We say you should keep your own accent so you can keep your own identity, and that brings certain truth to what you say,” she said.Įlsa users are primarily from the non-English speaking world but there are also users from say, Atlanta, as well as other native English speakers, Van said. What we want to do is give people that certain level of understandability and fluency so you step over that hurdle of being not talented and people judge you. “We don’t want to give anybody an American accent. Accents can also carry connotations of culture and class. Thick accents can be incomprehensible or cause non-native speakers to lose confidence. The app is trying to walk a fine line – change people’s speech and accents, but encourage them to keep their identity. On some level accent is a practical matter. Elsa stands for “English Language Speech Assistant” and is available for both iOS and Android. In April the app was named winner of the SXSWedu Launch 2016 startup competition.
Since March, Elsa Speak has been downloaded 90,000 and has more than 70,000 users. You can go into a job interview and just because you speak better English they automatically give you a better job,” she said. Van was inspired to create Elsa because she has seen the income gap that can occur due to a lack of proficiency in English and believes research that says a thick accent can negatively impact a person’s credibility. “Growing up in Vietnam, speaking English is a big advantage. Using machine learning, Van plans to extend Elsa to other accents. The same app that Van used to reduce her native Vietnamese accent could help an American moving to Vietnam learn a local Vietnamese accent. The company has received several requests from Americans who want to learn a British accent.
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