Month: June 2009

What are three ways to improve your speaking?

General

Many visitors to this website are interested in public speaking.

After all, human communication tends to be more oral than written.

And this made me wonder: What are three recommendations that I would make to anyone who wants to improve his or her speaking skills?

The answer? 1. Learn more! 2. Talk to yourself! 3. Talk to others!

1. Learn more!

“Learn more to earn more.” is a popular expression in America today. Given that your speaking skills often affect your earning ability, I recommend that you learn more in these three ways.

I recommend that you get public-speaking instruction to learn the basics.

I recommend that you improve your voice quality to make you a speaker who is more comfortable with his or her own voice and to be understood by a wider audience.

And I recommend that you learn a new word every day to make you a speaker with greater comfort with words and therefore a more relaxed speaker.

2. Talk to yourself!

Most people believe that those who talk to themselves are crazy, but talking to yourself can improve your speaking skills.

I recommend making videos of yourself speaking into a camera.

I recommend that you monitor your speech for “uhs” and “ums”.

And I recommend that you talk to yourself while learning a foreign language.

3. Talk to others!

Ultimately, talking is useless without listeners.

I recommend that you first pursue public speaking in a volunteer organization.

I recommend that you next pursue public speaking through a speaking club.

Finally, I recommend that you seek a job that requires you to speak regularly.

“behoove”

Foreign Languages, Verbs

I overheard this verb used in a sentence the other day.

The sentence was something like “If you want to go to college, then it behooves you to do all your homework in high school.”

I had been intending to look up this verb, and I finally did.

You see, I was wondering whether “behoove” was somehow related to the noun “hoof”, the plural of which can be “hooves”.

In particular, I was wondering whether “behoove” in some way once meant to put hooves on (oneself) and had its meaning become a more generic to protect (oneself).

Okay, maybe that is a stretch.

And I should have known better, given my knowledge of Spanish-language false cognates for English speakers.

One of my favorite false cognates is the Spanish word “embarazada”, which looks to many Americans like the English word “embarrassed” but actually means pregnant instead.

But I learned when I looked up the verb “behoove” that it originated a millennium or so ago and is related to the noun “behoof”, which means behalf.

Lesson learned (again!): Check your assumption about the meaning of a word when it looks like another word that you know.

What are three ways to improve your reading?

General

“Better Communication for Smart People”, the slogan of this website, is not just about writing better.

It is also about reading better.

Readers are leaders, so it pays to be able to read better.

And this got me to wondering something: What are three recommendations that I would make to anyone who wants to improve his or her reading skills?

The answer? 1. Listen more! 2. Watch more! 3. Discuss more!

1. Listen more!

You can improve your reading skills by listening more.

I recommend that you try reading a book and then getting and listening to the audio-book version.

I recommend that you listen to podcasts about their work from book, magazine-article, and blog authors.

And I recommend that Amazon Kindle owners listen to an author’s words through the Kindle’s text-to-speech function.

2. Watch more!

You can improve your reading skills by watching more.

When a movie based on a book is released, watch it in the cinema or on DVD after you read the book.

When you know that a book author is going to be interviewed or covered in a biography on television, read at least one of his or her books prior to watching the TV program.

And search video-hosting websites for video clips made by other readers about a book that you have read.

3. Discuss more!

You can improve your reading skills by discussing more.

Book clubs represent one of the most popular ways for people to discuss books.

Online forums have become an online supplement to or replacement for book clubs.

And I recommend public events as a third way for you to discuss more of what you read.