Voice Skills
Hello, well I’ve just finished listing all my New Year Goals, have you?
How about New Voice Skills?
Having reviewed last year’s goals I have achieved half of them which I’m okay-ish with, but – could do better! 🙂
Another great exercise to do, is to make A Good Riddance list – an ex student who has become a life time friend and I, have begun this annual ritual, inspired by New York’s Times Square..
We make a list of all the things we want to get rid off: habits, ways of thinking, people who put us down, beliefs that might be holding us back – anything we want to leave behind in 2024 – all the negative things we want to ditch and not carry through with us, to the next year…
And then just before midnight, on the 31st of December, we burn our lists and relish in the bright orange colour of the flames, the blackened curled paper and the smoke as the embers appear and we feel lighter. It really works.
A Story And Some Sounds To Put On Your Good Riddance List
I was recently called by an Indian lady who wants clarity in English but does not want to change her accent: perfectly understandable. Why would you want the accent of your ex coloniser? …BUT –
– the problem is, if you’re working in the language of English, you really do need your English to be understood.
This English language that you are speaking, needs to be understood by the rest of the English speaking world, whatever their first language is and wherever they have come from ..
A cluttered, uncomprehensive sound, full of rolling r’s; substitutions of b’s and v’s for w’s and using de for the, really do make it very difficult for other English speakers, whether native and especially non-native folks, to understand what is being said.
Those speech habits that are very important and absolutely integral in your own language, may lead to confusion and misapprehension when used for speaking English.
British people rarely tell you that they haven’t actually understood what you’ve just said.
The Need For Voice Skills
The problem manifests itself in staff taking actions that are not the instructions you gave; misunderstandings leading to arguments or at the least mistrust; blank faces and then profuse apologies for not responding quickly (they’ve been working out what you said using the context of the situation, subject matter and and your expression) and sometimes if the person is desperate, or the matter too important, an apologetic request to repeat is said, with embarrassment.
So! Please, if you are aware of your English speaking unintelligibility because people have to say, “I’m sorry, I didn’t quite catch that” or “Sorry, please could you repeat that for me?” or “I’m so sorry I didn’t quite hear you” or even look at you blankly while they patiently put the context together with a good guess, it’s time for you to put your inaccuracy of Standard English or American sounds, on your Good Riddance List and ditch your prejudice against the ex-colonisers’ sound, for your greater good…
Don’t Cut Your Nose Off Yo Spite Your Face
One day, the most ubiquitous language or most common language of commerce, might very well be Mandarin or Hindi.
But right now… it’s English.
New Voice Skills 2025 Are For All Of Us
Even British folk are fully aware, that fellow Brits may not understand them, if they have strong regional accents.
Strong regional accents that are 100% British, can still be very difficult to understand, especially, if you are from another country.
Or even if you don’t have a strong regional accent, if your tongue is sitting too far back you may be missing your t’s and d’s tongue tip contact point making it harder than necessary, for your listeners to keep up with the contents of your message.
New Voice Skills 2025 Are Not Going To Change Your Identity.
This is so important for you to realise. If I speak French in a very English accent – I sound ridiculous. I am basically massacring their language – and they don’t like it!
Us Brits on the other hand, listen, try and work it out and generally don’t say a word – we are extremely tolerant of every accent under the sun, we just quietly add up your facial expression + context + emotions + subject then’hope for the best’ and see if our response makes any sense to you 🙂
We do not tell you, we were or are, struggling to understand you.
English Develops But We Still Need Voice Skills for Speech Clarity
We do not have a strict academy to maintain and control the English language, like the French do – which is very lucky for us – I think. This has enabled English to mutate and spread all around the world.
Some purists lament the days when ‘get’ and got’ did not act for nearly every verb and argue hat more specific language would aid greater comprehension, as is used in law, which of course it does – but – the use of get and got has democratised English – and made it universally accessible to a vast amount of people a from a vast amount of countries, allowing communication between folks from completely different cultures.
However, we still have to hear the ‘t’s at the end of get and got, and the vowels of e and o need to sound different too.
The rolling rrrr for an r (in English pronounced ahhh) at the end of a word or syllable, can be very confusing to someone speaking and listening in English.
A rolling or percussive r, muddies the sound the end of the word with the beginning of the next word – and sometimes makes those two words impossible to understand.
New Voice Skills 2025 Example
As an exercise, try keeping your tongue down and still, when there is an r at the end of a word:
eg car or far, four or for, your and more.
Don’t let your tongue jump up. Keep the tongue tip firmly attached to the back of your lower front teeth – and hear how clear you sound when saying those words!
Change the way you say these most common words and you will notice a marked difference in how English speakers respond to you
Happy New Year 🙂 and I do hope I am the person who gives you your new voice skills in 2025 🙂
