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Ignoring the linguistically incorrect and wrong-headed things said in this video, the more puzzling problem: I have no idea what dialect or type of English the man in the video is speaking. I have never heard English that sounds like this. I can't even tell whether or not he is a native speaker; his website implies that he is American, but doesn't say outright. Any ideas?

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Maybe his parents were immigrants, and he was born in the States, creating a sort of hybrid accent. – Mahnax Dec 29 '11 at 18:19
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Yeah sounds like a combination of a foreign accent (Japanese?) and age. – Cerberus Dec 29 '11 at 18:36
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Sounds to me like an american, with a slight Japanese accent who has physical difficulties pronouncing certain things, because of a stroke or other muscle-control issue, and is therefore over-enunciating slightly weirdly: basically what @Cerberus said. – Tao Dec 29 '11 at 18:46
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@Mahnax: having foreign parents usually does not result in a 'mixed' or halfway accent, or any accent at all. You'll have the accent of the locality where you were raised (the kids in your neighborhood or school). In fact it's more likely ( but not very much) that they'll have a funny accent when speaking the parents' language. – Mitch Dec 29 '11 at 18:46
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Sounds to me like an American trying to speak so clearly and slowly for the sake of Japanese English language students that it sounds a bit unnatural. Perhaps his use of Japanese symbols to translate the English terms shows that. – nicholas ainsworth Dec 29 '11 at 19:52
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2 Answers

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My first impression of Leonard Balazer was that he sounded like a elderly Midwesterner who was over-enunciating. (The "boing-boing" audio compression artifacts don't help matters.)

His Facebook page confirms that Mr. Balazer grew up Saginaw, Michigan, and was educated in and spent his professional career in Michigan.

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I have not been able to find any definite information on Professor Balazer other than the linked website, but my best guess is that either he is hyper-pronouncing because he is teaching/coaching pronunciation or else he is hyper-pronouncing due to injury/illness.

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Or maybe it's because hyper-pronunciation is such a hit with the ladies. – cheeken Dec 29 '11 at 22:50
@cheeken: the likeliest reason. – Kris Dec 30 '11 at 5:35
@cheeken - agreed <grin> – Olaf4 Dec 30 '11 at 20:09

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