There’s a Class That Teaches How to Lose Your Boston Accent

It’s a workshop with a speech pathologist.

Unless you’re entering the Witness Protection Program, there should be no reason why you’d want to get rid of your Boston accent. (Not really, but still.)

Alas, there are still some people who’d like to reclaim their Rs, or at least learn how to use them temporarily. For those select few, and perhaps for the broadcast journalists and actors who value non-regional diction, a one-day workshop is coming to town to help. Speech pathologist Marjorie Feinstein-Whitaker will teach the class at the Boston Center for Adult Education on November 21.

Lessons include dictation and listening activities, and readings of scripts loaded with Rs. When students read their scripts aloud, Feinstein-Whitaker makes a sound with a clicker each time she hears any hint of a Boston accent to reprimand them.

After the four-hour class is complete, students leave with a tape that plays their before and after readings, and with an activity workbook, priming them for practicing on their own. The ultimate goal is for students to be able to turn their accents on and off. The workshop was featured on the TODAY show, and comes with a price tag of $149.00 plus $35.00 for the class materials. You can register at bcae.org.

Saturday, November 21, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., BCAE, 122 Arlington Street, bcae.org.