That annoying voice in your head during auditions that says "maintain the accent" or worse it might even say "that accent is terrible" is one of the worst problems when doing an accent other than your own. Well with Practically Speaking that voice in your head will disappear. This technique is unique in it's practical approach to the accent. It's easy! Practically Speaking teaches you to focus allowing you to change from "doing an accent" to just thinking about your acting. Practically Speaking uses the most common academic knowledge but gives a practical and easy way to achieve the results without over analyzing the entire makeup of the accent. The book avoids the usual overload of academic based techniques and keeps the actor focused on their acting. We have heard from many students that have bought other books or studied with other teachers and the most common statement is "I loved it when I was in the class, but I couldn't tell you where to start if I got a script". Well with Practically Speaking this is not the case. You will follow a script from receiving it from your agent to performing in the audition. The step by step instructions will leave you with no doubt about what you need to do when you receive the script. And don't worry about the usual BORING voice learning. Practically Speaking has been taught by Troy Mackinder who is known for taking what can be the most boring part of acting training and making it fun. It's not good enough to just say "this is voice and so it has to be boring". Troy believes if you make things fun you will do them and if they are not fun you won't. With that in mind he has tried to make the learning as fun as it can be so you can get the job done! Sound like YOU have been American your entire life. More often than not when going to a voice teacher or accent coach you will be taught what Troy likes to call "the polite voice teacher voice". This consists of over pronouncing every word throughout. The problem with this is that NOBODY actually speaks that way. In Troy's years as an industry professional it is the most common thing he sees among actors. With Practically Speaking this is not the case. The entire approach acknowledges the conversational speech patterns and incorporates it's in into your training. You will not be learning something that teaches you to sound like that "polite voice teacher". You will sound like you have been American your entire life! And more importantly you will sound like an actor who is competent and capable of landing the role. If that's what you want from your American Accent then this book is for you! This book was made for Australians and New Zealanders can it work for me? Troy has worked with all kinds of Nationalities and accent with AWESOME results. Troy did originally write this book with Australians and New Zealanders in mind as he resides in Australia. However the book focuses mainly on the American Accent with only some references to the Australian Accent. The American Accent does not change from one nationality to another. Troy has used this book and his technique to help such accents as English (London), Northern England, Irish, South African and Italian and the results have been exceptional. Just see what Nino and Brian have to say.