Speech Tips
English Speaking Training- Opening a Conversation— Top Tip!
English Speaking Training– How to Start a Conversation– The Top Tip!
Approximately 2010, I read a newspaper article that changed overnight my typical greeting to everyone.
The article’s topic was how to talk to a person who has recently suffered the death of a loved one—- spouse, partner, parent, child, relative, friend or for many, pet.
The article pointed out that the typical greeting is “How are you?” For a person suffering the loss of a loved one, the truthful answer would be “bad” for a considerable amount of time. The author reminded the readers that in North America, the expected answer is “Fine.” But that answer for people in grief is “a lie” and not at all accurate.
So the article suggested “How are things going?”. Then respondenta can answer the typical “Fine,” or “OK,” because for the “things” in their life — daily activities– those are “OK.” Emotions not fine but activites are OK. Noteably, the respondent has not been forced to lie or be untruthful.
Body language and tone of voice will reveal a great deal about the current well-being of people. Be alert to those.
For communication interactions where the other person is not grieving for a loved one, the question of “How are things going?” makes it easier for the respondent to immediately describe a recent significant happening in their life. For example, “I just got word from the programmer who developed the coding for my research for my PhD that there is an error in the code.” Or, “I had to let go the nanny for my child.” Those are real life examples.
The specific words of a question go a long way in determining the depth and quality of the answer.
Why would you want to know the current state of well-being of the other person? So you can determine how to proceed with the upcoming communication or task. If the other person had a car accident the previous day, then your proceeding forward with discussion of complex tasks could be modified to take account of less than optimal well-being.. Also, you could do follow-up questions to determine the current physical and emotional status of the other person. Follow-up questions show that you care. For relationahip and rapport, caring is the foundation.
For improving your pronunciation and diction for clear American English, practice with our English Speech Tips videos and Accent Reduction Tip videos.
Check out our subscription called ClearTalk Weekly,– weekly English intelligibility and pronunciation tutorials — video audio, and extra reading aloud exercises. Use the subscription as a first time learner with Clear Talk Mastery or as a refresh for your learning in the coached course. Just so you know, people’s pronunciation can drift from the great accuracy achieved during the coached courses. Click here for information about the subsripiton www.subscription.cleartalkmastery.com
Initial Call for Friendship
How to Begin the Friendship Call
“Hi. This is Emma Zhang. I enjoyed our brief visit last week and wanted to see about getting together for lunch.”
“Hi. This is Stefan Bosch. I enjoyed working with you at the conference last month. Hope things are going well. I wanted to see if you would like to join me for a round of golf in the next few weekends.”
English Speaking Training –Strategies for Satisfying Conversations
English Speaking Training-Strategies for Satisfying Conversations
To make a satisfying conversation, first consider the strategy of asking questions throughout the conversation. That makes dialogue and both people are learning about each other.
Satisfying conversations are like tennis games or badminton games. The conversation goes back and forth like the tennis ball or birdie. You talk for a minute or two, then you ask the other person a question.
What to do if you can’t think of a question after you have shared something? Try this: “What do you think about that?”
Now the respondent can go in any direction in response — refer back to something you said earlier, express an opinion, or even change the topic by saying “That reminds me of something that happened to me last week.”
Open-ended questions invite the other person to open up. Also, use them when in negotiating or planning.
“What do you think about that?” is fantastic in everyday conversation. You can get farther in understanding other people by learning about their experience and opinions. That makes for building relationship and ultimately trust.
Be sure to watch our English Speech Tips videos and Accent Reduction Tip videos for more English pronunciation and accent reduction exercise.
Check out our weekly tutorial program for efficient, systematic learning of accurate American English pronunciation, the subscription called ClearTalk Weekly, www.subscription.cleartalkmastery.com — less than five dollars a week.
Or…. do you feel your pronunciation skills learned in your personal one- on-one coaching course with Clear Talk Mastery has drifted and needs work? Clear Talk Weekly will get you back on target right away! Or better yet, go to the next level with your next coached course!
Tips for “How Can I Help”
Examples for the “How Can I Help” Call
“Hello, this is Z. T. Ye. I was saddened to hear about your mother being in the hospital. What do you need? How can I help?”
“Hi, this is Emma Dinh. Bob told me you are looking for a position in … I wanted to see if I could help in any way.”
“Hi, this is Steve Franpenni. You commented at breakfast last week that you were looking for information about … I wanted to let you know about…”
English Speech Communication- How to Build Trust – Every Time
English Speech Communication: How to Build Trust at Work, in Negotiations, and in Daily Life
How to build trust? State and keep your commitments..
For example, if you say, “I will follow-up with you tomorrow with a phone call,” and you do that, then you are predictable, and your words match your actions.
But if you say one thing and do another, it is confusing to the other person– they cannot trust your word. In the culture of the United States, failure to keep your word is often upsetting for the other person because it means you are unpredictable.
When negotiating with people in the U.S. and in many other cultures, not being consistent in your words and deeds creates confusion and negative emotions or tensions in negotiating discussions.
The same applies to interactions in daily life. Whether setting an appointment or agreeing and committing to do a task, making your actions match your spoken commitment is highly valued. .
The reward? Trust and good feelings.
Gold, platinum and diamond – that’s how precious matching your words and actions are!
Be sure to watch our English Speech Tips videos and Accent Reduction Tip videos for more English pronunciation and accent reduction exercise.
