“I was born and raised in Italy. I moved to the US in 2004 with a good knowledge of the written language and an accent that was a “pastiche” of Italian and British English. I never thought my accent was a problem, quite the opposite, people in NY always told me my accent was cute and exotic. I was first faced with the fact that people did not understand me in 2010, when I was a finalist on a popular show called “The Next Food Network Star” and the judges told me that I came across as stressed and scattered when I was speaking on camera. No matter what I tried my fast accented speech kept getting in the way. Enter Susan Sankin, who was recommended by a friend in the “business”. Susan quickly identified the sounds I was missing and we started working on hearing the difference between what I was saying and what I really meant. The whole process was eye opening and humbling and I confess I was even a little embarrassed because I realized how easily I could be misunderstood or even put myself in hilarious albeit uncomfortable situations. Susan has helped me immensely with my accent and my speech: she gave me my “h”, “th”, “or”, “ah” and many more! After a few months I can hear my mistakes, correct myself and I feel like I have strongly improved. It is a work in progress of course but Susan has made it fun and entertaining for me, even when she corrects the Southern Italian in me! People may tell you that you can improve your accent by yourself; that you only need to listen carefully and speak slowly. In my humble opinion, when you have a problem you go to a specialist. And when you have an accent problem you need to go to Susan Sankin.”
-Serena Palumbo
Attorney by day & Cook by night
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