American English pronunciation difficulties from 3 other languages

Today's blog post from Business Speech Improvement can be found on www.BusinessSpeechImprovement.com/more/blog 
It will appear here tomorrow.


  American English Pronunciation: Difficulties from 3 other languages

China is a huge country, and Mandarin is spoken differently in various parts of China. For some people, Mandarin is actually their second language, not their first.

People in India speak somewhere between 780 and 1683 different languages, although reportedly only 21 are officially recognized.

People in so many countries speak Spanish, and there are numerous dialects of it. Again, some Hispanics speak Spanish as their second language, with another local language being their "mother tongue" or first language.

Having said that, today (with a lot of generalization), we will be comparing some difficulties each linguistic group has with speaking English. Business Speech Improvement does individual assessments of each speaker in our seminars on American English Pronunciation Improvement for Non-native Professionals, so these are some generalities.

First, English is the only language that pronounces the "th" sound. In some countries, such as parts of China, clients have reported that it is rude to put one's tongue between one's teeth to produce this sound; instead, people use an "s" sound or omit it entirely. In India, many people trying to say "th" say a "t" or "d" sound instead. In Hispanics, often the sound is omitted, or an "s" sound is used instead.

Hispanics often have difficulty with the American sounds of  "v", our final sounds such as "t" in "sit", the

"vowel r" sounds like ar (car) and er (her). "Sh" (shoe) and "ch" (chew) may be hard for some to pronounce as well.

Mandarin (and Cantonese) speakers from China and nearby areas may have difficulty with the "l" and "r" sounds, "r blends" such as tree, and final sounds such as "z"  in "is". Other sounds may also be difficult.

Native Indians come from so many languages that it is hard to generalize. Many learn British English in school, and then want to learn American English, which is different at times in vocabulary and pronunciation. For example, the word "schedule" is pronounced in English as "shedjule", while in the USA, we say "skedjule". England uses "lorries", while in the USA, we call them "trucks".

Speech training for native speakers of all of these languages starts with an individual speech assessment, and then a custom-designed training program to focus on what each person needs to learn. The seminar on American English Pronunciation Improvement for Non-native Professionals is offered in only 3 days to a group of 6 learners, with a follow-up plan. These sessions are ideal for those who are visiting the USA and want help before business meetings or presentations here.  Individual 1-3 day sessions are available, although spaces for these are limited.  Online training sessions are also an option, in many cases.

For those who are unable to attend the training, e-books and a mp3 files on many aspects of communication are also an option .

                                  

                

 While you are here, check out the wide variety of archived blog posts on other topics relating to communication!

Those irritating phrases that drive you crazy

Those Irritating Words or Phrases!Do you have a colleague who uses the same word or phrase constantly, driving you crazy? For example, "you know", "so", "like" or "um"?  Often the person doesn't even realize he is saying these things.
What can you do about this? First, if it is appropriate for you to say this (obviously not to your boss!), tell the person you have noticed he says (whatever the word or phrase is) very frequently, and you wondered if he has noticed this. Tell him it is hard for you to listen to (or whatever the effect is on the customers and colleagues) and could he try to either use another phrase there or just pause and not say anything when he is about to say this.
Sometimes professional coaching by an outsider makes a difference, if the person has trouble stopping on his own. A qualified speech coach can use special techniques to help the person reduce or eliminate his use of the particular word or phrase.
Business Speech Improvement provides intensive coaching in diction, accent modification and other verbal skills, including reducing those irritating phrases!


Older posts on many aspects of verbal communication can be found here,  at this site.

Modeling: How to Increase Positive Behaviors in Business (and Life)

To see today's blog posting, go to our new site, www.BusinessSpeechImprovement.com/more/blog.

Modeling: How to Increase Positive Behaviors in Business (and in Life)
What behaviors would you like to see more of in your organization? For example, when was the last time your boss sent you a written compliment or thank you note? Never? How do you think it would have made you feel if he had? When was the last time he gave you a sincere, specific compliment about your work? You can't remember that either? Ouch! It's time to change that - even if you are at the bottom of the career ladder.
Picture yourself in a large parking lot, trying to make a right turn into the flow of traffic. Finally someone nice lets you into the line. If you (very carefully) look back a minute later, you are likely to see the car behind your nice "savior" is also letting someone into the line, and the pattern will repeat a few times.
In another example, you're at the checkout line in a crowded supermarket. You enthusiastically (and slightly loudly)  thank the cashier and bagger for doing such a careful job with your groceries. The next person in line is also likely to thank them. Imagine how great they will feel after this! Think also about the impact on their work behavior, and on their desire to stay in that job.
That's the power of modeling, of one person taking the time to demonstrate the positive behavior for others. All it takes is you complimenting someone else, for example.
If you are at the bottom of the career ladder, give a specific verbal compliment. (For example,
When you clean a floor here, it really shines! Thanks for your hard work!)
 If you are a manager, take a few minutes each day to write some brief and specific thank you notes. (For example, That report you wrote on the X Project was excellent! You clearly put a lot of time and effort into it, and made some excellent points I had not considered. Thank you for being such a valued member of our team!)
People work for more than money; they want recognition of their efforts as well.
In 2014, make a resolution to give at least one enthusiastic compliment a day. It's easy, it's free - and it has tremendous benefits.
Business Speech Improvement provides intensive training in executive communication skills. We also offer a valuable e-book, Executive Communication Strategies, on 18 vital verbal skills for leaders. It's the e-book you'll wish your boss had read!

Do You Hear What I Hear? Analyzing Telephone Sales Communication

Do You Hear What I Hear? Analyzing Telephone Sales Communication

When you make a telephone call to a business, are you focusing only on the message?  Try also noticing how it is said, from the emotions to the clarity, as well as the sales techniques (if any). You'll get a lot more out of the experience.For example, if you are shopping for a product or service provided by various competitors, analyze each salesperson's performance after the call. Where you able to understand the name of the company and the person to whom you were talking, or was it spoken too fast? Did the person answer your questions clearly? Did he have all the information needed to easily access your account and information about the product or service?  How well were your objections, if any,  handled? If the salesperson realized you were probably not going to buy the product or service, did he proactively let you know that you would be welcome to return in the future?One big difference between a positive and a negative experience is sales and telephone skill training. Such training pays off - handsomely!

Business Speech Improvement can help with telephone assessments, calling  companies in the USA,  posing as a customer and analyzing the results. We also provide intensive training in American English pronunciation, general diction, executive communication skills, understanding non-native callers more easily on the telephone, and more! We even offer a no-cost e-newsletter with great communication tips; to subscribe, click here.

Our latest blog post  is listed at our new site
 http://www.businessspeechimprovement.com/more/blog

Bookmark the site and check there regularly for the newest blog posting!
Our previous posts are archived here.

Dating online? 3 Communication Tips

If you are dating online, and the e-mails and texts stop flying after a few exchanges, consider these tips.

First, the communication exchange is like a (written) conversation. Go back over it, if possible, and think about what you missed. Did you, for example, comment on the other person's responses and ask frequent questions, like you would in a conversation? Or did you expect the other person to carry the weight of the conversation and "draw you out", continuing to ask you questions so you could talk about yourself? (This might feel like being interviewed, for some people.) If one person is doing all the work to continue the conversation, he or she may decide it's not worth it. On the other hand, if the other person is responding barely, maybe it is because of shyness or maybe its due to a lack of interest.

Second, did you ask the other person how he/she prefers to communicate initially, whether on the dating site, e-mail, chatting online or via telephone? People have definite preferences on this.

If the other person mentioned a situation or problem she was having, how did you react? While this is to some degree a generalization, often women who are expressing problems want a listener (of either sex) to empathize, while a male wants a listener to try to solve the problem, if he can.

If nothing else works, and you are still interested in this person, mention that the correspondence has dropped off and ask if  there is still interest on the other person's part in continuing it.

Business Speech Improvement provides training in verbal skills, including a valuable e-book called "Small Talk:Connecting with Others".  It covers starting, continuing and ending a conversation, and many of the tips in it could be used during the beginning stages of dating online.

5 Tips for Leading A Volunteer Project

Leading a volunteer-run project takes excellent leadership skills. Volunteers usually agree to participate in such a project because they want to be useful, want to connect with other volunteers on the team, or want to learn new skills. If something else takes higher priority in their lives, or they dislike the leadership of the team, they leave.

1. Plan your objective, time-frame, staffing, financial and equipment needs carefully, in advance.
If you ask team members to bring equipment or supplies, make sure what you request will be needed. They may have purchased something especially for this project. Carefully determine how many volunteers you will need, and what skills they should have, if any. For example, do you need someone with excellent skills in carpentry, baking, or writing? Announce the necessary number of volunteers and specific skills that will be needed in your request for volunteers. If your project is one that is suitable for families, are you prepared to include children of various ages in the work you are doing so they feel needed? Do not assume the parents will have brought toys for little ones to keep them busy, for example. If children under a certain age should not be there, for safety or other reasons, state that ahead of time.

2. If your team will work together only once, for a short time, how will you divide the work to keep all the volunteers busy, preferably all or most of the time? As leader of the team, use your expertise to keep others involved, in addition to doing some of the actual tasks yourself. Think of yourself as a juggler, keeping all the people busy simultaneously while also keeping everything on schedule. Look around often and see who is standing around doing nothing; find a task that person can do.  If a volunteer is bored, often he will think of other things he would rather be doing - and he will regard this time as wasted.

3. If your team will work together over a long period of time, ask each person to complete a volunteer information form beforehand. Find out if the person likes to complete short term projects which have a sense of closure, is detail-oriented, wants to learn new skills and has a special interest that might fit into the project, likes to do a small amount of volunteer work regularly, or can help but only during certain time periods, for example. Each of those types of volunteers can be invaluable - if you know their needs in advance.

4. Some volunteers get involved to seek recognition and praise. Frequent public or private praise, depending on what they prefer, is easy to offer. (If in doubt, praise them publicly.) For example, have a "volunteer of the week or month", and specify what the person did that was terrific! Possibly you can give them a small token of the group's appreciation, such as a gift card to a local coffee-shop, if that is appropriate, as well as a letter of thanks.

5.  If you are likely to need more volunteers, ask your current ones first what they most enjoy about doing this work. With their permission, use quotes from them as part of your strategy to recruit new volunteers via fliers or online. Also ask current volunteers if they know of someone they would enjoy having on the team. Either they or you can contact the person.

Business Speech Improvement offers training in executive communication skills, as well as an economical  e-book on this.  "Executive Communication Strategies" is a 21 page e-book concisely covering 18 different communication techniques for leadership. It's a book you will wish your boss had read! Click here to get it.

5 ways to lose a customer

Have you listened to your business's outgoing message lately? It can easily turn off a prospective customer.

Here are 5 business message mistakes.
1. Jargon The voice uses industry jargon or worse, acronyms, to tell prospective customers what button to push. A customer who is not familiar with the jargon has no idea what to push. At the least, everyone's time is wasted. At most, you lose a prospective customer.

2. Giving a wrong number The voice prompts people interested in an option to call another phone number - which has been disconnected. Is this company going out of business?

3. Long wait for an online or telephone customer service rep  One company informed me that there were 68 people in line ahead of me to talk to the online reps. Did they really think I was going to wait, too?
In fact, I wondered what the problem was with the company's management that they were so short-sighted about staffing needs.

4.  Departments of a company that refer customers back to each other  One department refers a customer to another department for a quote, while the second department refers the same customer back to the first one for a quote. Clearly, this company has communication issues - and the customer goes elsewhere.

5. The fast talker  The receptionist is so used to answering the incoming calls that she speaks too fast for the name of the company to be understood. The prospective client wonders if he reached the right company.

Any of these can negatively affect your bottom line. For an analysis of the communication from a prospective customer's point of view,  and other services, visit www.BusinessSpeechImprovement.com    
We can pose as a customer and analyze what we observe!

To read the latest blog post from Business Speech Improvement.com, and find out how else we can help you,  go to www.BusinessSpeechImprovement.com/more/blog.
.

Speech training: what to ask

As a speech coach, one of the most common questions I get asked is, "Can speech training really help? When I talk to prospective clients at conferences, or on the telephone, they seem to focus on how I talk, not what I am saying."

Speech coaching with a motivated learner and an expert coach can make a real difference, based on my experience, if the learner is willing to continue practicing the newly learned skills.

When building trust with a listener, for any reason, it helps to emphasize the ways people are alike, and clear communication makes this easier. Maybe both of you like a certain sport, or a particular city or industry. Possibly the two of you are in the same company or are solving the same problem.

If your listener can understand how you are speaking, he can then focus on your message. Make this as easy as possible for your listener.

How do you determine an excellent speech coach? Look for someone who has considerable experience and qualifications in coaching corporate clients or individual adults. Ask about the class size, and how much feedback you will get from the instructor. Is the course customized for you to your specific needs, or does the entire class learn the same lesson even if some of them don't need it? Will you have time to get help saying specific words that are hard for you, such as peoples' names, processes or products you sell?

How many hours of instruction is the course? Is it done in an intensive manner, of 1 - 3 days long, or in 1-2 hourly sessions a week?  Intensive training offers faster results, less travel time, less time to forget what was learned before building on that skill, and may keep motivation higher. It should include some type of follow-up plan for skill maintenance.

 If the presenter is a speech-language pathologist, is not licensed in your state (which you should ask) and is offering speech coaching online, be cautious if she does not ask your state of residence. In at least one state, such coaching by speech-language pathologists who are not licensed there is illegal.

Speech coaches often specialize in the services they provide. Accent modification, presentation skills,
speech rate, executive communication skills, diction improvement,  sales communication skills  and more may be available.

If you need the coaching, but can't afford it, can't get to it,  or don't have time for it, are e-books with helpful tips available as an alternative? Although not as effective as regular coaching, they can offer some helpful information.

Business Speech Improvement offers intensive training in all of the skills mentioned above. It is located in Durham, NC (USA).

Baby boomers: organizing personal finances now

Are you trying to plan for your own retirement, or deal with a senior citizen's tangled finances? Are your insurance, bank and stock or IRA account numbers "somewhere" in a mound of papers - maybe?
Maybe you are wondering how to get a replacement birth certificate for your senior citiizen, or for yourself.

An easy way to get organized financially is through the Financial Overview Template. Use this easy template to write down as much information as you can find now.  Then, be sure to print a hard copy of it, which you can get to if needed, if the electricity goes out.    Later, add the rest of the data, bit by bit, as you locate it or as it arrives in the mail or online. (As your information changes over time, you can update it easily.)

Some of the information may be easy to find, such as birthdates and the name and contact information of a particular accountant, doctor or dentist. Other information such as insurance account numbers and who to call in the event of a claim may take more work; if you can't find these, contact the company or wait for an update from them.

The pages online can be password-protected, and you can keep a copy of this on a password-protected flash-drive with you, handy in case of an emergency such as an unexpected trip to the hospital, evacuation or other disaster.

If you use the services of a financial planner or financial planning software, use this information from your various accounts or those of your parent (or other senior citizen) to prepare before your next visit. By visiting the website of each company and putting in the account number, you can determine the value of each account; write it and the date when this value was announced so you can report this to the financial planner.

The pay-off for this will be a serene sense of financial organization and confidence; you will be able to find  the data you need, when you need it. Just think: your account numbers will finally be easily accessible to you. Your knowledge of your benefits and what they cover, your retirement information, and many other details will be quickly available, too. Imagine how wonderful that will feel! Get the Financial Overview Template now, and be prepared with knowledge of your finances before you need it next!