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How Americans Can Instantly
Improve Their Speaking Skills
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Let me confess that I am
an American and l used to speak very badly. Now I speak very well, at
least that is what everyone tells me. The fact is, my change from being a
poor speaker to being a good speaker happened virtually overnight.
Here's the story. |
I was a student at
UCLA in the 1960s. After graduating, I spent two years as a Peace Corps
volunteer in Tanzania, East Africa. When I got there, of course everything
was quite different from anything I had previously experienced. For one
thing, I was posted to a tiny bush village next to what was supposed to be
a major north-south road. Anything beyond 20 cars per day passing by was
considered to be heavy traffic; in Los Angeles, less than 20 cars per
minute was considered to be abnormally low traffic..
Perhaps the biggest
surprise occurred when I turned on my shortwave radio. I quickly found the
frequencies for both the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) and the
Voice of America. The difference was astounding. Listening to the BBC, I
heard cashiers, janitors, parking attendants, etc., speaking as if they
had graduated from prestigious universities. By contrast, listening to
Voice of American, I heard people at the top of the educational and social
ladder speaking as if they had never even graduated from primary school.
This was no chance occurrence; it happened every time I turned on the
radio. "How is it that high-level Americans seem to speak less well
than low level Brits?" I kept asking myself. And found no answer.
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After a few weeks I came
to a startling conclusion. The apparent superiority of the Brits had
nothing to do with either intelligence or education. It was in fact
physical. If you pay attention, you will notice that the British,
particularly the English, tend to form their words on their lips, while
Americans form them in the throat. This phenomenon is particularly
noticeable among males, whose deep, gravely voice is considered to be
masculine, virile and seductive.
I believe that forming words in the throat puts abnormal strain on the
larynx, which is why Americans so often tend to stumble over their words.
They frequently interrupt their speech by interjecting "ah" or other
irritating hesitations. This is not because they don't know what to say
next. It's because they are giving their vocal cords a momentary chance to
recover. |
To put the idea to the
test, I consciously began forming my words on my lips rather than in the
throat. My own irritating hesitations (I was notorious for this) vanished
almost overnight. Suddenly I could put together a sentence that flowed
fluently from one end to the other. In fact, I could put together whole
series of sentences that flowed fluently from one end to the other with
hardly hesitation in sight.
Having tested this
discovery over several weeks, I decided to purposely redesign my
articulation. It wasn't easy. I had to consciously think about how I was
forming my words virtually every minute of the day. However, after a
couple of weeks it began feeling more and more natural, until finally it
was.
All this happened 40 years ago. During the intervening four decades, I
have gained somewhat of a reputation as an entertaining and provocative
public speaker, not only in English but also in French (I live in
Belgium). In short, redesigning my voice has worked extremely well for me.
I don't know it if would work for anyone else, but I see no reason why
not.
But a word of warning. If you do decide to make the change, you
are likely to develop a pseudo "Oxbridge" English accent.
This is quite normal; forming words on the lips naturally gives
rise to this type of accent. However, out of context it can be rather
embarrassing. Since I was living with a lot of British expatriates
in Tanzania, my new way of speaking didn't seem particularly odd.
However, the minute I returned to Los Angeles, people began commenting
on it, including my mother. "Where did you pick up that snooty
accent? Get rid of it." So I did. It is not all that difficult
to find a middle ground between the two accents. You will still
sound like an American, but without constantly tripping over you
tongue. Why not give it a try? The results might amaze you.
Contributing Writer: Philip Yaffe is a
former reporter/feature writer with The Wall Street Journal and a
marketing communication consultant. He currently teaches a course in good
writing and good speaking in Brussels, Belgium. His recently published
book In the “I” of the Storm: the Simple Secrets of Writing & Speaking
(Almost) like a Professional is available from Story Publishers in Ghent,
Belgium (storypublishers.be) and Amazon (amazon.com). For further
information, contact: Philip Yaffe
Brussels, Belgium Tel: +32 (0)2 660 0405 Email: phil.yaffe@yahoo.com,phil.yaffe@gmail.com
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