How do you speak without an accent?

ANSWER

Practice, practice, practice. Talk with friends, listen carefully, play with the Words. Record yourself and listen. This is very powerful. Musicians are sometimes amazed when they hear recordings of their playing. There is something about performing that alters our moment-to-moment experience of what we are doing.

Everyone speaks with an accent. To me, English without an accent will sound very accented to people in the UK. So think in terms of modifying your accent, if you want, not eliminating it. Accent is not a bad Word; speaking well with an accent is a beautiful thing. Nonsense spoken with clear, unaccented diction is still nonsense.

ANSWER

We Canadians like to pretend (and most Canadians actually believe) that we don't speak with an accent. If that's true (and I don't believe it to be so) then the way to speak without an accent would be to speak like Canadians. Tune in Canadian radio and television stations, and listen to Radio Canada International, our shortwave service.

ANSWER

You can't. Even so-called 'Standard English' using RP ['Received Pronunciation'] is a regional dialect, being generally defined as what is spoken by educated people in the South-East - but if the capital was in Manchester rather than London, Standard would be what we now call Mancunian.