[honzzz]

Great article. I would like to add some more...

1. I used to watch that American TV series "24" and I tried to repeat everything Jack Bauer said in the same way he said it... I even tried to mimic his facial expressions. People say my accent improved and nobody complained that I speak like a CTU agent. You can pick your favourite character.

2. There are great services like http://livemocha.com/ - you can do exercises and you can record yourself and upload it and native speakers let you know what mistakes you made - you do the same thing for people trying to learn your language. And even listening to yourself from the recording helps.

3. I got rid of the fear. At the beginning I was afraid to talk, I don't even know why, nobody is ever going to laugh at you. But I learned that foreign accent can even be good for you... it makes you interesting and it's a conversation starter - oh, how many of my friends I met after "that's an interesting accent, where are you from?"

[thenomad]

1. This can work accidentally too, btw. I've been watching a lot of the show "Justified" recently, and yesterday had cause to mimic a West Coast US accent - only to discover that the bloody thing slipped into Kentucky (or at least the show's interpretation of Kentucky) and would not move. It took me a good 20 minutes to eliminate the drawl.

2. That's a fantastic link - thanks.

[chiph]

You can pick your favourite character.

Please don't pick anyone from the show "My Name is Earl".

[honzzz]

Actually this is a real problem - sometimes it might be difficult for foreigners to recognize that some words or sayings have a certain subtext or are vulgar or somehow inappropriate. I remember some very embarrassing situations caused by this.

[rdl]

Why not use professional-topic audiobooks, then?