Podcasting for non-native English speakers

I recently was involved in an online debate with a podcaster about the merits and demerits of having a podcast for your website publicity. The Podcaster was like podcasting is the best thing to have happened to Internet next to blogging and was talking about the great value it enhances to a website. Maybe, he just wanted people to buy his podcasting software! Or probably, he was indeed speaking the truth.

One of my contentions was that Podcasting was not for everybody. I say this, because, I am myself an Indian and so my accent(though better than most of them here) is still not what native English speakers would want to hear. So, I might shoot myself on the foot if I go for a podcast, since in a conventional website, nobody cares about how I speak. But if I podcast, listeners might be put off, if they cannot understand what I am speaking.

It was just then that I thought about any software that might exist that would help in transforming my voice and accent to American-like or Englishman-like. Maybe, I can talk in my own sweet English, and at the click of a button, I can transform my speech to that delivered by an American speaker. It is not impossible. While, I was not able to get this exact requirement over Google, I was able to locate something that did something of a similar function.

This software, called AV Voice changer is designed not just for such podcasters, but also for online chatters, own audio message producers etc. It polishes your voice, improves quality, and while not changing the accent and dialect, helps a voice makeover that is better understood by a Westerner.

The software maker actually claimed that ninth graders from India actually made use of the software to make their voice over and take mathematics classes to junior school students from the west and make money out of that. While I doubt Indian parents actually spending $100 on a software of this sort(trust me, school children of that age are quite busy in India, and would not actually be taking classes to make money!), I think it does make a nice business sense for professional webmasters who want to podcast to check out on similar softwares that helps in improving your voice quality over a podcast.