What Students Are Saying
"It's been such a great pleasure working with Ilana! She is kind, cheerful, approachable, flexible yet super organized with an impeccable work ethic. All the sessions are extremely tailored to your needs and she is always well prepared for each meeting. She is also very punctual and would not even waste one minute of each meeting. I have learned so much from her in just a short period of time. You can tell that she is passionate about what she does and truly cares about each client. I cannot recommend her enough and certainly look forward to more sessions with her."
SL, Analytical Consulting
"I have spoken fluent English for more than 20 years but always with an accent. Tired of having to repeat myself twice to order something at fast food restaurants, I decided to seek help. I contacted Ilana, whose patient, professional dedication and passion for helping clients with their accent has no match. She has helped me not only to reduce my accent but to feel more confident. I can't thank her enough. I highly recommend Ilana to anyone who wants to improve her/his pronunciation."
A.E., BS in Civil Engineering
"Ilana has been an incredible support in my accent reduction. I'm a Singer-Songwriter who speaks Spanish and she has helped me a lot with my art! She is the best, so patient and dedicated! Sessions are super clear and personalized! I totally recommend her."
Karin Hofmann, Singer-Songwriter
"My first interaction with Ms. Shydlo was a phone conversation in which I explained that my accent was an obstacle at my new working environment. Although she thought I would need a certain number of sessions, after the initial evaluation she said that I actually needed less. This honest statement gave me total trust in her. In addition to her honesty, Ms. Shydlo is very humanistic in her approach. She provided me with a safe place to make mistakes, express myself and learn how to improve my speech.
Ms. Shydlo is very devoted to her students and passionate about linguistics. This can be seen in the fact the she is always available for questions via email and assistance during the week.
Even after 5 classes, I feel improvement and more confidence in my speech. Ms. Shydlo is a person who will not only guide you through this process, but will also join you."
Scott L., Community Habilitation Supervisor
"My English level was intermediate and I had a strong accent, so I didn't want to speak English in public. The hardest thing was that even if I was speaking English correctly, nobody could understand me because of my strong accent. At that time I met Ilana. She is very patient and generous, and she always tries to understand me. After 10 classes, I feel confident in speaking English. This is what I hoped for from this course!"
Yukiko Sekiai, Sales Associate
"I have had just a few classes with Ilana but I'm already noticing a big improvement of my English speech. My accent is not as heavy as it used to be, and I feel much more confident when speaking in public. People also tell me that my Russian accent noticeably has reduced and now they can understand me better. I feel very comfortable studying with Ilana. She's a nice and friendly person. It's a delight to have her as my teacher."
Nikita, Student
"I decided to take some accent reduction classes because I am thinking of continuing education in speech/language pathology. I am very happy that I found Ilana, since her classes are both affordable and highly professional. Although she said my accent was light, I learned tons of new facts about American accent I was not aware of before. Besides targeting problematic areas, Ilana provides very good materials for independent practice, which include, but are not limited to a digital textbook with audio tracks. In addition, throughout the lessons she creates the list of common words which the student needs to practice pronouncing and checks on the progress every lesson. We meet via Skype, and, if there are any technical problems, Ilana is always willing to add a few extra minutes to the lesson."
Anna Z., Special Care Professional
"I first started to take this class because having an accent on the East Coast in NYC is like having a huge disability, like being an alien from another planet. I had the "duh" moment about taking the class while reading a book by Arnold Schwarzenegger in which he described taking accent lessons. It is worth investing in taking this class which will improve your quality of life personally and professionally. I cannot imagine a more patient and nonjudgmental teacher than Ilana. Correcting your accent is not something you can accomplish on your own; we spent a lifetime pronouncing everyday words the wrong way, and unfortunately it won't go away until you have a speech therapist who can help you."
Tessa K. McKenzie, TV Producer
"Ilana is a great speech therapist who provided me with a structured syllabus and detailed exercises targeting my needs. She is always patient with my questions, and totally surprised me with her deep knowledge background of speech related issues. If you are interested in finding a speech therapist who can both teach you what you need, coach your progress, and at the same time provide a friendly atmosphere that makes you learn in a relaxed manner, Ilana is a good choice."
Ning, Social Worker
Maribel D. Murillo
"It was incredibly fun working with Ilana. All her sessions and notes are so detailed and helpful that it helps enables drastic improvement in ones speech. All the sessions are very well thought and tailor made as per the strengths and weaknesses which helped me to improve drastically over a short period of time. Would highly recommend to anyone wanting to improve their English speaking skills to work with Ilana."
Megh Mehta
"I LOVE working with Ilana and I'm so glad I found her! Her coaching has been SO effective that when I recently worked with a British accent coach, he commented that 'Your American accent coach did a GREAT job. You sound WAY more American than Singaporean.' She is sweet, thorough, so easy to work with and always comes super prepared!"
Jocelyn Chia
"As a singer/songwriter I was always looking for new information about accent improvement. I moved to NYC for almost 2 years (I'm from Chile, Southamerica, so spanish is my thing). That's when I heard about Ilana, she is so nice and patient! She help me with my daily accent and also with my songs.
I notice changes since the first lesson, I even start listening in a different way. My vocal coach in NYC (a native american speaker) also notice the improvement and I was singing with more and more confidence, so it was something real!
I really recommend Accent Eraser, Ilana has a very personalized way to teach according to your own interests and level of english. She is very professional and a very sweet person."
Kah Hove
"Best experience ever. I m happy to have Ilana as my tutor. After several sessions I could see a big difference in my pronunciation. My Russian accent is not that heavy anymore. I feel more confident about my speech. The best thing is that all sessions are personalized. Thank you so much!!!!! Highly recommend to anyone who wanna speak American English!!!!!"
Inna G.
"Ilana is very nice and knowledgeable in her field. It's been a pleasure working with her. It takes a lot of practice and she has been excellent at guiding me through that. Would highly recommend to anyone looking to improve their English speaking skills."
Paul Simmons
"I came to New York City for two weeks to perfect my American accent. And Ilana helped me to go ways beyond my expectations. In such a short period of time, she was able to teach me all the subtleties of American English. The difference between my level before and after this course is clearly noticeable.
I had read many books and seen countless videos on American accent. But it was nothing in comparison to what Ilana was able to teach me in just a couple of weeks.
Her lessons were perfectly custom designed for my needs. She patiently guided me through all the difficulties of American accent, helping me to built a strong base frame. Now, I know exactly how to keep working on my accent. On top of that, Ilana taught me how to analyze native speaker's speech pattern, which will help me progress even more.
I totally recommend Ilana for anyone seeking to build a nice, crisp and clear American accent!"
P.L.C.
"I am a foreign national with Russian as a native language and I just completed a 12-lesson American English accent reduction course with Ilana Shydlo. Here is most important changes a see after course completion:
- Strangers which not expect me to be foreigner and not get prepared that I will speak with accent understand me better now (like at supermarkets, coffeehouses, restaurants, gas stations, haircut salons, etc)
- I understand better English speech in conditions of background noise or low sound volume (like in phone calls, or when someone talking from distance)
- I realized how many words I pronounced wrong and that reason I was not understood in some cases is not an accent, but completely different pronunciation of some words.
- Ilana fixed several pronunciation biases that I have, e.g. I was afraid to emphasis "er" because I though that Americans will think that I mock them and it is offensive.
So I highly satisfied with speaking and comprehension improvements I got as a result of the course and I recommend it to those who want their American English to be improved. To gain high effectiveness I recommend a lessons's schedule not to be intensive, e.g. to have one lesson a week. This will give some time to observe how native speakers pronounce what you learned last lesson and have practice to pronounce yourself."
Vitalii Russinkovskii
