Recently I was sitting for an interview, for a college and I noticed others around me sweating it out. I decided to have a word with them just to calm their nerves a little bit as I could make it out from their faces plus them being freshers, it was justified. What I noticed after a bit of talking was a little disheartening. They were fumbling through their words even before they had entered the room. What was even more shocking to me was that this was the state of children who were about to enter one of the premier B-schools of India.
Hence, when the opportunity presented itself to me, through one of my friends, I took it up to give my 2 cents on it and now you’re reading the result of it. I have listed down 5 ways through which you can improve your speaking skills. Before we dive into it, please keep in mind these techniques apply to all languages, as people might have a tendency, or a bias to take them as aimed at English verbal skills only, which is not so. So let’s get started!
- Develop a Reading Habit
Way before we even reach the entire speaking part of things, the first thing you ought to concentrate on is your comprehension skills because without having the required set of tools in your hand, you cannot sculpt. A good reading habit allows you to not only improve your concentration but mainly improves your grammar and vocabulary. Start slow, with material such as magazines, newspapers and then move on to a little heavy stuff such as novels, biographies, etc. It’ll also help you to expand your knowledge base and have topics to act as ice-breakers when talking with someone.
2.Talk to Yourself in the Mirror
No, I’m not telling you to start acting loco, but talking in the mirror to yourself helps. It might sound weird, but it has done wonders for those who have actually done it! It not only helps you to improve upon your body language and gestures but also increases your self-esteem once you start to notice improvements in yourself. Start experimenting with your pronunciation, move on to voice modulation and finally to body language and hand gestures.
3.Know and Anticipate the Surroundings
Once you’re aware of your anticipated environment and where you’re going, you’ll be in a better position to act or react accordingly to the respective conversations. Know the crowd you’ll be interacting with, their thought processes and what are their expectations from you. An interview or a formal party with your seniors is the last place you wanna end up using words like ‘dude’ or ‘bro’.
4.Be Clear of Your End Objective
Why are you holding that conversation? Is it to bag a job? A seat in college? Break ice with SOMEONE (wink wink!)? Or just to gain knowledge? Be it whatever, it has to be clear in your mind and then set a pattern and map out the conversation in your mind and be in the driver’s seat so you’re always knowing when and what to say to get what you want and take charge of the situation.
5. Always be Conscious of Death
I know it sounds crazy, but as a last resort, if nothing else works, this is actually one of the easiest ways to face a situation. Once you come to terms with the fragility of life and realize that ultimately no matter what, everybody has to die one day and all that started at 0 (zero) will ultimately come back to it only, you’ll also lose the fear. Why? Cause what is the worst that can happen to anyone in any given situation? Death, that’s it. Always talk to people freely hence, cause no matter what they AND you, all have the same ultimate destination so there’s actually really nothing left to fear since you’ve already overpowered the ultimate fear of all living beings!
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