skills, improved steadily. I am quite sure that this course was my concrete step to becoming a proficient English speaker. I think this course is extremely recommended to Japanese people who are struggling to master the English spoken language.”

"As a foreign born (very) proud American citizen I always wanted to blend in. Nevertheless, during conversations I would always get the question: "Where are you originally from?" Claiming to be from a Midwestern state never worked for some reason! This prompted me to take an accent reduction cohort class at a public university, which helped, but not to my satisfaction. Then I found Cathy. The first two sessions with her were to me the most impressive ones. In the first one I went through a lengthy and rigorous test. In the second session came the analysis of my speaking and understanding American English skills. Boy, was that incredibly thorough and detailed! For the next sessions we went through the meat of her program and between the sessions I had to practice daily and do homework (felt like a schoolboy again!). Would I recommend her to anyone who wants to improve her or his accent? I don't think anyone can find a better teacher than Cathy!"