Our clients

Testimonials

“Dr Markham’s services were utilised by AMS to improve and enhance pronunciation, communication and grammar skills. The improvements since the sessions have been outstanding and both the employee and management are extremely pleased. Dr Markham’s ability to build trust with his client meant that he was able to successfully address sensitive areas for improvement and deliver appropriate techniques for improvement. Dr Markham was very flexible in incorporating wider aspects of interpersonal and presentation skills as required and due to this, the results have been evident in not only the above areas but also in the employee’s general development and growth.” [training of a speaker of Australian English to improve communication]

– Leanne Marran, HR Manager, Australian Motoring Services

“I liked the way the training was conducted. It was informal and tailored to my specific needs. Duncan was able to fit a lot of information and training into each session. I really appreciated it as I was on a tight schedule and he understood. The most important thing was that I enjoyed the training sessions. Also the training sessions were very beneficial.” [accent training of a non-native speaker of English (Cantonese/Hokkien)]

– JT

“Some sessions were heaps of fun, some session were torture and really hard work as Duncan can be pretty pedantic but my German accent is almost gone and I sound Aussie. Good on him!” “Das Training mit Duncan hat teilweise riesigen Spass gemacht, teilweise glich es einer Folter und war wirklich harte Arbeit, da Duncan kein flascher Ton entgeht. Aber die harte Arbeit hat sich gelohnt: Mein deutscher Akzent ist fast weg.”

– Ben J.

“I found Duncan very helpful and kind and considerate towards our employee and myself. I feel that I have noticed a marked improvement but most importantly that our employee has become much more confident in his conversations with customers and peers.” [accent training of a non-native speaker of English (Hokkien/Malay)]

– Jenny Ritchie, Windsor Apparel

“It has been helpful to learn to correct my speaking. Before I did not know what my problem is and why sometimes people don’t understand me speaking. It has been a lot of improving for me, since I start this one on one class.” [accent/pronunciation training of a Thai speaker of English]

Some of our clients

Accent reduction (learning a new accent)

a Tamil speaker wanted to improve his intelligibility and communication skills in English
a French call centre supervisor needed his clients to be able to understand him over the phone
a speaker of American English wanted Australians to stop asking him where he was from — he learnt how to sound more Australian
a German surgeon who was having trouble communicating with patients

Accent modification (fine-tuning an accent)

a Lebanese Arabic speaker wanted to modify some aspects of his English accent and improve his presentation style
a South-African executive wanted to sound more “international”, making his Afrikaans accent less noticeable
a Malaysian student who had a stronger Malay accent than some of his mates who had been in Australia for less time

Elocution (communicating more clearly)

a Vietnamese speaker needed to be able to communicate clearly and effectively in Australian English
a newsreader needed to be able to pronounce foreign words and names confidently, often without having seen the names beforehand
an executive wanted to sound less ‘ocker’ (broad Australian accent)

Foreign language pronunciation

an executive for a multinational corporation who spoke Japanese with a strong Australian English accent and wanted to improve his Japanese pronunciation
a singer needed to learn the basics of Spanish and Italian pronunciation