February 6, 2012 - Press Release!
WORLDWIDE LAUNCH OF REVOLUTIONARY NEW COURSE IN
ENGLISH SPEECH AND PRONUNCIATION
Celebrating the Jubilee with the Queen’s English
English Speech and Pronunciation is celebrating the Jubilee by launching a remarkable and innovative new course to teach the Queen’s English.
This is much needed. Every day the press is full of complaints about the poor standards of speech and pronunciation, not least on the BBC and its World Services. English is the main international language, and clarity of communication is vital in every walk of life. In recent years standards of spoken and written English have sunk abysmally, and there has been a “politically correct” anti-elitism that has ruined British education. Yet those educational anti-elitists who scorn the rules of good English would scream with indignation if the rules and standards of sport were ignored and footballers were allowed to commit fouls with impunity. Nor would they be best pleased to be treated by doctors whose English is so poor that it puts their patients’ lives at risk. What is wrong is not elitism but denying so many people the chance to join the elites and achieve their latent potential.
The result of nearly four years’ intensive work, English Speech and Pronunciation really is a tour de force, and revolutionises the concept of distance-learning. Every word of the 700-page course-book is presented by distinguished tutors and actors on some twenty hours of superb video. It is quite a tough course, but speaking good English well, confidently, fluently and without embarrassing mistakes is not an easy thing to learn. There is no “quick fix”. But tough need not mean tedious in learning good English, any more than in learning to play an instrument or a sport or to master any other skill. Unlike most distance-learning courses, which are boring and rarely completed, English Speech and Pronunciation is as gripping and enjoyable as it is effective, not least because the student can establish a real rapport with the marvellous presenters (whom they will probably know already from films, TV and theatre). There is nothing like this course anywhere in the world.
It is also amazingly good value at a price under £300. This is a tiny fraction of the cost of attending a twenty-hour course of this quality in London (if one could be found), even without the additional costs of travel, accommodation and disruption of work. The English Speech and Pronunciation course is a new and “high-tech” way of getting expert tuition of the very highest quality to do privately and confidentially whenever and wherever in the world you wish.
Complementing the English Speech and Pronunciation course are one-to-one, real-time, face-to-face personal tutorials using Skype video calling to link the client with a carefully chosen, expert tutor. They are individually tailored to help with any specific requirement of speech and pronunciation. This could be a personal difficulty in pronouncing certain letters or letter-combinations or a need for help in preparing and practising a speech, talk, lecture or presentation, preparing for an interview, or learning the correct pronunciation of technical vocabulary. These convenient and confidential tutorials are also ideal for senior business executives or politicians who have little or no English and wish to practise some introductory words in good English to break the ice and get an English-speaking audience on their side before turning to their own language with simultaneous translation.
English Speech and Pronunciation also offers excellent follow-up to its course through its English Speakers’ Club, Shop, Forum and Blog. The blog has fascinating and witty articles and newsletters, together with reviews and recommendations of audio-books and films that combine entertainment with continuing education. The publishers have provided an excellent website, www.speechandpronuciation.com, on which everything is carefully explained and made easily accessible, but they have also produced an Introductory Pack, comprising a booklet and one-hour video, for those wishing to experience more of the course method before “making a sound investment in their future success and happiness”.
The English Speech and Pronunciation course is for those who already have a reasonable working knowledge of the language (whether as a first or second language) but would like to learn to speak good English fluently, confidently and impressively, with a good accent and without making embarrassing mistakes. People can be highly intelligent, hard-working, ambitious and superbly qualified, they can be attractive and well dressed, and yet their ambitions can be frustrated and they can fail to get where they want and deserve to be because their English speech and pronunciation are letting them down. In this increasingly competitive world the new English Speech and Pronunciation course could completely transform lives and prospects in a way that would never have been thought possible.
It is not just that the Queen’s English (or “Received Pronunciation” as it is also called) is the clearest and most universally understood form of English speech and pronunciation both in the United Kingdom and internationally. It also confers a tremendous professional and social advantage and prestige, and ensures that what you say is listened to with respect.
The value of good speech and pronunciation is one of the few things that has not changed in a changing world. As Homer said nearly three millennia ago, “What use are godlike form or mind, Uncrowned by grace of speech?”. This is as true now as when the Greeks were attacking Troy.