http://www.voiceemporium.com/directory/

Unfortunately since my articles are blog posts they don’t conform to the usual rules of journalistic writing (thank God!) or else you’d really see how terrible I am at following journalistic rules.

But I will both accept and cherish your praise (take that Journalism 201 Prof.)

Taji

Your musings about your friend from Minnesota trying to do a voice over…that is a good example of an accent, they are nasal and influenced in that part of the U.S. by Swedish and Norwegian (and other) heritages. Were the accent strong in your friend,that would have instantly made him undesirable to producers in a foreign market outside of the U.S. The same is true for speakers of American English with a Texan, deep South, Brooklyn, Bronx, Boston, Chicago, and many other accents (which I prefer to call ‘colorations.’)

Every language has many accents, versions, dialects. But if an American English speaker is relatively free of these and has excellent diction and a good vocal tone and expression, and reads well speaking aloud, then the world waits. Expand your marketplace. I have been researching this complicated topic three months now for my webinar. Additionally, I have been working foreign markets as a voice for over six years now and teaching this. Others now are jumping on this topic, and I see someone is teaching it at a summer workshop that’s being advertised, but my research extends for many years, so I hope you’ll tune in and hear results of my in-depth work. Questions and answer time too.

The webinar also includes foreign speakers working in the U.S. There are requirements for those whose mother-tongue is a language other than English. Hope you’ll think about voicing more U.S. and Canadian jobs when you’re not American or Canadian born. Speaking “French” or “German” or any language does NOT mean you can speak that language in all countries or even cities! For example, there is a form of Spanish preferred only in Mexico City! London has various language differences from one area of London to the next! So does Chicago!

As you can see, as a voice speech coach, I’m fascinated by this subject so I won’t go on further although I could write about it much longer here.

Thanks for letting me say this, Taji. I think it is a vital topic.And Taji, I must tell you that every time I read your written words, I enjoy your writing skills. You are an excellent writer!! I admire this.

Hey Everybody– I am in Italy, Rome and Venice, in April, also Zurich end of month. Email me if you’re there too!

Bettye Zoller
http://www.voicesvoices.com
Voiceovers/Coaching
Audio Production

With good direction, it’s entirely possible your friend could have done a credible job. Sine he already was part of the staff and actually wrote the script, it is may not have been an unreasonable assumption that he could do it. What is ‘un-realistic’ is not checking the credentials of the ‘producers’ hired for the project.

For a ‘multi-billion dollar company, to try to get the job done ‘on the cheap’ they set themselves up for failure.