Speech Tips
Conclusion- Write it Out
Write It Out
Write out your conclusion to any presentation.. That combats stage fright. The conclusion is the second most nerve-racking time for speakers. If you write it out, you don’t have to worry about forgetting it. And most important, if you write out the conclusion, you’ll know when to stop. You won’t ramble.
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English Communication- Gracious Good-bye
English Communication: Gracious Good-bye
Have you forgotten etiquette for a gracious good-bye. Gracious is when both communicators feel content with the leave-taking. Social gatherings for holidays are coming.
The situation: You have participated in a conversation. It’s time to leave the gathering or you want to strike up conversation with someone else.
Smile and tell the person “I need to go.”
Then call the person by name and acknowledge something they said. This is to let them know you were taking in information. For example, “Bob, it was good talking to you. Great hearing about your hiking the Pacific Coast Trail. It makes me want to plan some hiking with my friends. Hope you get to hiking again soon.”
Express desire to see them again. For example, “Hope I get to see you again before long.”
Smile and depart.
Gracious departure. It only takes a few words.
Be sure to watch our English Speech Tips videos and Accent Reduction Tip videos for more English pronunciation and accent reduction exercises.
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English Communication: How’s It Going? The Why Tells You the How
English Communication: How’s It Going? The Why Tells You the How
“How’s it going?” “How are you?”
These phrases can drive international people crazy in the U.S.
That’s because in their home country, if people say, “How are you?”, they really do want to know how you are doing or what is happening in your life.
In the U.S., this can be ritual greeting. “How are you?” could be acknowledging the other person., the same as “Hi.” How do you know the intention is acknowledgement only? No opportunity for any response.
But for the best communicatrs, the other’s response to the greeting ritual tells mountains. Observation, listening and looking, are the key. Tone of voice and body language reveal. 35% of a person’s impression of you comes from your tone of voice. 55% of impression comes from body language.
Based on your perception of the other’s well being, you can make judgment about what to communicate or how much to request.
The best communicators mirror the other person. Communication mismatch between exuberance and grief-stricken sparks pain. We live in Covid time. According to lawyer data, there’s rise in relationship breakups.
Mirroring is matching the demeanor of the other person. Match the positioning of arms and legs and the same level of energy and loudness . Lean into the talker. You will see mental and emotional state if you care to.
Empathy and connection are golden. Reflect to adjust your communication to the other’s state of well-being.
See our 1-3 minute Youtube clear English speech tutorials English Speech Tips videos and Accent Reduction Tip videos.
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Wow Your Audience
Wow Your Audience
Get a business card from someone in the company that you’ll be addressing and scan in the company logo. Then you can make it appear in the corner of every screen with your logo. 201308
Why So Many Words for the Same Thing?
English Communication: Why so many words for the same thing?
Roberta (from Italy) asked me, “Why does English have so many words for everything? ‘Smart,’ ‘Clever,’ ‘Brainy,’ ‘Intelligent’– in Italian we just say ‘Intelligente!’
It’s true, English has a lot of words! Experts count at least 250,000. (Other experts say half a million, a million or even a billion. It is all in how you count them!)
No matter how you count the number of words in English, this is significantly higher than most other languages–likely more than any other language.
Why so many words? The answer is in English’s long and complicated history of invasion and conquest. Of different cultures (and their languages) colliding, borrowing, and merging. And the answer is in the rapidly expanding vocabularies of all the sciences, technology, and even slang and colloquial phrases in popular culture.
Don’t worry, though– you don’t need to memorize all quarter-million (or more!) words to be a proficient English speaker. And when it comes to words with synonyms (words with the same or similar meanings, like ‘smart’ and ‘intelligent’), you can often communicate what you need to say if you know just one or a few of the words.
On the other hand, there are a few types of words in English that have hundreds of synonyms–especially adjectives like ‘good’ and ‘bad. For example, ‘really good’ can be expressed with words like excellent, wonderful, amazing, incredible, and many more. With words like these that are so, so common, you probably want to be able to use a few and recognize many.
Here are other synonyms which mean “really good:”
- Awesome –
- Fantastic –
- Cool
- Hot
Be sure to watch our English Speech Tips videos and Accent Reduction Tip videos for more English pronunciation and accent reduction exercises.
Contributing editor: Amber McKinney
