You know, accents really do depend on where you are from.  I grew up in the Midwestern United States (Minnesota, to be precise).  My part of the world is generally though of as being “accent-less”.  We have no drawl and very few colloquial alternate pronunciations.  Most newscasters sound like me.

Now I live in Canada on the West Coast, and hardly anyone can tell that I am “American”, which is often associated with “y’all” and other such accents…at least in the Canadian mind.

Even though my own speech is pretty plain, I work with many, many, many Asian international students, and have worked with Peruvians before as well.  All of them have a hard time with spoken English making their speech understandable and not easily recognized as a “foreigner”.  While many internationals may not need an American accent, many want and need to be more easily understood and accepted by North American peers.

Most language schools and courses are good at teaching vocabulary and grammar, and even conversation skills.  Accent reduction is often left alone.  This new online course that I found looks promising, however.  It is marketed to include a longer course and a new, short-course, of eight lessons.  While I have not personally taken a look at all the ins and outs, it does come highly recommended and is pretty cheap (less than $40) to try out.

You can click here to check it out.  If you do try it, let me know what you think, for good or for bad, and I will post your comments.

As an educational service business, I want to facilitate good products and get the word out to others about them.  I also want to warn about maybe not so good products.  Help me do that.

Again, here is the link. Click Here!

Technorati Tags: accent, american accent, american accent reduction, ESL, Tutoring

Kratos God of War

When I named my company, I chose the name Kratos  based on the New Testament (in the Bible) understanding of the word.  Being a theology major, I thought this was the usage of the word that everyone else knew as well.  FYI,  the biblical meaning of  “kratos” is as follows:  power and strength.  In the New Testament, it never says that humans can have or gain kratos, but that it is God’s power and overwhelming might.  As a name for my company, it was related to the idea that Kratos as primarily an educational resource and tutoring company would have almost a supernatural ability to impart wisdom and knowledge.  It means “to conquer”, and implies that you can conquer and have victory over academic difficulties.

Now for the popular usage.  Little known to myself (I actually think the popularity came after my company was established),  Kratos may also be found in reference to (from Wikipedia):

• A tool for electron ionization
• the main protagonist in the video game series God of War
• a character from the Tales of Symphonia video game
• the shoot to kill policy of London’s Metropolitan Police Service

Just to be clear, I have no desire to be associated in any way with a shoot to kill policy.  If you are researching this online and wind up on my site, go somewhere else.  You will not find any support here of such a horrible thing.

The God of War, however, is kind of cool.  I don’t know much about the game, personally, but can send you to a review here. From what I see online, it is totally opposite to my original intention, but “c’est la vie”.  If you are here because of the video game, my links will get you  back on track.

I hope that those here because of education and tutoring will be satisfied that Kratos International will meet the standard set by the name.  May you find strength, wisdom, and divine power to overcome any educational challenge that sent you looking here in the first place.

Technorati Tags: academic difficulties, God of War, God of War review, Kratos, might, power, PS 2, PS 3, Tutoring, what is kratos, who is kratos

Kratos is in the business of referring quality instructors and instructional resources to its followers.  I have a perfect example of one today.

I have had the privilege of getting to know a phenomenal musician who is trying to make a career of teaching music. Her name is Monique Fink and she is looking for more students to teach. Her specialty is cello, but she has also taken up violin (fiddle) and is looking to start teaching this as well. Instead of taking extra time to re-invent the wheel, let me copy some information from her own music website.

“Monique Fink is a classically trained cellist. She began her studies at an early age of four with the Suzuki Method. Before heading into University, Monique completed many musical camps including Suzuki Camps in Bellingham, Langley, Seattle. She was also a part of the Summer Pops Youth Orchestra

Upon graduating from High School in 1999 she continued her passion for music at Douglas College in New Westminster, B.C. Shortly after she transferred to the University of Victoria where she obtained her Bachelor of Music Degree in 2005.

Monique has completed many Royal Conservatory of Music Exams in both the cello and the piano, obtaining first class honors in many of them.”

You can read more about her by going directly to her site.  Her rates are very reasonable and for quality, let me give you a couple of samples that she herself has put onto YouTube. If you like what you see and hear, please contact Monique and arrange your music lessons as soon as possible.

Technorati Tags: cello lessons, cello teacher, music lessons, suzuki music lessons, victoria cello lessons, violin lessons, violin teacher