Your Newsletter for Improving Voice, Speech, and Communication
"Up-speak, glottal fry and fast speech,
oh my..."
How to change a speech or voice habit
Habits are powerful forces. My job is about helping people change habits; more specifically, learning new habits to replace ones that are not serving them or no longer align with who they are.
This is no small undertaking, as James Clear says in Atomic Habits “The task of breaking a bad habit is like uprooting a powerful oak within us.”
The way we speak and use our voices are deeply ingrained because they’re so intrinsically tied in with our identity. Our cultural, educational, and socio-economical background, and whatever insecurities that accompany them are often transmitted through our voices and speaking style. What's more, the way we're saying something doesn't always translate the way we intended.
Our voices speak volumes about our current state of being and invite the questions:
Are we confident in what we’re saying? Are we comfortable with who we are? Does our voice truly represent who we are? Do we know who we are?
Different patterns of sound elicit different responses in our listeners. When you talk fast, in a low volume or mumble, does it mean that you lack confidence? That you’re not interested or truly invested in the current interaction? Or that you just lack awareness for your listeners’ needs?
Does your small voice, monotone, upspeak, glottal fry, awkwardness with small talk, freezing in action… send messages that are NOT ones you want and need to be sending? Your voice is telling your listener something, and you leave it up to them for interpretation.
Over the past 30 years of helping people develop, improve, or transform their communication skills, I’ve learned a thing or two about habits, as they relate to speech and voice, and strategies that work best for changing them. Determining goals is essential for setting a direction, but it’s the systems in place that most determine progress.
This is the topic I’ll be discussing on Friday at 1:30 pm EST online. If you sign up but can’t make it, the recording will be available upon request. The class is part of a subscription, but is free to first-timers to this series.
Each class in this series focuses on a specific topic or problem and incorporates exercises, practice, Q. and A. and discussion.
If this is a topic that interests you, I hope you’ll join me. You might just walk away with a few new insights and some valuable new tools and strategies to try out!
Judy
Friday 10/7/22 1:30 pm EST Online.
Connect with me here for the link or here.
For more information on subscriptions or questions about anything else, click here or write to me directly, through this newsletter.
English and Language Corner
Fun facts
English facts:
-There are more people in the world who have learned English as their second language than there are native speakers
-The English language contains over 250,00 words.
Spanish facts:
-Spanish is a Romance language that was derived from a take on the Latin language.
-The language can also be referred to as Castilian – it owes its origins to the region of Castile where the Castile language was developed and later inspired Spanish
-As with many other languages, Spanish has several unique words that can’t be translated into other languages (such as sobremesa – in which you stay at a table after a meal to share conversation over coffee or wine)
French facts:
-About 30% of English words come from French.
-French is the main foreign language taught in the U.K.
-Over 20,000 new French words are created each year.
Tres interessant, non?
