5 Bad Speech Habits To Avoid

hey what's up Stefanie the english coach here from EnglishFullTime.com in this video i'm gonna give you five bad speech habits that i recommend avoiding and i also have a bonus tip for you so here's the deal as you guys are learning english you are imitating native speakers you want to sound fluent in english and so you listen you listen very closely and you imitate what you hear now the point of this video is that not everything you hear is worth imitating there are some bad speech habits that native speakers have probably in all languages and these are things that you don't necessarily want to imitate or at least i don't recommend imitating them so we will go through this list but before we do that i just want to let you guys know that my team and i are preparing a really cool program for you to help with all aspects of your english your listening your speaking vocabulary grammar pronunciation etc it is going to be super affordable and actually by the time this video goes live we may have already opened this program i'm not sure so check in the description i will give you guys all the information there i am super excited about it and i know you guys are going to love it okay so uh without further ado let's talk about these five speech habits bad speech habits plus the bonus that i recommend you avoid okay so the first one is speaking too quickly now as you're learning english you might think oh my goodness i need to speak fast because if i speak fast i will be fluent and people will respect me as an english speaker you want to fit in with other english speakers maybe who are speaking quickly i actually wrote about this on my twitter recently sometimes you might feel like you have to speak super fast to prove yourself as a competent english speaker but let me tell you good communicators don't speak a mile a minute they are more concerned with their message coming across clearly and being understood so that is the gist of this idea when you speak so fast and if you have a heavy accent on top of that and if you're still struggling with pronouncing certain sounds and certain words that could really make your speech very unclear and difficult to understand so i recommend avoiding it and i also want to tell you a quick story about a student that i spoke with a couple years ago i did a coaching call with him and he was fluent in english he spoke very well he was studying in the usa but he spoke so fast like his words would just run together in a sentence and i was there thinking like why are we talking so fast what's the hurry and i asked him about it i'm like you know you're speaking really really fast like why do you speak like this and basically he told me that his friends in college all spoke like that he had friends and they would play basketball together and his friends would speak very fast and this is actually something that a lot of native speakers do especially younger people tend to do this they speak very very quickly however when you speak like that it's not always easy for other people to understand so he just wanted to fit in he wanted to be like his friends and like the people he was hanging out with but it actually worked against him because one the conversation that i had with him felt very rushed and we were talking about important topics we were talking about his english his goals his career etc and that's not a conversation you want to rush and beyond that it was difficult for me to understand him so there are times to speak quickly or phrases that maybe you want to say quickly but overall you don't want your speech to be super rushed because your goals should be communicating clearly and being understood remember that is what good speakers focus on okay the next bad speech habit that you want to avoid is the overuse of fillers fillers are words like you know like um etc so using these words once in a while can be okay because they help you connect your sentences and ideas in a natural native like way however the overuse of fillers is very distracting to your listener and it can get very annoying if someone is using you know you know it's like you know um you know all the time in their speech you're gonna be like oh my goodness get to the point what are you trying to say just say it okay so like i said these are bad habits that native speakers have and you might want to imitate them thinking hey if i do this then i will sound more like a native speaker okay but this is like i said these are bad habits so sometimes i overuse the phrase you know and i probably pick this up from my mom because she does this as well and sometimes Ren has to call me on it and he says hey Stefanie can you please just stop using your nose so much and i tend to do this when i am explaining an idea that i have not fully thought about in my mind and i don't know exactly what i think so when i'm communicating the idea i'm like you know it's like you know and i'm not thinking first and then speaking i'm trying to think and speak at the same time and that's why it comes out like that so it's often a better idea to think first know what you think and feel and then communicate and i do have a story for this one as well one time i interviewed a brazilian woman she was from brazil but she spoke other languages like spanish and english and she spoke them so well she sounded like a native speaker in every single language and the cool thing was she learned these languages as an adult and it's very rare to meet people like this so of course being the english coach i was like hey can i interview you that would be so awesome and she said yes so we did the interview and i wanted to share it with my students unfortunately she used you know so much in the interview that it was incredibly distracting and even when we edited the video to try and take it out all that did was make the video super choppy so i never actually got a chance to share it with my students it was way too distracting and i felt like i couldn't really use the interview now in her defense maybe she was a little nervous about being interviewed and sometimes we tend to use fillers more when we are nervous but it's just something to be aware of try not to use it when you're nervous try not to use it when you're not nervous use it the appropriate amount of time um don't annoy people with it okay the next bad habit that i recommend avoiding is using offensive language and cursing or rather the overuse of cursing and using offensive language especially if you do not talk like this in your native language so depending on what kind of content you consume maybe in your native language you don't really curse you don't really use offensive language but maybe you're following all these vloggers that do or maybe you have friends at school that do talk like this and so you feel oh well the people i'm around talk like this and you feel like you want to fit in so you start talking like that and it just doesn't feel like you okay plus by using this language it can get you into trouble if you are a professional and you're using this language in an interview or something like that you know maybe you're not going to get hired so you have to know what type of language is appropriate for what situation and you have to be really really really careful with offensive language because one of the last things you learn as a language learner is the connotation of words how it makes other people feel the feelings behind words okay so not just the word and the definition but the attitudes associated with the word that other people might have so for you to say something that might be really offensive like the n word which i'm not going to say you might think nothing of it right but for other people that could really be offensive and you just want to be careful how you portray yourself and again if you're not like this in your native language and you find that you're surrounded with native speakers who do talk like that don't feel pressured to be someone you are not um i guess i have a story for this one as well i just remembered this when i was in eighth grade i went to a school where the culture and the community people around me they were very different from me and the way that i was raised for example i was raised in a household where we never cursed and we avoided using all types of offensive language however at this school apparently the other kids were raised in the opposite environment where it was totally okay to use offensive language and to curse and so i started feeling pressured like everyone is doing this around me so i should do it too so that i fit in however it did not feel right and i remember that feeling that icky feeling of this isn't who i am why am i trying to be somebody that i'm not and so finally by ninth grade i realized you know what that's not who i am that's not how i was raised i don't believe in talking like that and so i'm not going to do it okay now that's not to say that i never curse or anything like that i do but i believe that that language is meant to be used sparingly if you overuse it it kind of loses its meaning and its emphasis so just something to consider okay the next bad habit that i recommend avoiding is mumbling so you might hear native speakers and maybe it's your neighbor someone you go to school with someone you work with and they just mumble and you think okay that's how i should talk because i'll sound more like a native if i do that but mumbling is a problem because when you mumble we can't understand what you're saying a lot of the times i remember i guess i have a story for all of these oh my goodness this is so funny i didn't plan the stories but they are just coming out so anyways i have a brother-in-law who tends to mumble a lot when he speaks now i've practically grown up with him in our family because my sister got married when i was very young she was a lot older and i'm used to the way he speaks so it's not a problem for me however when i met and married Renzo and Renzo met him Renzo would look at me and be like what is he saying oh my goodness it was always such a mystery what my brother-in-law was saying because he would mumble and so that was really hard for Ren to understand now if you mumble okay and on top of that any struggle you may have with pronunciation uh your accent if people are not accustomed to it okay it's gonna make it very difficult for people to understand you and as someone who is communicating you want to be understood okay you want people to listen to your ideas to value your ideas and so that's why i recommend avoiding mumbling okay the next bad speech habit that i recommend avoiding is speaking too loud or too soft too quietly okay you really want to know what the appropriate volume is for where you are at and some people have a habit of speaking really loud when they are in environments when they should not be speaking that loud or they're very timid and so they speak so softly that you can't hear them right so you want to be able to adjust your voice according to the environment that you're in now as a non-native speaker sometimes you might feel a little bit shy like oh i don't know if i should speak up and so you're really quiet and i want to encourage you to use your voice and to practice finding that power in your diaphragm okay to really support your voice so that you are heard and so that you command attention and you say hey i have an idea and it's a good idea and i want to share it and it's worth listening to okay so that is the kind of volume you want to use now obviously you don't always want to use that volume it depends what situation you're in but you just want to be aware of it and i have a little bonus tip related to this and then i have my big bonus tip okay so my bonus tip about volume is not reducing the volume at the end of your sentences this is a very very bad habit that people have and a lot of people do this when they lack confidence okay so the recommendation is maintain the volume of your sentence throughout your entire sentence from start to finish start your sentence strong and end your sentence strong of course you can vary the pitch and the tone and the volume a little bit throughout your sentence so that you don't speak in a monotone boring way but overall do not start your sentence up here and end it down here okay because again a lot of people do this when they lack confidence both native speakers and non-native speakers and they might say something like oh i was thinking that um maybe you know we should just whatever and then the sentence just trails off and it's like do you want people to hear you or not because if you do if you really do you can't do that you have to be aware of it and you might have to work on your own mindset to really get that confidence to start your sentence and finish it with the same level of power and volume i know that i have done this and sometimes i even maybe still do it as a spanish speaker okay and whenever i wasn't sure if i was saying a word correctly or if my grammar was you know incorrect in a sentence and i wasn't sure i would start the sentence strong because i really wanted to share an idea and then it would just trail off um because i was shy and embarrassed okay so again be confident even if you are saying something and you're like i might be pronouncing this wrong i might be messing up the grammar just say it and embrace the journey as you go and all the mistakes and have fun with it just don't hold back i guess is what i'm saying and when you let your sentence trail off like that it's because you're holding back rather than letting it all out and being confident okay so my final tip my bonus tip and probably the biggest most important tip of this entire video is do not imitate without considering the attitude behind what you are imitating okay so here's what i mean you might hear a native speaker speaking in a certain way and you imitate them word for word exactly what they say as they say it and the tone you have spot on and it might be great you might sound like wow she sounds like a native speaker he sounds like a native speaker that's awesome but what you don't realize is the native speaker that you're imitating is actually being rude or condescending or patronizing or impatient or maybe they are being dismissive or judgmental or sarcastic okay and these are not great characteristics and qualities when it comes to speaking and communicating okay these are things that are offensive and it's up to you how you want to communicate but of course i teach my students to not communicate at that level and i teach professional communication and communication that is just kind and considerate and gets good results or better results for you so again just because you hear a native speaker speaking in a certain way don't just imitate blindly thinking okay that's how native speakers talk i want to sound like that really listen to the tone that they're using listen to the words that they're using listen for exaggeration listen for these negative things and ask yourself do i want to communicate like this how do i want to be seen as an english speaker how do i want people to perceive me because i will tell you that their people communicate in different ways and depending on if they're having a good day or not or what their personality is or their character is like some people communicate in these negative ways and you have to be aware of it and i actually know someone in my life who in english when she communicates she communicates very well and she comes across as kind in spanish when she communicates she often comes across as very bossy very rude very patronizing and i don't think she even realizes and i don't think she knows that she comes across like this because she can't hear herself but i think what happened is she worked so hard to imitate the spanish that she was surrounded with and she didn't really realize that the people that she was surrounded with were being patronizing and rude and impatient and dismissive and since she didn't make that connection she ended up adopting that way of speaking and i mean hopefully one day she will realize but it's a very sensitive topic so it's not like i'm just gonna come out and be like hey did you know you come across like this when you speak in this language so anyways this is why i'm taking everything that i learned from my experience and my students experiences and just my observations and i'm sharing it with you and i really hope it makes a difference in your life and i hope it gives you something to think about and consider okay so with all of that said i just want you guys to know that i do have other social media accounts if you use other social media accounts feel free to follow me i use instagram and i'm on twitter now as i said earlier and i um i really like twitter that's actually where i have my smallest following but i don't even care i love that i can just write an idea and share it and tweet it and boom it's out there and i don't have to worry about putting a photo together or editing a video so it's really cool uh what else do i have i'm thinking of making a tick tock but i don't have one yet um i use facebook also but what i post on instagram is kind of the same as facebook and of course i have my email list of subscribers so i highly recommend getting on my email list if you want to be the first to know about special offers we have coming up or anything like that my programs that i'm running um and it's also like a more personal connection with me because i feel like i can say things and share things in email that maybe i don't really share on social media in other ways so there's that and you can sign up at englishfulltime.com and if you are not subscribed to my channel i just invite you to subscribe here join the family show your support like the video if you enjoyed it hit the like button and again just a quick reminder we are about to launch a new program and i am very excited about this program again because it's going to be super affordable and it is going to help you in so many ways with all aspects of your english so go to the description to get more information about this program and i will see you in my next youtube video that's it i'll see you soon bye And what was the other thing hang on i always have these thoughts in my head and then getting them into the video i it's like i forget as i go um there was another reason why speaking fast was a uh not a good thing oh i wrote about this on my twitter what did i what did i say and i tend to uh how do i say this and i know hang on and okay so anyways um i have a brother-in-law who tends to mumble when he speaks okay there was a car hopefully he didn't hear that okay okay the next bad speech habit that i avoid recommending wait i can't believe i just said that i'm tired it has been a long day oh my goodness okay but what you don't realize is the native speaker that you're imitating is actually being rude or condescending or patronizing or impatient or i have some others on the list what is it maybe they are being dismissive hang on dismissive okay maybe they are being dismissive or judgmental i can't remember these maybe or maybe they are being dismissive or judgmental or okay sarcastic that's the one how do i want people to perceive me if you want a that more i don't know personal how should i say this points for me for being prepared

Channel: The English Coach

Views: 922,740

Keywords: bad speech habits, bad speaking mistakes, bad mistakes in English, speaking too fast, speaking too slow, mumbling in English, using offensive language in English, speaking too loud, speaking too quietly, learning the connotation of words, how to improve your english speaking skills, how to be a good speaker in English, bad speech habits to avoid, don't make these mistakes in english, speaking to be understood, speaking clearly and confidently, how to speak confidently english

Id: oqGZLxPCWlo

Length: 20min 30sec (1230 seconds)

Published: Fri May 01 2020