Meet some of the people who make my work so enjoyable.
The photo is one of my Refining Pronunciation classes after their final performances of Christopher Durang’s short play, DMV Tyrant. Featuring a customer and a DMV Lady, it’s a satirical look at the frustrations of dealing with bureaucracy. Two enthusiastic DMV Ladies even came in costume!
Mark Tao, Chinese-speaking, a top executive in the San Francisco non-profit sector
“Grace is one of the best teachers I have ever had. I feel truly grateful and blessed having her as my language coach!
I am a Chinese immigrant who came to the United States when I was 23 years old. I had a thick accent. It is much harder for someone my age to learn to speak a foreign language. I first took Grace's class in 2011, and I was pleasantly surprised how much I improved as a result. Fast forward to today, 14 years later, I just finished taking another round of classes with Grace. At this point in my life, I need to further refine my pronunciation to be ready for the next stage of my career. After a few months working with Grace, I improved noticeably, and some of my close friends have commented on that as well. All thanks to Grace.
Grace is to the point and highly effective. After listening to you for a while, she can quickly tell where your accent comes from. She will then customize her curriculum and work with you on those areas. She will tell you where to put your tongue to make a certain sound. She will tell you where your speech needs clearer diction, linking, or emphasis, and she will show you the techniques to achieve them. As a bonus, classes with Grace are always uplifting and fun. I am so grateful that I have met Grace. Without her help, I would probably have spoken with a heavy accent for the rest of my life. To me, Grace's class has been life changing. I cannot recommend her class highly enough.”
SW, Singaporean finance professional in private equity
“Grace is an exceptional accent coach who has helped me make clear, noticeable improvements in my pronunciation. Her structured and personalized approach made each session both effective and focused on my specific needs. Grace’s dedication and keen attention to detail have truly boosted my confidence in speaking. I highly recommend her to anyone looking to refine their accent with expert, targeted guidance—working with Grace has been a valuable experience.”
Maria Shepel, Ukrainian Quality Assurance (QA) Engineer
“Working with Grace has been a truly valuable experience. She shared so many helpful insights and practical techniques that made a real difference in my learning. Grace is not only a highly talented teacher with her own effective learning system, but also an amazing person—and, if I may say, a coach who provides honest and constructive feedback when it’s needed most. Her classes helped me overcome a mental barrier I had when speaking English, and I now feel much more confident. I’m very glad I had the opportunity to work with her and look forward to continuing with the next series of sessions.”
Tomer, Israeli Algorithm Developer
“Grace is truly a great teacher. The lessons and study materials are well-organized, which made it easy for me to review the material and practice it effectively. She did a great job in custom-tailoring the lessons so that they fit my level of English, ensuring that I got the most out of our lessons. After 4 months of working with Grace, my accent and way of expressing myself in English have improved significantly – I am very happy with the results. And above all, the lessons are fun, enriching and never boring. I highly recommend her!”
Loli C, Chinese-speaking Art Director
“I recently completed an English course with Grace and it was an absolute delight! Grace is an exceptional teacher—both professional and incredibly kind. Her guidance not only helped me refine my accent, but I also gained a deeper understanding of English grammar. I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of the class and am truly grateful for the knowledge and skills she imparted. I highly recommend her classes to anyone seeking to improve their English skills.”
Michael Blind, German Software Engineer
“After moving to the US in late 2020, I noticed that my spoken English was plateauing and that my accent was getting in the way of many things in my daily life. I started taking lessons with Grace then and continued working with her for about 8 more months. This has been one of the best decisions I’ve made and has yielded great results!
First, the core materials were very well structured and allowed me to acquire a much better understanding of the fundamentals of voice, pronunciation, and the English language. Then, once I started understanding these core concepts better and better, we were able to dive deeper into specific settings and areas that I encounter in my life and work. This pairing of core repeatable concepts with specific relevant applications was incredibly valuable. Grace did a fantastic job tailoring the lessons to my needs while also teaching the fundamentals of spoken English in a well-structured system. She was able to quickly adjust the lessons to my learning style, allowing me to progress much faster than I could have otherwise. The course examples and materials were fun and relevant, making it easy to stay engaged in the learning process.
Since working with Grace, I’ve noticed a significant reduction in my accent and increased clarity in my articulation. People rarely pick up on my accent and it has ceased getting in the way of my day-to-day life. I don’t get asked to repeat myself anymore, it’s become much easier to form relationships with people I meet, and I’m finally able to bring out my full personality. Additionally, Grace’s lessons have immensely increased my confidence in my spoken English, which has made me more relaxed in most settings and has decreased my accent even further. Taking lessons with Grace has been a fantastic investment in myself and has paid off many times over. I highly recommend doing the same!”
Masami Yoshida, Japanese Accountant
“After moving to San Francisco, I realized I needed to improve my English skills for the future. My partner had previously taken lessons with Grace and highly recommended her, so I decided to take her lessons.
What surprised me the most after starting pronunciation lessons was that not only did I begin to use the same techniques native speakers use, but my listening skills also improved significantly. I was also able to catch the pronunciation of unfamiliar words, look them up later, and fully understand their meanings.
But that’s not all. One of the great things about Grace’s lessons is that she customizes the content to fit each student's situation.
During a series of lessons, I was searching for a job. Grace reviewed my answers to basic interview questions, helping me create responses that were clearer and more impactful. She even integrated speaking practice to help me communicate more effectively. This gave me the confidence to go into my interviews and successfully I got a great job.
After getting my final job offer, we shifted the focus of the lessons to workplace communication and worked on my grammar, which was a weak point for me. Since starting the lessons, my English skills have improved tremendously compared to before.
I highly recommend Grace’s lessons to anyone serious about significantly improving their English.”
Lolo Zhang, Chinese-speaking Lead Product Designer, Design Systems at Ripple
“I worked with Grace for almost a year. Taking classes with her is one of the best decisions I've ever made.
In 2021, after living in the US for eight years, I realized that a good accent wouldn't come to me naturally. I got anxious whenever someone said "pardon" because after I repeated myself the other person seemed even more confused. Luckily, I found Grace from her website and started my accent journey.
Grace has a great system of learning materials, from evaluation to exercises, which helped me understand my accent from multiple perspectives. She could identify my pronunciation mistakes very quickly and gave me different solutions to correct them. Her knowledge of pronunciation always blows my mind! By the end of the course, I couldn't believe the progress I'd made.
I now feel confident speaking up at work and in my everyday life. More importantly, I now find interpersonal interactions more enjoyable.
I wholeheartedly recommend that any of my friends who want to work on their accent learn with Grace. (I've done this already, and those friends love Grace's lessons, too.) “
Malik Diarra, French
“After working for a few years in the USA as a French immigrant and manager in the tech industry, I realized that my accent and English pronunciation could hold me back in my career and everyday life.
After some research, I found Grace's website and booked a consultation. Grace had worked with many people in my situation and built a training plan for me. Working with Grace was one of the most impactful decisions I made to improve my pronunciation.
Grace helped me understand which sounds I was mispronouncing and how to pronounce them correctly. Her lessons helped me integrate those discoveries and turn them into habits. She was extremely knowledgeable about the multiple elements of English pronunciation and the difficulties foreign speakers face.
I really appreciated how Grace made those lessons fun and diverse. We used video diaries, essays, history lessons, and even singing to practice a perfect American accent.
If, as I did, you often have to repeat yourself when talking to others or you are not fully confident people understand you well, I really recommend you get some external help and talk with Grace. Grace’s coaching will really help you improve your command of English.”
Cindy W., Chinese Visual Designer
“I had never felt good about my English, but during my lesson series with Grace, my co-worker noticed that I was speaking more clearly and seemed more comfortable and relaxed during meetings. I do feel more confident about myself when I speak to someone in English now. Grace is a very experienced English mentor and good at finding tricks to help you with the problems you are facing. It is more than an English course. You will learn how to fight your fear and bring up the best version of yourself.”
Chinese male Ph.D Student in Physics, Stanford University
“I already had a good foundation in speaking and accent when I started Grace's classes after spending 6 years in the US for high school and college. I went into the lessons with the aim of polishing my diction and improving my confidence and fluidity in different social and professional situations. That is exactly what I got after working with Grace. Her systematic and customized lesson plans really helped me improve my intonation and expressiveness and made me sound much more natural and confident. She is always very patient and dedicated and made the lessons an enjoyable experience I always looked forward to every week. I highly recommend her lessons to people of all levels looking to improve their speaking and find their voice.”
LC, Taiwanese Business Development Specialist, Faceheart
“When I first came to Grace in the middle of 2023, I had been assigned to pitch our product at one of the biggest medical conferences, but struggled to speak in well-structured sentences. After working with Grace for 8 months, I not only felt much more confident about my verbal skills but also learned how to communicate with international customers. This was such a transformative experience for me that I'm no longer afraid of being misunderstood due to my accent. With Grace's expertise and patience, she helped me identify how to say words in the right way. In my over10-year journey of learning English, I've never felt so comfortable speaking with native speakers, conducting meetings and giving public speeches. While learning a new language is always challenging, Grace's company has made the process seamless and enjoyable, opening new opportunities in my career.”
SL, Korean Animator
“Grace is the best English teacher I have ever had. She is not only a great English teacher but also a great life mentor. I had been studying English my entire life and had also lived in the US for a year before I met her, so my English skill was above intermediate. But I was still struggling to figure out how to correctly pronounce new words and to generate more natural English sentences like native American English speakers.
It’s not a lie that I doubted my English-speaking level would be developed through any English classes or that my confidence in speaking would grow as well. Most English classes I had taken taught me how to pronounce certain words and sentences well but never taught me the mechanisms behind the pronunciation. This was one of the reasons it was so difficult for me to pronounce new words or sentences.
However, Grace has a very well-structured curriculum that helps not only accent reduction but knowing how to pronounce new words. Unlike other English-speaking classes, in which I actually had to study and memorize those pronunciation fundamentals like I was taking a college linguistics class, all I needed to do was trust her, practice, and apply those mechanics to new words. It worked fantastically well!
I would also 100% especially recommend her for people like me who not only lack confidence in their English skills but also feel unconfident in their life or career in general. She’s been working with so many people from all walks of life. In just a second of conversation, she knows what students need in response to their concerns and gives very helpful life advice. She really pays attention to students’ words and doesn’t ignore anything even if it’s a very short/trivial comment during a warmup session. I had several personal issues to handle but I didn’t need a therapist because she had my back. I really appreciate her kind words and encouragement. Thanks to her, I was able to gain my confidence socially by speaking better English and mentally by having more positive thoughts of myself.”
Barbara, Brazilian Judicial Assistant, Superior Court of California
“I found out about Grace’s work through an online search for accent reduction classes. Five minutes after visiting her site, I sent her an email. Grace’s vast experience really impressed me. I attended one of her very fun info sessions with other prospective students. I was a bit concerned in the beginning because most of her students mainly needed help to be more “out there” socially. I was interested in improving my professional presentation so I could perform in my very serious workplace more skillfully. I became convinced that studying with Grace would be a great investment. Grace helped me with my pronunciation, intonation and posture. She helped me understand what accent really is and how I could take steps toward improving it so people would pay attention to what I’m saying instead of how I’m saying it. Grace is very accommodating and she was constantly finding ways to tweak her program according to my needs. It was an amazing experience working with such a positive and kind professional. I highly recommend Grace’s work - independently of your English level.”
Ahyoung Park, Korean Industrial Designer, Box Clever
“I have worked with Grace for 8 months and I have definitely been hugely helped by her. She is very experienced, so she found the real problems in my English and offered a great customized training plan. I wasn’t aware of my bad little habits in English, but I could fix them with her help. She knows the little details that can make huge changes. This class helped improve not only my pronunciation and intonation, but also my general English skills, such as presentation skills and writing. Above all, I learned how to speak English with confidence. My coworkers and friends have noticed the improvement in my English, and I have, too! Her teaching style is so enjoyable and encouraging and the class is always warm and nice. I strongly recommend her class for non-English speakers who can’t figure out what the real problems are with their English.”
Customer Service Manager, Russian
“My experience with Grace has been outstanding. Some people say you can’t get rid of an accent. Well, Grace says you can. Throughout my classes with her, she’s been working on tiny adjustments to the way I speak that have made a whole world of difference. Every week I brought to class stories of my small victories, when I flawlessly expressed myself or people finally understood me when I said ‘Spotify.’ Those experiences meant a lot to me as I saw progress every week. Grace has been very supportive and encouraging; she actually made me a more confident person. Every week I looked forward to our class. It was a superb way to relieve the stress of the day and have an excellent time learning new and interesting things.”
Hae-Jeong Yoon, Korean Pastor in Wisconsin
“Grace provided excellent help for me to develop clear communication in a cross-cultural ministry context. More than that, she was a seeker of Truth, which was a very delightful element of the classes.”
Raffaella Buschiazzo, Italian Director of Localization at Salesforce
“Grace’s accent reduction private classes that I took allowed me to speak to a big audience with more confidence. She immediately detected my accent weaknesses in English and sounds that we should work on improving because she is used to working with a wide variety of accents. I was extremely impressed by her teaching methodology, the intellectually stimulating material that she selected for our classes, and her digital library of exercises on pronunciation that she offers to her students. I recommend Grace to anybody who has a hard-to-understand accent as well as to those who simply have a few sounds to streamline as it was my case.”
Russian Software Engineer at Facebook
“Grace helped me identify the weakest areas of my accent and helped me improve those. Many times before I didn’t know how to make a particular sound and hence how to say a word right. Grace helped me improve all those sounds and now I can speak with more confidence. She also helped me realize that the sounds aren’t everything and the actual intonation matters even more than the sounds themselves. This was like a revelation to me! Grace helped me identify what was off with my intonation and why it was more difficult for native speakers to understand. Now, when I use the proper intonation and stress patterns when I speak, I can see a completely different reaction from the people I speak with. This is fantastic! I can finally enjoy the conversation instead of being stressed about it. Thank you, Grace!”
Siew Peng, Malay/Chinese Barista at Starbucks
“I made a very wise decision to take private lessons with Grace. Learning from YouTube is not as effective as learning from Grace directly. Her classes helped me understand how to pronounce correctly, which also directly built my confidence at my job at Starbucks. The rhythm, intonation and word stress taught by Grace helped me a lot when talking to customers and calling out drink orders. Customers and my co-workers can clearly understand me now and I have to repeat myself much less often than before, when I did not know what my mistakes were. The most important thing Grace taught me is how to sound friendly when communicating. I am thankful to her for sharing with me that a secret to success in the American workplace is sounding friendly. On the job, I applied everything Grace taught me and it made a huge improvement. I am truly thankful and appreciate Grace.”
Gaukhar Nuskabayeva, Kazhak
“I had a great experience working with Grace Wood. I was enrolled in the individual lessons with the aim of learning about pronunciation and reducing my accent. My main goal was to sound like a native speaker by the end of the series. All my goals were achieved. I transformed into a confident speaker of clear English. Grace is a great professional who was able to quickly identify my weak spots in American English pronunciation and get them fixed. Classes are well structured and the learning materials are simply great. I had a great time and enjoyed myself. I highly recommend Grace.”
Tingting G., Chinese Housewife
“A professional, conscientious and friendly teacher, an informative class, and step-by-step instructions on how to speak like a native speaker. We can get intensive practice in recognizing and pronouncing the sounds, stress, rhythm, and intonation patterns of American English. I have studied with Grace for 4 months. I feel more confident speaking English and I highly recommend this class to other students. Thank you, Grace.”
Kaori Tanaka, Japanese UX Designer at Salesforce
“Grace is a specialist in pointing out what you’ll need to improve and how to do it. Her feedback helped me a lot on where to focus. I was struggling for a long time and didn’t know how to refine my pronunciation. Her teaching made such a difference.”
Sholeh, Iranian Housewife
“I think Pronunciation of English is a wonderful class for anyone who likes to speak English correctly. Grace’s class is fun. She has so much patience with her students and a unique way of teaching them how to learn the material. When I listen to my recorded speech sample from the first week of class and compare it to the final recording, I feel proud of myself. I would definitely recommend taking this class with Grace.”
Vanessa, Colombian Human Resources Graduate Student
“I have been working on my pronunciation with Grace for 6 months. Thanks to Grace, I understand why native speakers of English didn’t understand me. I didn’t have any idea how important pronunciation is until I started using Grace’s advice with native speakers and seeing they could understand me completely. She has impressive knowledge of all the pronunciation errors that each non-native English speaker could make.”
Bineesh U. Indian Software Engineer
“The class really helped me to correct many problems in my accent. I speak confidently now and everyone understands my English.”
Roberto Estrada Castro, Mexican Spanish Instructor
“It was a complete pleasure to take this class with Grace. She showed us specifics of how to improve and get the right pronunciation of challenging words and phrases. Grace gave each of us personal attention and great feedback. I will definitely recommend this course to anyone who needs help on their pronunciation and anybody that is not an English native speaker. Thank you so much, Ms. Wood.”
Jung-Yeon Yoon, Korean User Experience Designer
“Grace helped me to hear what I used to sound like, which was a huge shock to me! People are usually too polite to ask me to clarify what I say or they are used to accents from different countries. I really enjoyed working with her; she is very experienced, knowledgeable and supportive! She worked with me on details and provided me with customized worksheets to correct my pronunciation. The improvement that I made became a tremendous asset for my career and life over all. Thank you, Grace!”
Manny Ramos, Principal, Manny Ramos Communications, Masters Instructor, Academy of Art University, San Francisco
“It’s my pleasure to recommend the language coaching and teaching skills of Grace Wood. I have worked alongside Grace for 6 years and have seen the remarkable results she has with people who are trying learn the English language. She can get them to master the basics of the language and even deliver the nuance of the American dialect. Grace does it with solid teaching skills and with a warm and friendly delivery. I have seen people who struggle with English be transformed into confident conversationalists in just a matter of weeks as a result of coaching from Grace.”
Marina Schenzer, Germany
It was a great time! I always was afraid of speaking English. My accent was really horrible. Now I have fun when I’m speaking English. Grace is such a good teacher. I would like to learn much more with her.
Ren Nakagawa, Japanese College Student
“At the beginning of this school year, my pronunciation was not good. Because of this, I decided to take an online pronunciation course. My teacher, whose name is Grace, is so nice. She taught me how to pronounce correctly and my pronunciation is way better now. Every single lesson is so fun. She organizes homework for me each week based on my weaknesses. If you are looking for a teacher, I would say she is the best. I guarantee it.”
RC, Brazilian Medical Assistant
“Grace Wood is wonderful! She is an excellent teacher. She is always patient and dedicated. She makes the class really enjoyable, pleasant and easy to understand. It has been a pleasure to be Grace’s student and I highly recommend her.”
Paula Rodriguez, Chilean
“Grace Wood is an excellent teacher! She is patient, dedicated, professional. She tailored the classes so well that it helps every student from every background. She is just the best! One of my favorite teachers. I totally recommend Grace if you’d like to improve your English.”
Y. T. Japanese Licensing Manager
“Your method of teaching pronunciation is very organized. Finally, I feel like I’m comfortable speaking in front of native speakers. Thank you!”
Alvaro Romero, Spanish News Producer, NBC Universal Telemundo
“It was a great time. I enjoyed every class. As a Spanish speaker, pronunciation is huge. It was helpful learning how to pronounce every word not only to be understood by others, but also to understand others.”
Yuma Argo, Mongolian Consultant
“This class was the best class I have ever taken. I learned a lot and improved my skills. I would recommend taking this class to my friends and I have already suggested they do so.”
Lucien Wigley, French
“Very useful, if not essential, for any non-native speaker willing to be understood. A few tips made a big change and the class allows you to work on these tips to get fast results. Interesting and FUN! Perfect after a day at work. More people should take this class, and I’ll not hesitate to refer friends to it with the same need. Professor really adapts/adjusts to each student’s level and challenges.”
BV, French Research Associate, Biotech
“Grace’s courses are a fun environment in which to work on my pronunciation weaknesses. I could identify them and then practiced with different complimentary approaches to correct them. At the end, my English improved and my day-to-day life, as well. I also met great people during the 8 weeks.”
Cecilia Santos, Filipina Staff Accountant, Hyatt Hotel
“I really enjoyed this class. I’m glad that I enrolled and it really helped me a lot. The teacher is very professional and has a well-planned and organized lesson plan. The teacher’s comments are true and correct, right to the point, and it helped me to focus on how to communicate properly. Overall, love this class. Thank you, Grace!”