As strange as it may seem, I hate my accent and want to speak like an American because I think it sounds cooler and more like how I want to sound.
I’ve more or less perfected my version of an American accent on my own, I think.
But whenever I’m with other people who know me, I revert back to my old accent instinctively because that’s how they know me to sound like. I’m unsure about how I can subtly transition without them noticing a sudden change, such as through gradual exposure to my accent changing more each time they hear it. That way I could argue that I don’t know how it happened and it was a slow progression if they eventually realise it’s different, rather than something forced that I started doing one day.
The biggest thing I think is changing the pronunciation of certain words with “a”, such as going from “fahst” to “faast” for the word ‘fast’, or “mahsk” to “maask” for ‘mask’. Because it’s really one or the other, there’s no in-between. I feel like for most other sounds, a gradual transition into more American sounds can be possible, but that one’s like, how can I make the plunge and will people notice it straight away and think it’s weird?
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?
As an American (Los Angeles) I think the main difference between how I pronounce water and the way Judi Dench does it is the t. We treat the t like our brake pedal at a stop sign with no other cars around, barely a tap, basically a d sound. The a we pronounce ah. Judi’s ah sounds similar but maybe a little oh-ish to us.Then of course there’s the -er, which we do pronounce, while Judi says -uh, in the classiest way evah of course!