Unmeant To Any Incident

Once upon a time, there used to be a jungle where king Lion, and all the other animals were live happily. Few many years, the food system that jungle follow, has been corrupted due to unknown reason.  One fine evening the king announced that he and every one in his kingdom should be vegetarian from next morning, that’s not it, who-so-ever found anything with non-veg, would be punished. Everybody got stunned with the announcement, the king were given mixed response from the inhabitant of the jungle. What’s now?

The fox became very much angry, as she was not the one who can feel just with the vegetables. She has acquired and collected all the possible flesh, and meat for past few months, but what could be done? She even can’t protest directly, nor can she say that her meal is felt incomplete without meat! So she made up something brilliant, she kept on saying that what will the vegetarians eat, can you not understand that? If all animals can now-onwards be vegetarians, where from the innocent vegetarians will survive? They‘ll face some real difficulties to find food for them…Has anyone not feel the pain that my fellow vegetarians will go through? Saying that the fox started sobbing like anything.

Seeing such soft hearted fox, who can question for them, all the deer, rabbits, buffaloes are strangely overwhelmed! They started to think where few months back she was, how come she dropped on earth suddenly…

Whatever, the entire fox community has now all geared up to protest against the tyrannical king, who should have taken under consideration their leader’s, the soft hearted fox, demand! They will see the end to such autocratic decision, as they will be there in jungle to protect the vegetarians like deer, rabbit, etc.

Now the entire Jungle are waiting to see what should be happening or the simple word who the heck wins…

N.B:- Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental or unmeant.

Speech Skills And Terminologies…

Speech Terminologies…

This list of speech skills and terminology is part of the Speak for Success Course, a series of six speech lessons designed to help you shape up your speech so you will sound more professional.

Many of us have mastered the business look. We know how to dress for success and pride ourselves on our professional manners. We know how important a smile is and all those little niceties of business exchanges such as how to present a business card properly.

We're on top of our game - but we have sloppy speech habits that undermine our polished appearance and give potential clients and customers messages we didn't intend to send. How can you trust someone that looks like one thing but says another?

In this sense, the Speak for Success course is about completing the package, making sure that our speech matches our appearance and finishes off the job of impressing our customers with our professionalism.

Be aware that the Speak for Success course is not about learning English. It's about speaking English better so you can better communicate with others.

Want to start the Speak for Success course right now? Go directly to Lesson 1.

Below is a list of the various speech skills and problems covered in the course. For your convenience, this list of speech skills and terminology includes reference to the Speak for Success Speech Lesson each skill or term is a part of, as well as definitions of each term.

Clarity – Speaking clearly so as to be understood. Clarity is composed of several different related speech skills including projection, enunciation and pace. (Clarity is covered in Lesson 1, Lesson 2 and Lesson 5.)

Projection – Speaking loudly enough so that every member of the audience can hear what is said.

(Projection is part of every speech lesson.)

Enunciation – Fully pronouncing each syllable of each word with the proper emphasis. (Enunciation is covered in Lesson 1.)

Pronunciation – Correctly pronouncing each word. (Practicing pronunciation is part of every speech lesson in the course.) There are some other aspect, such as; Gross Linguistic Error, MTI and so on…In that context my readers should be aware of MTI, I’m thinking that, but what’s GLE? Its nothing but the mistake we tend to make while we are translating any sentence exactly the same, without gauging the outcome. Suppose, we Indians are pretty much habituated with our own tongue into English to some extent, whose English meaning is null, e.g. Arrey, Matlab, ‘I told you toh’, etc.

Expression – Speaking with vocal variety and vitality so that the audience remains interested. The associated speech problem is speaking in a monotone - a real communication killer. (Expression is covered in Lesson 3.)

Pace – Speaking at a rate that is comfortable for the audience to hear and comprehend. (Pace is covered in Lesson 4.)

Fillers – Using meaningless words or sounds that distract the audience. "Um", "ah" and "you know" are especially common for native English Speakers. (Breaking the habit of using fillers when speaking is covered in Lesson 2.)

Slang – Informal language that is specific to a particular group.

If you're not part of that particular group, though, you have no idea what the meaning is. (The problem of using slang is covered in Lesson 5.)

Buzzwords – Words or phrases that sound important but have become meaningless through repetition. For example, in business "game changer" and "think outside the box" have been used to death. (The problem of buzzwords is covered in Lesson 5.)

Acronyms – Sets of initials used as shorthand to refer to particular phrases (such as CEO for Chief Executive Officer). (The use of acronyms is covered in Lesson 5.)

Active Listening – Participating in the act of communication by paying attention and letting the speaker know that you’re paying attention through activities such as mirroring and rephrasing. (Active listening is covered in Lesson 6.)

Stance – Presenting and maintaining an appropriate posture to facilitate communication. (Maintaining proper stance is covered in Lesson 6.)

Eye-contact – Looking the person or people you're speaking to in the eye for an appropriate length of time. When speaking to an audience of more than one, it’s important to make eye contact with as many individual members of the audience as possible. (Making proper eye contact is covered in Lesson 6.)

Problem of Active Listening

Lesson 6

Speech Skill: Listening

The Speech Problem

Assuming that you truly want to communicate with others, listening is the most important speech skill of all. Unfortunately, it’s also the speech skill that is practiced the least.
Remember the joke about the psychiatrist? There he is, in his office, with a patient on the couch. While the patient pours his heart out, the psychiatrist is thinking about his upcoming dinner.
That’s the way it is with most of us, much of the time. We’re thinking about other things instead of listening to whoever is speaking to us. There’s a grain of truth to the adage, “in one ear and out the other”, except that often the information doesn’t even enter the one ear in the first place.
It will sound strange to refer to this as a sloppy speech habit, but it is. We’re wired to listen; we just don’t bother doing it all the time.
Because we can get away with it. Most of the time, the speaker won’t know we’re not listening. As long as we continue to face him, keep a suitable expression on our face, and don’t do something blatant such as belt out a show tune, how will he know that we’re actually somewhere else entirely? He won’t.
But you do. And you’re the one that has to make a commitment to truly listening. In other words, I want you to become an active listener. To listen actively, you need to change from being a passive target to being a contributor to the communication.

Make this one change, and you’ll improve your communication skills a thousand fold.

Three Techniques For Active Listening

1) Setting The Stage For Listening – Stop whatever else you are doing. Turn to face the speaker and make eye contact. If you’re standing, your arms should be held loosely at your sides.

If you’re sitting, place your hands in your lap or loosely along each arm of the chair. Whether standing or sitting, do not cross your arms, which sends out a negative message. If you’re sitting, your legs should also be uncrossed. Lean slightly towards the speaker. You want your body language to send the message that you are receptive to the speaker’s message.

2) Appropriate Advancement – As the speaker speaks, make appropriate comments that advance the conversation. Just saying “um” or “ah” here and there won’t do it. You need to show the speaker that you’re actively listening to what he’s saying by making statements or asking questions that show that you’ve been paying attention. Like the next technique, summarizing, this active listening technique works well in both face-to-face and communication situations where the speaker can’t see you.
3) Summarizing - This is a particularly powerful technique for showing the speaker you’ve been paying attention whether you’re in a face-to-face situation or listening over the phone.

You can use it during conversation by saying something such as, “You were saying that...” and simply restating the speaker’s last point. Its most powerful use is at the end of the conversation when it’s “officially” your turn to respond. Start by saying, “You said that...” and then summarize the speaker’s key points, closing by adding an action statement, something you will do as a result of what the speaker has said.

For example, “You said that you don’t feel that I’ve been listening to you because I keep facing my computer screen when you’re talking and don’t seem to have anything to add to the conversation. From now on, I’ll give you my full attention when you speak to me.”

Speech Exercise: Practice Active Listening

You will need a partner for this exercise. Return to the list of topics we used for the Tell-Me Game in Speech Lesson 2.
This time, you are going to be the listener instead of the speaker. Have your partner choose one of the speech topics and speak impromptu for two minutes. Your task is to be an active listener and apply the three active listening techniques above. (Don’t forget to set the stage properly!)
Perform this exercise at least three times, using different speech topics and working up to a speech time of three minutes.

The Benefits of Active Listening

When you listen actively, people communicating with you will:

• Feel more confident that they’ve actually communicated a message to you.
• Feel more positive about you and the message you’re communicating.

Speech Lesson 6 Homework Assignment

After you’ve practiced the exercise on and linked to this page, you need to continue practice being an active listener.
Concentrate on this speech skill this week by trying to apply the three techniques of active listening to every conversation you have.
Set up a session with your Speech Monitor or with the partner that you first did your Active Listening practice with for the end of the week and go through the Active Listening exercise on this page one more time. Ask him or her to evaluate how you are performing each of the three active listening techniques explained in this lesson.

That’s it, we’ll wrap up the course, Cheers.

Buzzwords & Slang

Lesson 5

Speech Skill: Slang (Colloquial)

The Speech Problem

We live in a world littered with acronyms, buzzwords and slang speech. Right now, for instance, people are leveraging everything all over the place. A friend recently told me that she’d leveraged her portfolio. I thought she was talking about stocks, but she meant that she had a job interview. This was just a personal, minor misunderstanding.

But acronyms, buzzwords and slang can cause misunderstandings that cost time and money when we’re trying to do business.

As business people and professionals, we need to be sure that we’re speaking the right language to the right people at the right time. Both slang and buzzwords are types of informal, trendy language; both obscure meaning.
Slang is “informal language consisting of words and expressions that are not considered appropriate for formal occasions; often vituperative or vulgar” or “the characteristic language of a particular group” (Hyper Dictionary). So on the one hand, your listener may not understand what’s said because he isn’t a member of the selective group that knows that lingo; on the other, he may understand it very well but be offended by it.
Another problem with using slang speech to attempt to communicate is that many of us tend to get trapped in slang time warps. Unless you live in a house with teenagers or are currently attending a post-secondary educational institute, the slang you’re trying to use is probably hopelessly out of date.

(Remember the phrase, “far out”? Or “lame”? If you do, don’t admit it to anyone!)

Buzzwords are “stock phrases that have become nonsense through endless repetition” (Hyper Dictionary), or, if you prefer, “important-sounding words or phrases used primarily to impress laypersons” (BuzzWhack.com). Currently, for example, every business under the sun is including the word “solutions” in their marketing copy and conversations, to the point that the word is just a meaningless filler.
Speech Exercise: Business Buzzwords to Avoid

Shorthand Can Short change Your Listeners

Acronyms are abbreviations formed from the first letters of each word of a phrase that are sometimes used as words in themselves. They’re popular because basically we’re a lazy bunch and using a set of initials rather than writing or saying several words saves effort. Some common ones are:

• ASP - Application Service Provider
• B2B - Business to Business
• BAU - Business As Usual
• BAFO - Best And Final Offer
• RFP - Request for Proposal
• ROI - Return on Investment

What works as shorthand in the office doesn’t necessarily translate when you’re speaking with customers or clients. Perfectly appropriate acronyms you use in-house may just be gobbledygook to clients.
It's not that acronyms should never be used; just that you should use them selectively. To make it easier on yourself, set up and follow a rule never to use acronyms when communicating with customers and/or clients, no matter what form the communication takes. Clarity is worth the price of convenience.

Speech Exercise: Adding Acronyms

Return to the list of acronyms above and add at least five different acronyms – preferably ones that you are in the habit of using. As the purpose of this exercise is to start focusing on the acronyms in your speech, you may find it easier to add to the list throughout the week as acronyms crop up when you’re communicating.

The Benefits of Cutting Slang, Buzzwords and Acronyms

When you cut these from your speech, your listeners will:

• be less likely to feel alienated or offended;
• be more likely to comprehend the message you’re communicating.

Speech Lesson 5 Homework Assignment

First, complete the exercises on and linked to this page. Just by doing this, you’ll become more aware of the kind of empty language that you want to eliminate from your speech.
To help you cut slang, buzzwords and acronyms from your speech, keep a Speech Diary. Each day, as you communicate with others, be aware of what you’re saying and write down any instances of slang, buzzwords, or acronyms that you use.
If you do this conscientiously, by the end of the week, two things will happen; you’ll have a list of the empty language that you personally use, and the number of times you use particular instances of the slang, buzzwords and acronyms that are weakening your communication will decrease.
Enlist the aid of your speech monitor again this time, asking him or her to tell you whenever you use slang, buzzwords or acronyms instead of real, meaningful words.
If you’re curious about what new buzzwords are being bandied about, or hear one that you don’t know the meaning of, Macmillan Dictionary has an ever-growing library offering definitions of everything from “alpha pups” through “zombience”.
And just for fun, check out this Ultimate A-Z Marketer's Buzzword Bible from Wordstream.
In the next speech skills lesson, you’ll learn why what you don’t say is just as important as what you do say, as you work on Active Listening.