Speaking Your Best (SM) Inc.

There is an American saying, “Slow and steady wins the race.” Simply put, you will have more success if you take your time and do something slowly, rather than hurrying and making mistakes. How does the above saying relate to speech? The slower you speak, the easier your speech will be to understand. A rapid rate of speech will make your accent sound heavier and your speech more difficult to understand. Slower speech will help you think about the sounds and words you are saying and will allow more time for your tongue and lips to reach the proper placement for those sounds. Don’t worry about what others might think about you when you are speaking slowly. The goal is to make your speech understood. Try to speak slowly as much as you can in all speaking situations, especially when speaking on the telephone. Speaking on the telephone is the most difficult speaking situation because your listener must rely only on what they hear. They don't have any visual cues to aid in understanding you, such as watching your lips and body language, or seeing your facial expressions. There is much more to oral communication than just speaking slowly, but this is a great start.

The expression "black sheep" refers to someone who doesn't fit into a group because his/her behavior or character is not considered good. The following is an example of how you might use this idiom in a sentence: Because Johnny always gets into trouble, his family considers him the black sheep of the family.

Each month Speaking Your Best will publish your questions and answers or comments in our monthly newsletter. Do you have a question that you would like to ask about accent reduction programs, English, or how to improve your speech? Ask us! We will post your question and answer in next month's issue.