I have personal experience in speech therapy/pathology and secondary language support, so I'm going to have to remain fast on my original point. The same areas of your brain are used as in learning a new dialect, accent, or language -- anything is possible if you work on it.
If you still doubt me, think on people who can do multiple impressions or impersonations of others, usually famous people, with ease. It is not some natural talent, but born out of practice and the ubiquity of that voice to that impersonator. Speech therapy works in much the same way, and effectively and painlessly if stuck with. You'll always have the original "unpolished" accent in your mental vocabulary, but you can always choose to use a "more polished" one in any situation where you feel an unpolished one won't be useful or understood.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Saoshyant 
I'm going to have to disagree with you on this. Speech patterns are a bit more ingrained, and yes while learning a new language is difficult, for many the process of changing these patterns is more difficult. People generally don't consciously pay attention to their normal speech patterns, especially given they are typically a learned behavior from family and environment.
Edited by soundstige - 3/21/13 at 9:23pm
