Yui Akimoto - testimonial
Higher-intermediate learner & corporate professional, Japan
- Yui spent over a decade mastering English through school, self-study and a year abroad - yet in professional settings, something still felt off.
- After working one-on-one with Ellie, she now speaks with such clarity that native interviewers ask, “Did you spend a long time in the UK?”
- The same IPA-powered, body-aware techniques behind her breakthrough are now built into the Pronunciation with Ellie courses.
Before working with Ellie
"Before I started taking your lessons, I would have considered my English level to be around Higher Intermediate - somewhere between B2 and C1. I had been learning English for about ten years, both through school and on my own, and I even spent a year on an exchange programme abroad, studying in an English-speaking college in Budapest.
At that time I had never worked one-on-one with a tutor before, so no one had ever pointed out my pronunciation mistakes. I had English-speaking friends, but they never corrected me - even when I repeated the same errors - because in friendly conversations, the focus is on what you say, not how you say it.
However, when it comes to professional communication, it’s a completely different story. Since I’ve always had the desire to work in an English-speaking country - hopefully in the UK - I realised how important it would be to speak more clearly, ideally with a neutral or RP accent. I wanted my speech to be clear enough that people wouldn’t need to spend extra effort figuring out what I was saying - they could just focus on the content itself. I wanted to be treated as a professional and I don’t want my colleagues to change the way they speak just because they’re talking to me. That was the point I was at before starting the lessons."
What I tried first
"After I decided to work on my pronunciation, the first thing I did was a bit of research on YouTube. I’ve always loved learning English through YouTube videos, so naturally, I started there for pronunciation practice as well.
I found a few great YouTubers who focus on pronunciation - one of my favourites is a popular pronunciation YouTube channel. Her videos really helped me at a certain level because that’s where I first learned about phonetic symbols. I also got some basic knowledge of British English pronunciation, like which sounds are often dropped and which ones are emphasised. But the problem was, it was all one-sided. Since it was YouTube, I couldn’t get any feedback. My learning kind of stopped once I thought I sounded okay - but I wasn’t actually sure.
I realised I needed someone who could be pickier about my pronunciation and give me detailed feedback. That’s when I started looking for a tutor like you, Ellie. I wanted the same kind of precise, hands-on guidance I got in ballet - someone to adjust me until the position (or sound) was exactly right."
Why I jumped in
"I actually had no hesitation at all. You made it very clear that your focus was on pronunciation, and you also shared what made you passionate about it. That really aligned with what I was looking for at the time. So it felt natural for me to choose you and start working with you regularly - once a week from the beginning.
I know that some people believe pronunciation isn’t the highest priority since English is ultimately just a tool for communication - as long as people understand you, small pronunciation mistakes don’t matter. But I personally believe that if you want to use English in a professional setting, improving your pronunciation can be incredibly helpful and beneficial. As I mentioned earlier, when your English is clear and easy to understand, listeners can focus their mental energy on what you’re saying, not on figuring out what you’re saying. That’s exactly the kind of communication I wanted to achieve, so I didn’t hesitate to take action to improve my English."
The biggest shift
"The biggest outcome for me has been awareness. Before taking your lessons, I didn’t really know which specific sounds I was mispronouncing. Now, I can clearly recognise my recurring mistakes and understand why they happen. I realised that because I mispronounce this vowel, I make this similar mistake in different words, and I also learned the concept of phonetic symbols."
How I sound now
"Another outcome is confidence. As my pronunciation improved, I started to feel more comfortable speaking in professional situations.
Recently, I had an interview with a native English speaker, and at the end she asked me, “Why is your English so clear? Did you spend a long time in the UK?” That moment made me so proud - it showed me that the effort I’ve put into improving my pronunciation has truly paid off."
What I didn’t expect
"This is not what I expected when I started working on my pronunciation, but for Japanese learners, the British accent can be easier to pick up rather than American.
There are so many reasons but one of the biggest reasons is that in British English (Received Pronunciation, RP), vowels are generally pronounced more distinctly and clearly, with less “flattening” than in many American accents. Japanese has a relatively small set of pure vowel sounds (a, i, u, e, o), and RP vowels often map more closely to these sounds."
Perfect for
"People who are going to study in the UK academically, or those who want to work professionally in the UK or in a country where British English is commonly used."
Not ideal if
"If your goal is to have conversations with people from all over the world in English, I don’t think lessons with Ellie would be the best fit. Speaking clearly is still really important in that case, but it would be more beneficial to expose yourself to various accents and get used to them."
Note from Ellie: while my courses focus on modern RP for professional clarity, the core skills - IPA awareness, precise articulation and vowel distinction - make you more intelligible to any English speaker, anywhere.
One final thought
"I think you’re amazing at verbalising where your tongue is and what kind of air you feel at certain places in your mouth - that’s really incredible."
Yui’s transformation came through one-on-one coaching - but the same precision techniques (IPA mastery, vowel distinction, body-aware articulation) are now packed into the Pronunciation with Ellie Intro Course and Twice-a-month Training.
Ready for interview-ready clarity? Start here →