A few years ago I met a woman who had recently come to the US from Japan to work for Microsoft. It was almost impossible to understand what she was saying due to her thick accent. She knew she was struggling but being in a position of authority she had to talk anyway and it was painful for everyone. (Lest you roll your eyes at the ugly American, I’ll admit I don’t speak Japanese and am not trying to be a jerk. I’m trying to set the scene here!)

Six months later I ran into her again and she spoke remarkably well. It wasn’t the Queen’s English and she still had a slight accent, but I would have guessed she had been in the US 20 years rather than a few months. While part of her improvement was immersion, I have worked with enough non-native speakers to be pretty sure it was more than that. This is where you’re expecting me to say, “She joined Toastmasters and the day was saved.” Wrong! I’m positive that this woman took some very intensive English language/American accent classes to make as much improvement as she did so quickly.

Toastmasters is made up of a bunch of amateurs who try real hard, not professional speech therapists or language teachers. Our meetings are not setup for the intensive one on one training you need to master an accent.

Toastmasters is a great help to a non-native speaker who wants to improve their English, regardless of whether they’re new to the US taking basic classes or have been here for twenty years. Being at Microsoft I hear a lot of non-native speakers say they want to improve their English and I knee-jerk recommend Toastmasters. The reasons are similar to why Toastmasters is a good deal for the nervous speaker:

• Sympathetic crowd - Most people (even native English speakers) join Toastmasters because they’re lousy public speakers, not good ones. They’ll be much more understanding of someone trying to find words in a foreign tongue.
  
• Less pressure - If you botch up your English at Toastmaster speech, it’s not going to impact to your career/life/immortal soul.
• Curiosity - Toastmasters tend to be into self-improvement and learning new things and will be more curious when you talk about foreign culture than say the guys at Bill’s Truck Stop.
• Natural English - Toastmasters do use slang you’ll hear in real life, but at the same time should speak slowly and clearly enough to give you time to keep up.
• Evaluations - One of the positions at each meeting is the grammarian, who watches for proper use of English language and will point out (nicely hopefully) places you may be off.
• Good Speakers - My mom, the English teacher, told me the best way to learn to write is to read good literature. The best way to learn to speak well is to listen to good speakers. You will (hopefully) find at least a few at your club.

The woman, who unfortunately I have lost touch with, still did not have a lot of confidence speaking despite her drastic improvement. Had I been in Toastmasters back then, I would have taken her aside and risked being rude by praising her for her improvement and then suggesting a club.

Even if you’re an ugly American like me you can improve your English in a Toastmasters club, too. Or your Japanese! There are non-English clubs in the US, including a Japanese club nearby me, that mix English and a foreign language in the same meeting.