How To Do Stuff Well

05. How to Talk Well

This one is for me. As a compulsive mumbler, I don't really have the habit of Talking Well. But I'm sure that I can change given enough incentive. So let's hope I give myself some, right?

I realised ages ago why I mumble. It's because I have good ears. I've noticed that one reason people speak loudly is that they're a little bit hard of hearing, which means that they have to turn up the volume of their voice-box in order to hear themselves. This has the unfortunate effect of making people like me step back a pace or two.

I'm the opposite. In order to hear myself at what I consider to be a normal level, I have to reduce my volume. This makes it sound, to other people, like I'm mumbling.

So, if that's all there is to it, then all we have to do in order to Talk Well is take feedback from other people as to whether we're too loud or too soft. Then we just adjust accordingly.

Ah, if only life were that simple.

The other thing I've found is that I don't open my mouth and move it around enough when I talk. I tend to keep it small and immobile, which means that less sound gets out and, when it does, it's kinda compressed. I've experimented with this and I find that if I exaggerate the movements of my mouth more than I normally would then the words come out much clearer.

Basically, I have to talk like some people talk to foreigners and old people. And yeah, I know that's bad to say things like that, but there are people like that in the world that talk to others like they are idiots. But they're not.

Anyhow, so that's what I have to do. I think that they call it enunciation and pronunciation. And if you saw how much my mouth has to move to say those words then you'd laugh.

So in summary: in order to Talk Well speak up and move your mouth more.

Well, that's all I have to say on the subject. Hope you enjoyed this tip. Have yourself a beautiful day until next time. And if you don't want to read on, then I hope everything you do is beautiful and enjoyable.