Just Like a Dancer

Just Like a Dancer

Even if you are not a dancer, you can apply some tips from dancing to your speech:

• Be nimble and free … at ease, not stiff. Dancers who are stiff are not graceful. Speakers who are stiff are boring and seem tense.

• Make large movements. Dancers choreograph their moves and direction to reach out to large audiences. You can do the same with your voice. Having a strong, well-projected voice with resonance sends a more profound message and reaches more people.

• Glide, don’t jump. Just as dancers transition from one move to another, you too can move from one topic to another gracefully, not in a disruptive manner. Work on smooth connection.

• Posture matters. Dancers aren’t bent over and low energy. Speakers can’t be either. Good speakers breathe and are poised and know how to maximize their diaphragmatic support.

• Timing Matters. Dancers are aware of how much distance there is between themselves and other dances and how far they can move. Speakers need to be aware of distance too. In terms of voice travel and in terms of how long it takes them to say something and how much space they put between words and between phrases.

• Complexity. Dancing isn’t just one thing: it’s moving in time with the music, looking confident and poised, yet natural and comfortable, and moving with expert grace, necessary strength, and precision. Speaking is like that too. It’s a dance of the voice.

Source URL : https://englishbythehour.com/4456-2/

 

Facial Movement

Facial Movement

Asians often skimp on facial movement. That is, the face doesn’t move much when you are speaking, so an audience of mixed cultures may not know if you are passionate, serious, happy, distressed, joking, overjoyed or angry. Learn to connect emotional expression with your words to improve your speech. It makes a big difference if you are sending consistent emotional support to your words. If you try to “fake it to make it”, it can backfire. A fake smile is easy to spot and hard to maintain (looking inconsistent if you let it go). If you don’t express yourself with facial movement, an American audience may not connect with your message and may doubt your words. Instead of attempting to do something “over the top,” start small, get feedback, video record and watch how you look. Engage the eyes with expression. Practice linking the emotion you feel with your words. It will make a huge difference in how you are received by others.

Source URL : https://englishbythehour.com/facial-movement/

Uhhhhh … How to Avoid “Filler” Sounds

Uhhhhh … How to Avoid “Filler” Sounds

Many of us want to eliminate the little sounds that we utter unintentionally when we talk. The “you know” language that just comes out sometimes. Can you train yourself not to do it? The answer is “yes”! In my experience, the best way to do that is the following:

– Work on your breath first. It’s much harder if you are holding your breath. Make sure you are inhaling and exhaling continuously as you speak.

– Close your mouth. Many people talk “fast” without pausing because they never really close their mouths. They also utter “filler” sounds for the same reason. To change this, it takes a little self control. Start by standing up as if you are going to introduce yourself publicly, and then say a few words. As you speak, remember to inhale before you start, speak while exhaling, and then proactively close your mouth and inhale. Proactively means you plan to do this. You don’t just breathe when you are completely out of air. You do it earlier.

– Keep a “cushion” of air at all times. When you inhale and then speak, make sure you aren’t “out of air” or what we sometimes call “below respiratory.” That means, you want to keep a “life vest” of breath so you are in a sense “floating” as you speak. You’ll then have time plenty of time to pause, close your mouth intentionally and breathe, and then open and exhale with speech without running out of air.

– Practice while speaking impromptu. More and more, people are called on to speak up without preparing first. If this happens to you, you want to have good breathing and pausing habits so you have one less thing to worry about and can truly focus on your content.

Source URL : http://englishbythehour.com/uhhhhh-how-to-avoid-filler-sounds/

Breath on Air Flow Sounds

Breath on Air Flow Sounds

Most Asians don’t use enough breath on “air flow” sounds in English. Which sounds are these? They are the sounds that sound “breathy” a bit when native speakers talk. Have you ever noticed which sound lasts longer?

The voiceless ones like:

• Ffffeeling ffffanssssy (feeling fancy)
• Fffffirsssst thththththingssssss ffffirsssst (first things first)
• Fffffocusssss on the pozzzzzitivvvve (focus on the positive)
• Ssssomeththththing sssspeshshshshial (something special)

Notice which sounds are longer in conversation, and practice deliberately releasing air specifically on those sounds. You will notice your speech increases in voice time and sounds more pleasurable to listeners. This will make your speech sounds more measured (less rushed) and the timing will be better. The intonation will be easier to control with breath.

Source URL : http://englishbythehour.com/breath-air-flow-sounds/

It’s All About the Breath – English by the Hour

If you are a past client, you already know how important breath is for speech. The thing most people don’t realize is it’s too late to change if you try to “breathe differently” as you speak. You have to change your deep underlying habits through good practice ahead of time. This is especially true of Asian languages, which have shorter, faster articulation patterns. Some languages are monosyllabic, like Vietnamese, for example, or tonal like Chinese or Thai. Even Korean and Japanese, flat and equal-length sounds, will not require the same breathing as English.

Telling yourself to “breathe deep” is, in general, a bad cue. Why? Because most of us take a huge inhale when we hear the word “deep”, but natural breathing is not forced. It’s gentler, so if you practice taking forced, deep breaths, you are probably making your speech tenser, not less.

Instead, tell yourself to “breathe fully” using the whole body: the chest, the clavicles, the sides “floating ribs”, the stomach and the back. Then breathe in and swell like a balloon at your own pace, and exhale as you speak.

This will help your speech tremendously!

Source URL: http://englishbythehour.com/its-all-about-the-breath/

Monitoring Your Body Tension – Speech Coaching

Monitoring Your Body Tension – English by the Hour

Just like changing our timing to control our speed (or rate of speech), we also need to work on our degree of body tension when we want to sound more fluid and less tense.

One of the reasons non-native speakers speak with excess tension is they try very hard to say words (and make sounds) correctly, but they frequently don’t monitor how much effort they are using so they may not be aware that they are using more tension than needed to make a sound.

Excess Tension:

All this excess tension often goes into the back, shoulders, neck, and other vulnerable areas, creating pain and discomfort and also making our speech overly controlled, less fluid or free-flowing, and tense-sounding.

Since most people want to sound natural, confident, and comfortable when they speak, all this tension is a deterrent. It can get in the way of effective speech. There’s no reason not to minimize this tension, but most people aren’t even aware they have it, much less that it affects their delivery. Instead, people try “harder” to speak “better,” often creating even more tension.

Awareness & Change:

Knowing your tension is affecting your speech is the first step, and then each of us needs to learn how to maximize our focus and attention to key/challenging sounds without creating additional (unnecessary) tension.

Awareness really is the key here because once you can feel the tension and monitor it, you can change it. Learning to release excess tension where you don’t need it and place it where you do (such as in the spine and tongue) helps non-native speakers begin to “let go” into the sounds and be more native-like in their delivery.

Feel confident speaking in public and around your corporate groups by taking Speech Coaching in the American Accent.

Source URL: http://englishbythehour.com/monitoring-body-tension/

What is Happening Behind the Curtain When Someone Talks at Breakneck Speed

In my last couple of postings, I said how talking quick (in the perception of the audience) may not be so promptly understood by basically slowing down. That is, advising somebody to “slow down” may not be great advice.

For what reason not?

Thinking s-l-o-w-l-y and cognitively “attempting to slow down” may not bring about the impact the listener is seeking after. Let be honest, as listeners, we want listening to be a pleasant activity. We would prefer not to experience listening fatigue from trying to understand somebody.Someone spewing out verbal information at breakneck speed isn’t a pleasant experience for anybody. Along these lines, naturally, we simply need the speed to slow so we can get some relief.

For what reason doesn’t that advice work?

If we take a gander at things from the speaker’s point of view, we get a different picture. The most well-known reaction to  “Why can’t you just slow down?” is often, “I attempt, yet I can’t do it.”

There might be at least 3 different reasons why people talk sssssooooo quick, and some people may speed along for more than one reason.

1. The person may be compensating for not being certain about grammatical speech or articulation, word stress, and intonation patterns in English. The thinking being “whether I say it quick, nobody will take note.”

How do you know if this is the case?

Typically, speakers who are thinking this will state each word too rapidly. If you listen carefully, the individual isn’t completely framing a many of the words you hear. Your mind is filling in the details based on context, yet the person isn’t really finishing the words.  This can influence a person sound like s/he is talking too quickly.For this situation, slowing down when not presenting or in meetings (behind the scenes) and completely shaping words and using correct grammar when there is sufficient time to consider about it can advise the brain and change the pattern. Taking in the word stress and intonation patterns of English, figuring out where their blind spots and oversights are and settling them will go far towards informing their brains when speaking in public in real time.

2. The person may have articulation patterns that are vague and be using them mistakenly, supposing they are utilizing the correct ones.

How do you know if this is the case?

The person seems to be mispronouncing all the words a similar way! You may state “it’s as if the person is talking in a bubble” or muttering or grumbling or “gulping” their words. This could be because the mother tongue requires these speech patterns (curled in lips, bouncy lips, tight jaw, wide-spread starting position, open vocal tract, tongue in the front, etc). Frequently people use the same patterns they learned as kids without acknowledging they have to transform them when they speak different languages. Typically, this is because the person is unconscious s/he is doing this and/or doesn’t know how to settle it.

3. The person might go “full speed ahead” in every aspect of life (not just speech) with an end goal to stay aware of a pace that is too fast for optimal functioning.

Personally, I think this is the greatest culprit in the Silicon Valley.We are on the whole under pressure and very quick speed is the main choice a few people think they have.

How do you know if this is the case?

People whose personal timing is “full speed ahead” don’t stop to relax. If you listen carefully, they aren’t misspeaking the words and they don’t commit a considerable measure of grammatical mistakes, however, they don’t breathe in and breathe out completely. Their bodies are so used to working on adrenaline that they don’t have a clue about another way. They can’t apply enough control over this internal timing to slow themselves down when under strain.They additionally react well to breathe work. That is, if the person does some breath work, they tend to sound better immediately, yet they can’t keep it up. Why? Because their internal pacing is running at a different speed and it’s artificial (not supportable).

If people in Category 3 truly need to slow down their speech, they have to enable their brains to learn to process again (I say “once more” because as children, most of us did this).  It might take them longer to say things at an alluring pace than they are giving themselves permission to do.  The attention might be on “saying everything” rather than saying what the time frame will permit and have the discipline and confidence stay with the interior consent. The priority may be on retching out content and not on looking after self-control, grounding, internal control and strength and focusing on the internal calm (yes, with breath as the tool). If the internal timing moves toward becoming Priority 1, the rest will follow … the pace will become one that others will be glad to listen to.

Source URL: http://englishbythehour.com/happening-behind-curtain-someone-talks-breakneck-speed/

Why Do You Need a Speech Coach?

It’s always been surprising to me how often clients tell me they want to improve their speech and become better public speakers, yet they don’t want to record themselves and no one gives them any feedback.

It’s surprising because with most things in life, if you want to be successful, you know that you have to do something to get there and monitor your progress. If you want to lose weight, you have to change your eating habits. If you want to get in better shape, you have to exercise.

Chocolate Brownies:
For some reason, people don’t put speech improvement in the same category, and they should! If you monitor your speech the way you do what you eat, you would recognize that lots of chocolate brownies won’t help you lose weight.

The chocolate brownies of speech are things like:

• rushing when you speak, using lots of filler words
• not asking clarifying questions to gauge your audience’s comprehension
• holding your breath
• poor postural habits
• a soft voice
• a “pitchy” voice
• random thoughts or circular topic engagement
• lack of variety in usage of connecting words, introducing topics, segueing from one idea to another, or summarizing key points
• frequent grammatical mistakes and mispronunciations

I ponder why people don’t focus on these things like they do weight and exercise, and I think it’s because they don’t know how to change. Many of us accept that we have to eat healthfully and exercise to take care of our bodies, but sadly, too many people just “wing it” when it come to speech and hope no one will notice.

If you are ready to take charge of your “brownie eating” habits and begin to create change, a Speech Coach could be the way to do it. If you’re not aware of what you could do differently or how to change it, you won’t ever do it. Getting a Coach will change that!

Source URL: http://englishbythehour.com/need-speech-coach/