In this California Life podcast episode, host Victor Migalchan interviews Carol Ford, owner of the Ford Language Institute, about the institute’s origins, mission, and flagship offering – the American Accent Program. The conversation begins with the institute’s founding in the early 1980s after a request from Unisys to improve the intelligibility of its field representatives. After two years of research, Ford’s team created a curriculum that earned 16 copyrights and proved successful in a live demonstration, leading to broader corporate adoption. Ford explains the modern delivery of the program through two digital products: the informational website (americanaccentprogram.com) and a companion mobile app (americanaccent.app). The curriculum is structured into three progressive stages – speaking clearly (vowel and consonant articulation), speaking fluently (stress, rhythm, melody), and speaking naturally (long conversational speech). Learners record themselves, receive automated feedback via progress bars, and earn a digital certificate upon completion. The program is self‑paced, does not include live instruction (though future live options are contemplated), and is priced at roughly $5 per week, with a recommended six‑month commitment for adults with busy schedules. Ford outlines the target audience: intermediate to high‑intermediate ESL learners, professionals needing clear phone or face‑to‑face communication, and even children who can read English. She highlights the broader impact of clear American‑accented speech for job interviews, customer service calls, and academic settings. The interview also covers Ford’s personal background – pre‑medical studies at the University of Minnesota, a Master’s in Public Health from UC Berkeley, and an MBA from UC Irvine – and her extensive experience training executives, nurses, and doctors in Japan, France, Italy, China, Taiwan, and the Philippines to pass spoken‑English tests such as TOEIC. Future plans include adding a Hall of Fame for successful graduates, gathering testimonials, providing in‑service training for HR professionals, and expanding outreach to community colleges and technical institutes. The episode closes with a reminder of the website and app URLs and an invitation for listeners to try the affordable program.
Chapters
Welcome to California Life podcast, and today we have a very interesting guest.
Thank you.
We would like to introduce you to Carol Ford. Carol, thank you very much for coming. Thank you for having me.
I appreciate it very much.
And by the way, your last name is Ford. Is it related to one of the presidents or famous
I wish I could say that were true, but it's not.
Even not to Ford manufacturer? No. Okay. So Carol, owner of Ford Language Institute.
Yes.
And it's a very interesting name. Carol, can you tell us more about your organization? What, what is it about?
Yes, basically it's all about Speaking, communication, being more effective. And I'll give you a little brief background. A number of years, quite a number of years ago in Southern California, a number of individuals coming over from Japan, and there was a lot of things in the newspaper about problems with customer relations. The individuals were a little difficult to be understood. And Unisys was having difficulty with their reps that were going out in the field, and they were getting calls from the public saying, would you please send someone that we can understand?
Right.
We heard about that and sat down and decided that what is the situation? What is the problem? So it started in about 1982. We began doing the research, and we spent about 2 years developing what we felt was a program that would solve the problem. And then we ended up with about 16 copyrights from the various programs that we created. We went back to Unisys. Would you like to hear an interesting story about what we did?
Sure.
All right. So we went to Unisys and basically told them what we had and we thought we could solve the problem. And of course they're a very large company and they said, well, we're not really sure, but we'll let you have one And they happened to pick a Chinese gentleman, Dr.— it was Johnny, Johnny Chen, I think. And they said, you can work with him, and then we'll see how well your program works. Well, we were expecting to work with him for several months, and they said, we'll give you 2 weeks.
Uh-oh.
So we said, well, the only way that we'll do that is if you would be kind enough to give us a script. that he needs to talk with the public about. Right. And so they gave us the script, and of course Johnny was very interested because it had been a promotion for him. And so he was at our office night and day wanting to improve. We worked very, very hard with him, and then the 2 weeks was up, and we thought we were going to go into the manager's office with Johnny and sit there and he would talk with the manager. And surprisingly, they took us to a small auditorium, and they had invited all of the different managers to come and sit down and listen to this individual. So Johnny got up there and gave the programmed speech. He was just flawless. I mean, it was incredible, the change. And they're clapping, everybody was so happy. And then someone raised their hand and they said, Johnny, how did you do this? And then he started talking about how he did this, and you could not understand him because— He didn't learn it, right? We hadn't done the program yet. So at the time I thought, okay, That we've lost this contract. And as it turns out, they just trusted us and we ended up having several speech pathologists on the premises working the program. It was so successful that they sent their recruiters to the universities like University of Irvine, California. And on the bottom of the recruitment form it said, don't worry about the accent or whether you can understand them. We have the Ford Language Institute to help us. So that was the—
Beginning of the story, right? So, today you created basically 2 products, as I understand. One is americanaccentprogram.com website.
Yes.
Correct. And second is americanaccentprogram.app.
Correct.
americanaccent.app. It's application that people can actually connect with through your website.
Right, exactly.
Can you tell us more about website and application? Why it's 2 products but not one?
Okay, the website was actually designed to give more information about why it's so important to really be concerned about how well you're able to communicate. Today we have so many people in the United States from so many different nationalities. Immigrants, yes. And many of them have gone through an ESL program And unfortunately, a number of the instructors are from other countries. And so what's happening is the individuals that are going through the ESL programs are actually learning English from the accent of the instructor as opposed to the American accent. So what, what really professionally happens is we're trying to reduce the natural accent of the individual. And to make them more successful, we have to help them adapt the American accent. So we asked— the question is, well, how do we do that? Well, we have to start with the vowels, extremely important. Okay, we have to make sure the pronunciation of the vowels is correct. We have to make sure that the pronunciation of the consonants is correct. So that takes care of the element of how to speak clearly and be understood. But then we have a second element is once you're able to speak clearly and be understood, then almost always the individuals want to speak fluently. Right. They want to be more comfortable. And so then we have to get into the area of stress, and melody of the actual language. And then usually once someone has learned to speak clearly and to speak fluently, the most natural thing then is to speak naturally because you want to be comfortable and confident in your conversation. So that's the element of the American Accent Program. 3 parts.
At least 3 areas.
3 areas: speaking clearly, speaking fluently, and speaking naturally. And then The— when a person gets to the speaking naturally, the entire program has lots of paragraphs that are all recorded, instructions that are recorded. And I have them go back and demonstrate that they have mastered speaking clearly and mastered speaking fluently because now we're looking for long conversational speech just like we're having right now.
Yes.
This is considered long conversational speech. And this is the natural aspect we're looking for. So once they've been able to go through all of those paragraphs and record their conversation, basically it tells them, if you find when you're re-listening to your pronunciation of this paragraph, if the pronunciation isn't quite clear, then you go back to speaking clearly and solve that. If you find that the flow and the pausing and the rhythm is not quite right, then you go back to speaking fluently to see what's happening. At the conclusion, having completed Speaking Clearly, completed Speaking Fluently, completed Speaking Naturally, you are indeed considered an advanced speaker of American English. And we, on the website, we have a digital certificate that they can then, uh, download.
When they achieve their success.
Yes, absolutely.
So during this program, when they practice all these 3 areas, Do they speak with actual people, with actual teachers, or it's only with computer-based artificial intelligence program?
Yes, it's computer and app-based. Yes, so there's no live instruction.
In case if people would like to have some live person, can you provide them some?
At this moment we're not doing live.
But maybe someday, yes. Absolutely.
Probably Pretty easy to add to the website.
Right, right.
It would be very easy to do that, which may be a very good suggestion.
Sometimes people would like to, you know, to see the results by practicing with real persons like you are, for example. Yes, correct, correct. By the way, what is your education? How you came out with this program?
Well, let's see. Actually, the business owner— oh, I should say education. University of Minnesota, was pre-med. Okay. University of Berkeley was a master's in public health. University of Irvine, California, an MBA.
Nice.
Okay. I started the Ford Language Institute in 1980, I think it was. Very, very successful. It was a combination of a rehabilitation and speech, and then eventually just speech, working on the Accent program. And then after the Accent program was completed and we had our success with Unisys and we started having other major companies, I actually left the United States. I went to Japan and I taught executives with the program. Oh. Because they had to pass the test of English— it's called TOEIC, the Test of English for International Communication— must be passed to come to the United States in the '80s. Then I went to France and to Italy, and I taught more executives the same program. Then I went to China, and I taught nurses to pass the test of spoken English to come. And remember, all of these tests were by phone, and the most difficult way to be understood is on the phone.
On the phone, yes, correct.
Okay. So it was really a miracle to get them to be able to pass the test. And then from the nurses in China, I went to Taiwan and did doctors and nurses, get them to the United States passing the test, and then I went to the Philippines and worked with doctors and nurses and brought them over.
Great experience.
So we had really, really very, very good success with the program. And then eventually the natural thing would be to start going into the schools and the universities. A lot of academic— if you've been to the colleges, a lot of the assistant professors and the teaching assistants are from other countries, and the students were having a great deal of difficulty understanding them. So we had a very successful program with them as well.
Yes, I was on the board of Los Rios Foundation, so I understand, you know, what the system is about. We're working with many universities right now that have similar problems.
So it's a great— it's just a great feeling to watch someone just expand, and once they're able to control how well they're speaking English, I mean, just the whole world opens up to them. I agree with you. And in today's world, you know, anyone like yourself from another country, if you're fluent, if you're speaking clearly and you're fluent in English, you're at the top of the line.
Right.
You know, at any time—
More doors open for you.
Because, you see, naturalized Americans like myself, I only speak one language. I'm monolingual. So if I'm going to go to an interview for a job, And you're multilingual and you're very clearly in your American speech, you're going to get that job. I'm not going to get it.
I agree. So it helps, yes, in different areas. Yeah, when I came to the United States, what I noticed is that people are very patient even if they don't understand what you're trying to say, because most of us start to learn English here in the United States. They're still trying to figure out and smiling to you, you know, they're not aggressive like Probably in our countries, probably, what are you talking about? I don't understand you at all. But still, when you meet these phone calls from marketers, it's very distracting, you know, when you don't understand any words what they're trying to say to you. So I understand the importance of your program.
Yeah, in the United States, the number one complaint for Americans is to call a customer service number, and almost always you're speaking with someone from a different country, and it is very difficult. And we understand why. And it impacts the company. And so we're really helping a lot of companies. So, yeah, that's a very funny story.
So now let's talk about who are your audience. So you created this website and you created this application. What is goal of these 2 products?
The goal is to reach— the best person to reach is basically an intermediate or a high intermediate person who wishes to become an advanced speaker. That would be the goal. Although we do, we do have the ability with the current program to reach children, students. I mean, basically anyone that's able to read English.
So at least basic English.
You have to have basic English. If the program is used in, let's say, in the ESL programs, basically what we provide is just the speaking clearly because that's the crucial. Right. If an individual could go through the speaking— because the module for speaking clearly is quite large and it's very comprehensive. Mmhmm. And if they can master that, they will have left that program in very good shape because at least they're on a par in an interview in terms of speaking clearly, which is so much— so important. Mmhmm. But then what we would encourage after they've gone through that Then to proceed with the rest of the program and become fluent.
Yeah. And become a natural speaker. Do you think how long people need to spend time?
Well, again, when we created the app, we were thinking about adults for the most part who are working, who have family, who have— Limited time for the program. Limited time for the program. So we recognized— I mean, if we had the ideal, we would say give it 6 months.
Right.
But the nice thing about the app is you can use it on the car radio, you know, you can use it while you're running, you know, you can use it anywhere. You don't have to be on a computer in order to use the program. So with that many applications to use the program, it may take less, but you have to be realistic. We're talking adults with a lot of commitments. Oh yeah. I just, I'm comfortable saying, you know, give yourself 6 months to really reach that pinnacle. At least, right. Because once you reach it, you know, the world is your oyster.
But realistically, probably a 1-year program would be—
Well, if they could do it for a year, they would be absolutely perfect. But, you know, would they? I mean, I don't know. But I'm comfortable, give it 6 months. And the wonderful thing about the app, we've created it, we can, We can follow the progress they're actually making.
Yes.
Okay. There's a little button to click and you can see how much of the vowels they've done, how many of the consonants, how much of the intonation they've done. So we know if they're really using the program. Okay. And that's why we have on the website, we have the ability for them to, when they've got the progress bars all filled out, to then download a digital certificate that they can show to their employers, maybe get a raise. They can show it when they're interviewing. So we think there are a lot of applications for it.
And I know, Carol, the main idea of this application and this website is to provide help to our community, not to make money. And that's why you mentioned that it's very, very inexpensive. I think, what amount you mentioned? I remember you talked about a very small amount of money that realistically can afford everybody. I think it's $5 per week.
Yes, $5 per week.
Very, very inexpensive. If people would like to achieve the next level of Right. English communication, especially on management positions. It's just nothing, correct?
Oh, it's nothing. It's absolutely nothing. It's basically giving them the program.
Right.
And what I'm hoping to add— I'm going to add a Hall of Fame to the program. And hopefully individuals who have used the program have had success—
Graduated.
And we'd love to have them send us a picture give us some information about the good news, and then we're going to have that picture up there talking about— The
leaders of different communities who achieve results and get promotions. That's a great idea. Maybe a small testimonial from these people?
Of course, I'd love that. And then also for individuals, if they talk to their supervisors and the supervisors would like to have more individuals involved, part of the plan would be that I would provide in-service to the HR professionals to how to really use the program. And then I try to go into the organization and actually work— I like to have one initial program with the different employees that would like to use it because then I can help them immediately find out where the vowel errors are, where the consonant errors are, so they get a head start on the program. Mm-hmm. And then I try to go back after about 2 or 3 weeks just to confirm that they're They're making progress, they're not misunderstanding anything, and then we just get beautiful results, and it makes everyone very, very happy.
And only in California we have so many immigrants who love to use your program.
I think so, I think so, yes, absolutely. And I'm— I try to be very accessible, but I'm just very proud of the work that we're doing.
You do a great job. Thank you. Congratulations. Thank you for these tools that are available for everybody. Yes, I heard that you would like to meet with executives of Highland Community Chapters and Technical Institute. I think it's also a great audience that you would like to outreach and help them.
I would, absolutely. Absolutely, I'm looking forward to it.
Yes, okay, so again, could you please remind our audience website name, application name, and any And other information you would like to—
Yes, the website can be accessed by going to www.americanaccentprogram.com. It's a really very informational website. I hope all can go there.
americanaccentprogram.com.
American Accent Program. And on the website, there's a Getting Started and It's a button,
Getting
Started. The little button, little red button that says Getting Started, and you can create— just create a profile, and then that automatically will allow them to access—
Forward you to application.
To application, yes, absolutely.
So they don't need to actually go to application before they will go to website, right?
Yeah, go to the website first.
First, okay, okay, I got it. So American Accent Program, americanaccent.app, that's application. Thank you very much, Carol, for a great program. I know that it's the first of our podcasts and in future—
Hopefully more.
Not hopefully, we actually would love to have more because we would like to see results of this program, how your students will achieve these results, how many awards you will provide to customers, and we would like to see happy faces in their families or workplace who actually created Absolutely. More knowledge of English language.
