How Long Do I Talk for Luncheon

Twenty minutes is good.  If they beg you to go thirty, give in gracefully.  Longer than that works for a seminar – but not lunch.

Rerun from 07/04/16

Accent Reduction – Get the Habit-  Change Your World

Want to speak clearer… surround yourself with clear talkers.

When you listen to music with English lyrics,  find the artists who enunciate the words.

When you go to YouTube or visual media, movies, comedy or adventure series — seek out the programs with the people who speak clearly.  Hint—national broadcasters often have great, clear voices.

Turn on the English captions for hard of hearing people when you are watching a broadcast television show or an American movie.  Listen while you are reading.  You’ll see the letters at the ends of the words and that will make the sounds even clearer to your ears.

Best of all is to seek to talk to people who speak English clearly.  We humans are wired for imitating.  We will imitate the person we are with, most often unconsciously.

You probably have noticed that when you walk with a slow walking person, you walk slower.  When you walk with a person with a brisk fast pace, you match your steps to theirs.  That’s called “hysteresis” —  Hey, we are humans.  That’s what we do.  Imitate others.  Great for learning important life-saving and everyday skills!

So use the strategy of seeking conversation and exposure to people who speak and enunciate clearly.  It is a wonderfully easy way to boost your speech into clear speech in English!

Now that you know this secret, you can consciously watch the other person and imitate the other person.  Do it for speech.  Find and communicate with excellent speakers.

I do!  It is one of those little pleasures in life.

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 new advanced weekly speech tip program, our new subscription called ClearTalk Weekly, www.subscription.cleartalkmastery.com

Rerun from June 1, 2016

Lights On or Off for Luncheon

As soon as an audiovisual aide knows you are using slides of PowerPoint type, he or she will want to turn lights way down.

Your job is to tell him or her, “I want the lights as bright as possible even if they have to squint to see the visuals.”

You don’t want darkness at noon.  You have idea visuals of graphs, bullet points, and illustrations.  But the most important visual for your success is you.

Rerun from June 27, 2016

Luncheon Speaker Challenge: Where to Stand 

Luncheon is not a formal meeting where the audience sits in one place and the rostrum or podium is set so the speaker is center of attention.  Instead, configuration of tables makes it difficult to find a central place to stand so you are in command of all the audience.

Clever strategy is to let your host know in advance that you will be using a slide presentation such as PowerPoint with a projector.   That forces the room to have a focal point.  That focal point is where you stand in order to use your visuals.

Importantly, if you decide you won’t use visuals, don’t tell anyone until the room has already been set up.  Thus you’ll still have the spot you need to be center of attention.

Rerun from June 20, 2016

Accent Reduction – Get the Habit-  Count, Keep a Record

People who keep records tend to make more progress than people who don’t.

Research shows that people who record on their calendar the days they get that 30 minutes of recommended physical exercise, do more exercise.   People who record exactly what they eat each day stick better to their eating modification goals.

On your calendar, make a note in the morning about how many different people you spoke English to on the previous day and how many minutes you tried to speak clearly and loudly the consonants and vowels.  Your intention is to speak clearly all the time.  Of course you will forget sometimes, but get back to speaking clearly right away.

And remember, everything counts.  For example, perhaps your total English speaking time average per day is about 45 minutes.  Perhaps one day you are so swamped with work (or so sick) that you remember your target goal of speaking every English speech sound clearly for only 5 of those minutes in the morning and only 5 of those minutes in the afternoon.  Hey –that is better than zero minutes.  Rejoice!  And vow as you put 10 minutes on your calendar for your record keeping that you will boost up your clear talking habit to all 45 minutes on this current day.

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 new advanced weekly speech tip program, our new subscription called ClearTalk Weekly, www.subscription.cleartalkmastery.com

Rerun from 05/25/2016