82. My first public speech

13 November 2020
By Olga Smith

I joined the oldest public speaking club in London in 2004. People in my club were seasoned public speakers with very sophisticated English. I, on the other hand, had a very quiet voice, a strong Russian accent and monotonous speech. People always asked me to repeat what I said as they didn’t always understand what I was saying. On top of that, I didn’t have a job and had very limited resources which were depleting very rapidly in London. The level of my confidence was not the highest at that time. But I knew that I had to deliver my speech.

I prepared it and booked a timeslot for its delivery in the club. Everyone’s first speech in the club they called An Icebreaker. It is a speech where I presented myself to my club members. I vividly remember the night when I was presenting this first speech. I called it “Born behind the iron curtain”.

As I walked to the podium my legs were shaking. I had humming in my head, and when I finally faced the audience I could not see their faces. All the people looked to me like a big white mass. I had a short blackout. I was constantly thinking: I need to speak louder than usual so that people can hear what I say.

I started my speech. My voice was so loud that people in the front seats almost jumped. They were so surprised and looked quite shocked. I continued my speech and even started to smile towards the end of it. When I finished my speech I received a big round of applause. People in my club were so supportive and helpful, so positive and kind. Even now I can still feel enormous gratitude towards them.

I can compare this experience to jumping from a high cliff and being scared of the unknown, that was my fear - the unknown. On reflection, I can say that when I was overcoming my fear I felt so much alive and energised. The aftermath effect was that my confidence jumped to a much higher level. The 3 minutes speech was more effective for my confidence than anything else I had ever done. I continued to deliver my speeches and with each delivery, my confidence grew and grew.

I felt I would definitely benefit if I improve my pronunciation and someone in the club recommended that I take elocution lessons. The elements of elocution are voice control, articulation, and good pronunciation. Exactly what I needed to become a good public speaker.

I started my elocution lessons with a top speech and drama tutor Linda James in 2004. We started with mastering my RP ( Received Pronunciation). Then moved to intonation, stress, liaising - all that we teach in our books. In parallel, I had been delivering my speeches on a regular basis which was a great practice of all elocution techniques I had been learning with Linda.

In 2006, together with Linda, we co-authored our first elocution book. Later we produced four more books and converted them into apps. We have based our apps and books on years of practical experience and made sure to include all elocution techniques in them.

In conclusion, I can say that my first speech was the beginning of my success.

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81. 6 Benefits of reciting poetry for your speech

By Olga Smith

Poetry is an art form that exists since ancient times. Aristotle's Poetics describes the three genres of poetry: epic, comic and tragic. Aesthetics, colourful language, compactness of expression and the use of metaphor make poetry a source of enormous pleasures for us. It helps us to become more human, it enriches our soul, develops our creativity and so much more.

Reciting poetry is crucial in mastering speech, that is why speech tutors often use poetry in their elocution lessons. It is poetry that has undoubtedly contributed to the enormous popularity of our apps, books and elocution lessons.

I will outline six main benefits of reciting poetry for speech mastery.

N1: Reciting poetry helps to make your speech more fluent. You will learn very quickly how to liaise the words in each line, glide from one word to another without pausing. You see poetry is closely related to musical traditions. Each line in a poem is bound by a meter and it has a certain rhythm. The words in each line should be linked like in a song.

N2: Speaking in a connected way will also help you to learn how to “throw away” unimportant words, such as articles and prepositions and use dramatic stress. Learn more about “throwing away”, a term used by actors in our blog about fluency.

N3: Particular poems are wonderful for articulation, such as Major General from W. S. Gilbert for example. You can find Major General in lesson 32 in the app Get Rid of your Accent. Good articulation is crucial for your speech clarity. It makes your speech more energised.

N4: Poetry is fantastic for practising power, pitch, pace and pause of your voice to make your speech interesting to listen to. Many students who take our elocution lessons complain that their speech is boring and monotonous. We created a wonderful app entitled Power, Pitch, Pace, Pause to help you make your speech interesting to listen to.

N5: Speech is a very technical subject. It requires a tremendous effort from both sides of the teachers and the student in order to make good progress. Using poetry makes this process more light-hearted and entertaining. When students have fun they are more likely to enjoy working on their speech.

N6: Reciting poetry will immensely enrich your English vocabulary. We recommend that you memorise new words, phrases and metaphors in the context, then try to use them in your speech.

In our apps and books, we start each elocution lesson with a bit of theory. Then we follow up with practical exercises such as words, phrases, sentences and prose passages. As a rule, we end each lesson with a poem or two as a reward for our hardworking students. In our apps you first listen to an actor reading a poem, then you can read it yourself and record it. Then you can compare your reading with the professional actor’s reading. We recommend that you copy the actor’s pronunciation and intonation.

We also offer one to one sessions on Skype. Read the feedback from our students.

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80. Sources of strength

By Olga Smith

What makes us strong? Obvious things like good sleep, good food, sun, vitamins, etc. Yet, there are people who seem to have a great lifestyle but nevertheless look empty. What makes people look empty? There can be a number of reasons: lack of purpose in life, lack of self-confidence and low self-esteem. But what can be the cause of all these problems?

Let’s think about what we consist of. We are children of our parents. Our parents are only humans, they have their strengths and weaknesses. As their children, we inherit both, their strengths and their weaknesses.

As we grow up once we have recognized our parents’ weaknesses, we often criticize and reject them. So-called experts in psychology tell us that we should honour our feelings and respect our boundaries and if we do not love or respect our parents we have the right to do so.

Indeed, our parents might have hurt us, and we can feel pain as a result. But does the rejection of our parents and focusing on their weaknesses benefit our life today?

I came to the conclusion, that it is more productive to see our parents as humans and focus on their strengths. If we focus on their strengths it can become a tremendous source of strength for us.

79. The difference between the spoken word and the written word

By Olga Smith

The difference between the spoken word and the written word

Many tech people make a common mistake: they write their speeches as if it is a technical article. As a result, when they start to deliver their speech, their audience could find it convoluted and boring.

What is the difference between a technical article and a speech? Below are a few essential tips to prepare a good speech:

  1. The focus is not simply on words and phrases but more importantly on how you say it and how effectively you deliver the speech to engage the audience with the use of pauses, changes in the power, pitch, and pace of your voice.

  2. When delivering your speech you need to use short sentences and short punchy words as opposed to long sentences and long words which we use when writing an article. This technique will help your audience to understand your speech and enjoy listening to it, otherwise, they might not get your point and lose interest quickly.

  3. When we write an article, our language contains much more details, whereas speeches tend to have the main ideas presented in a powerful way.

  4. It is useful to get rid of unimportant words in your speech because the main idea might be drowned in a sea of unnecessary words.

  5. Download the app Power, Pitch, Pace, Pause and have a few elocution lessons to master the 4Ps of public speaking.

  6. Download the app Fluent English Speech to master sentence stress and intonation.

  7. If you use abbreviations and technical vocabulary, make sure you explain them first so that your listeners can follow what you are saying.

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78. Why is language considered crucial to human development?

By Olga Smith

Language is a mystery to me.

Some writers believe that language is given to humans by God, scientists suggest that language is a part of human evolution. I agree with both viewpoints. I will explain why. When I read masterpieces of literature I feel the magic and beauty that cannot be connected just to the brain. At the same time, I see how our brain development is mirrored in the language we speak.

We communicate our thoughts and feelings through language. From our childhood, we learn by means of language. Later we understand the abstract concept by means of language.

When I was a secondary school pupil my Dad would not let me go out to have fun unless I read 50 pages a day. I was a hyperactive child and that felt so boring for me. However, today I am grateful to my Dad as I understood that reading was crucial for the development of my soul, my character, my personality. Reading helped to expand my imagination, my consciousness and to become creative.

Since I was a child, I started to learn foreign languages. To date, I speak five languages and I have co-authored five books on English speech. Due to their enormous success, the books were converted into nine iOS and nine Android apps.

Our books help people to master English pronunciation, fluency and vocabulary. Our books also help with the use of 4Ps, Power, Pitch, Pace, Pause; techniques for voice modulation and public speaking. 4Ps help us to connect with our feelings and our unique way of expressing ourselves. 4Ps help to communicate in a beautiful and artistic way.

I regularly receive feedback from the students who study with our apps and books and see, how with their help, they grow as humans, professionals and leaders.

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77. The most effective method of teaching English pronunciation

By Olga Smith

There are a number of different strategies for teaching English pronunciation. I would like to offer the method that we use in our apps and books. It was developed by Linda James, LRAM, R.A.M. Dip. Ed. Linda has been teaching speech (Received Pronunciation), which in the past was called the Queen’s English, Oxford English or BBC English) in leading London drama schools for more than 20 years and elocution lessons to foreign professionals for more than 30 years.

In our elocution apps and books, each lesson begins with an illustrated description of the speech organ position, followed by practical exercises. The exercises consist of words, phrases, sentences, tongue twisters, verses and passages.

Here are some essential tips for teachers of English pronunciation:

  1. Start slowly with the list of words and concentrate on the target sound, then move to phrases and sentences without losing the sound

  2. Use the rhythmical exercises to develop fluency

Students who took elocution lessons based on our apps and books told us that they really enjoyed them due to the following reasons:

  • Its' an amazing language from classical literature and poetry as well as everyday English which students find extremely effective and interesting.

  • Each chapter has a substantial volume of exercises to master one English sound or a particular speech pattern such as consonant elision, for example.

  • The way this book is written is fun, easy and effective. Many English textbooks are written in a dull and boring way. We use non-predictable sentences and lots of rhymes which are wonderful for teaching English pronunciation.

In conclusion, I would like to say that when students have fun when they find the material interesting and amusing they are more likely to enjoy the learning process and to achieve better results.

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76. What are my 12 rules for life?

By Olga Smith

  1. I always have goals and tasks to achieve these goals. Small steps or tasks to achieve my goals should be performed on a regular basis until the goal is reached.

  2. I value my time and ask myself a question: does what I do now lead me towards my goal or away from it? Time is the most valuable resource, or as they say: time is money. I would add to that time is also an opportunity in a certain period of time.

  3. I focus my attention and energy on my goals and get rid of people and actions who take you away from your goals. In the time of the internet, social media and access to millions of people there is a danger that I can be strayed away from my goals and end up wasting my time on other people goals.

  4. Honour my feelings. All I have is a present moment. What do I feel right now? Am I comfortable? What can I do to feel even better? Am I relaxed or tense? Feeling good in the present moment improves the quality of my life.

  5. I do sport for 1–3 hours a day. It is an investment in my health and beauty, looking and feeling great.

  6. I immediately defeat the fearful thought. Fearful thoughts are the most dangerous foe a person can have.

  7. I make decisions quickly and act confidently. I might make mistakes along the way which I can correct. When I feel that my thinking process becomes too long and leads me to inaction and paralysis I decide and act. This way I avoid being just a dreamer and become an achiever.

  8. If I have nothing nice to say I say nothing. I avoid discussing negative things and do not allow other people to drag me into negative discussions. The thing is that I want to stay in high energy and do not want negativity to lower it.

  9. Business first, pleasure second. I prefer to complete my business tasks first and use pleasure as a reward for my work.

  10. I sleep a lot. Fo me, my sleep is the source of good mood, good health and beauty.

  11. I follow the sun. I make sure to spend time in the sun, it is the source of my happiness.

  12. I am honest with myself and sincere with others.

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75. The way to enhance our self-esteem and social standing

By Olga Smith

What is the best way to feel good about ourselves and stand out in a social or professional environment? 

How can we upgrade ourselves? There are several tools people often use: they buy a house in a smart area, or a fancy car, a new suit or shoes. They go to Cambridge or Oxford. I can continue this list. But, when they open their mouth and start speaking their image and social standing can be destroyed if their speech is uneducated or dull and boring. On the contrary, if you possess the art of rhetoric and have beautiful speech, people will inadvertently respect you almost on a subconscious level. In England, speech stamps a person’s identity like a brand. It reveals our social and emotional intelligence, education, social class and economic position. That is why people have elocution lessons.

What are the aspects of speech we need to think about to enhance our social image and increase our self-esteem. I would like to online two main aspects of speech: 

  1. What do we say?

  2. How do we say it?

The number one skill to develop is to think before we speak. 

Before we start a sentence, let’s answers a few questions first: 

1. What outcome do we want to achieve as a result of what we say? 

2. Will our words be appropriate in the current situation and for people in this situation? 

Sometimes it is best to not say anything and just remain a pleasant listener. Often it is better to answer a question with “I don’t know”, instead of saying something in a rush.

The second thing to consider is our vocabulary. Do we use vivid language, metaphor and specific descriptive words or do we just use a minimalistic vocabulary? A minimalistic vocabulary will be understood by most. However, if we want to sound specific and articulate, express a certain range of feelings and emotions we need more words.

Tried and tested method to enrich our vocabulary is reading books, writing down new words and expressions and using them in our daily speech. Having elocution lessons is another way to master your speech. I have recently purchased a dictionary of metaphors because I realised that using a metaphor and symbolic language is a perfect way to sound interesting, be understood and influence others on a deeper level.

How you say it can be more important than what you say. Let’s consider a few questions. 

  1. Is our speech clear and easy to understand?

  2. Are we often being asked to repeat ourselves because people cannot understand what we said? 

  3. Do we speak too fast or too slowly? 

  4. Is our voice too loud or too quiet? 

  5. Do we use pauses or speak in paragraphs?

  6. Do we know how to stress key points in a phrase or sentence or do we drone on in a monotone and don’t stress anything or stress everything?

  7. Is our speech interesting and engaging or dull and boring?

  8. Is our tone of voice pleasant or there is something offputting about it?

How can we answer these questions? Very simply: choose a topic to talk about and records your speech. Then playback your recording and answer the questions above.

Speech mastery is a skill and it takes time and effort. To help you with this skill we have developed 9 iOS and 9 Android apps based on our bestsellers in the series Get Rid of your Accent. We can help you on this journey with your individual speech analysis and elocution lessons.

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74. Speech fluency in English

By Olga Smith

By Olga Smith

In this blog post, I will outline a very important area of elocution lessons: techniques for developing fluent and connected English speech. There are three main skills you need to master in order to speak fluent English:

  1. Contractions

  2. "Throwing away" skill, an expression used by actors.

  3. Connected speech patterns or liaisons

1) In good fluent speech the particle “not”, verbs “to be” (“am, is, are”), “to have” (“has, had”), “will” and “would” are shortened. The shortened version of a word is called a contraction. It’s important to use contractions if you would like to sound fluent, natural and more like a native speaker of English. Contractions are not usually used in written English except in dialogues and in informal writing.
There are several types of contractions. Here are examples from our book Get Rid of your Accent for Business and our app Business English Speech, a contraction of the verb “will” becomes a contraction ”ll” :

“You’ll need to find a better way to deal with your boss.”

If you do not use contractions in your speech, you will not sound like an advanced English speaker.

2) In natural speech, it’s important not to emphasize or stress too many words in a phrase or sentence. As a general rule, English tend to pick out the words which convey the meaning and lean on them, giving them a little more vocal energy. The rest of the words, English “throwaway”, an expression used by actors. This often means neutralising vowels, increasing the pace and diminishing the volume. In other words, “throwing away” means these unimportant words are not given the same length and vocal energy. “Throwing away” is a skill and it takes time and effort to master it. We deal extensively with this skill in our book Get rid of your Accent Part Two, Advanced Level and in our app Fluent English Speech. Here is an example of “throwaway words” which are underlined:
”At the end of the day, Linda was right about that.”

As you can see from this example, unimportant words are often articles, prepositions and verbs “to be", etc. To sound fluent connect prepositions and articles to the main word and pronounce them as one word.

3)The English tend to speak in phrases, often linking the words together. To sound fluent in English, liaise words that belong together in a phrase gliding from one word to another, almost pronouncing them as one word. How to liaise? It is very simple, connect the last sound of the first word with the first sound of the next word. In our book Get rid of your Accent Part Two, Advanced Level and in our app Fluent English Speech we outline several types of liaisons that you need to master to sound fluent.
Below is an example of one:
Liaise preposition to the following word: ”in addition, from London, in town, from home, in context

In our elocution lessons, we teach students all these skills:

  • contractions

  • which words they need to “throw away”

  • how to connect words in a phrase or sentence

  • what to stress in a phrase or sentence

We have also published a video course with elocution lessons to master fluency. In conclusion, I want to stress the importance of connecting words in English speech. Quite a few of our students were under the impression that separating words in a phrase or sentence makes their speech more clear which is wrong. In order to develop clear and crisp English speech, you need to work on phrase and sentence stress and articulation and at the same time linking words.

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71. How do you run an English corner in China?

By Olga Smith

You can run an English corner with apps in the series Get Rid of your Accent. I recommend offering the app Elocution Lessons to people who start learning English. There are also tips for teachers in this app for various group activities. You will master the most commonly used words and phrases, verses and passages with correct pronunciation and perfect use of English. You can listen, record yourself and then compare your speech with the model - all in one app.

I also recommend that you use the app Get Rid of Chinese Accent to bring your students’ English to the next level. With Fluent English Speech, they will master connected speech patterns and sound more like a native English speaker, because English speak linking words in a phrase. They will also learn lots of idiomatic and colloquial expressions used by native English speakers with this app. Many students make the mistake of memories separate words and create expressions with them. We believe that it is more useful to memorise phrases to avoid phrasal mistakes.

Once they sorted out your fluency, vocabulary and pronunciation, I recommend that you download the app Power, Pitch, Pace, Pause to master your presentation skills in English necessary to advance in your career and study.

Get Rid of Chinese Accent is the number one app to master articulation and clear speech. Students need to have at least an intermediate level of English to work with this app as it was designed for native English speakers who go to London drama schools to master Received Pronunciation; it contains lots of verses and sentences from English literature. This app will immensely enrich your vocabulary as well.

To get the best results with these apps, download the video courses Get Rid of your Accent Part 1 and Get rid of your Accent Part 2.

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70. Turn a boring way of speaking into an interesting one

By Olga Smith
26 July 2020

In many professions and in social life, the way we speak often defines our success. In this blog post, I will first outline the main features of a boring way of speaking. Secondly, I will give you practical tasks from our elocution lessons to turn your speech into an interesting one.

What makes us sound boring then? Below, I would like to layout 7 reasons that make one sound boring:

  1. When we speak too slowly

  2. When we have poor articulation

  3. When we use a lot of empty words, words fillers and parasite words and predictable cliches

  4. When we speak monotonously, without emotions and feelings

  5. When we are not connected to our listeners on an intellectual and emotional level

  6. When we do not get to the point and, to coin a phrase, go in circles without really saying much

  7. When we speak on one level of pitch and never move the voice up and down

How do we change that? How can we speak so that people listen to us with interest and attention? An obvious answer is taking elocution lessons. Below are the tips from our elocution lessons.

  1. Stress important words and messages. I recommend that you sentence stress and use schwa to “throw away” unimportant words such as auxiliary verbs, articles and some prepositions like “for, from, to, of”.

  2. Make sure you have crisp consonants. Practise muscular, rhythmic and articulation exercises with the app Get Rid of your Accent. Read our blog about articulation.

  3. Record your speech for 5-10 minutes and check that you do not use a lot of words and phrases that do not carry important meaning; those are parasites words and cliche phrases. For example, my parasite word is “basically”, my cliche phrase is “do you see what I mean”. I repeat them like a parrot thus making myself sound a bit boring. I have decided to start collecting, creating and using metaphors instead.

  4. Avoid speaking monotonously, learn how to modulate your voice using the 4Ps, power, pace, pitch, pause with our app.

  5. Take into account your listeners, do a bit of research about them and practise 3D listening, Try to connect to their level. NLP will give you more techniques about how to do that.

  6. When you speak, stress your key messages, practise speaking in a concise way.

Read our blog about the 5 top benefits of elocution lessons to get more insights. More on www.batcsglobal.com

68. What are some fun ways to teach advanced English?

By Olga Smith

By Olga Smith

14 July 2020

The most fun way to teach advanced English is with the app Get Rid of your Accent UK1. Your students need to have at least an intermediate level of English to work with this app as it was designed for native English speakers who go to London drama schools to master Received Pronunciation; it contains lots of verses and sentences from English literature. This app will immensely enrich students’ vocabulary as well. You can also teach your students Business English with the app Business English Speech. It is written in the style of The Economist and Financial Times and helps with very advanced English.

After you drill sounds and articulation with your students, I recommend that you teach them how to speak in a connected way with the app Fluent English Speech. With Fluent English Speech, they will master connected speech patterns and sound more like a native English speaker linking words in a phrase. You will also teach them lots of idiomatic and colloquial expressions used by native English speakers with this app. As you know, many students make the mistake to memories separate words and creating expressions with them. Of course, it is more useful to memorise phrases. to avoid phrasal mistakes.

Once your students sorted out their fluency, vocabulary and pronunciation, I recommend that you teach them with the app Power, Pitch, Pace, Pause to master your presentation skills in English which you need if you want to advance in your career and study

To get the best results with these apps, recommend that you and your students download the video courses Get Rid of your Accent Part 1 and Get rid of your Accent Part 2 in order to see how speech organs are used in English. These video courses are recorded by a teacher teaching her student and you can pick up useful techniques from them.

In the app Elocution Lessons, there is a whole chapter called Tips for Teachers. In this app, you can learn what activities to use with your students.

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67. What's the most useful tool to learn English?

By Olga Smith

By Olga Smith

  1. Write 8–10 sentences a day on a particular topic. It can be emails, letters, or your thoughts. Do not worry too much about grammar mistakes, they can be corrected by Grammarly, just practise, practise practise…

  2. Read small articles or passages daily

  3. Practice daily for 10–15 minutes with professional apps based on RP.
    The most useful tool for learning English is the app Elocution Lessons. You will master the most commonly used words and phrases, verses and passages with correct pronunciation and perfect use of English. You can listen, record yourself and then compare your speech with the model - all in one app.

Once you have mastered your use of English and pronunciation, I recommend that you download the app Fluent English Speech to bring your English to the next level. With Fluent English Speech, you will master connected speech patterns and sound more like a native English speaker, because English speak linking words in a phrase. You will also learn lots of idiomatic and colloquial expressions used by native English speakers with this app. Many students make the mistake of memorising separate words and create expressions with them. We believe that it is more useful to memorise phrases to avoid phrasal mistakes.

Once you sorted out your fluency, vocabulary and pronunciation, I recommend that you download the app Power, Pitch, Pace, Pause to master your presentation skills in English necessary to advance in your career and study.

Get Rid of your Accent UK1 is the number one app to master articulation and clear speech. You need to have at least an intermediate level of English to work with this app as it was designed for native English speakers who go to London drama schools to master Received Pronunciation; it contains lots of verses and sentences from English literature. This app will immensely enrich your vocabulary as well. In all these apps, there is a link in “How to use this app” to the page: the difficult sounds typical for your nationality. Click on your nationality to work effectively with a more focused approach.

If you want to bring your English to a professional level download the app ‎Business English Speech. It is written in the style of the Financial Times and Economist. With this app, you will learn words and expressions that will help you read high-quality journalism and speak like a CEO.

To get the best results with these apps, download the video courses Get Rid of your Accent Part 1 and Get rid of your Accent Part 2.

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65. What is the best way to learn English pronunciation?

By Olga Smith

What is the best way to learn English pronunciation?

Olga Smith

2 July 2020

In my experience, the most useful strategy to learn English pronunciation is to repeat after the model pronunciation using the correct position of tongue, lips and jaw for each English sound. Later work on fluency and articulation.

First, record yourself in order to see how you sound to others. Then, identify your mistakes and correct them, practise the correct form, and then record yourself again. Repetition is the key. The reason why we struggle with English punctuation is two-fold:
1. Not all English sounds exist in our native language and we are not sure how to produce them correctly.
2. Our speech organs are trained for our native language from our childhood. When we start speaking in English, we don’t place our tongue, lips and jaw as native English speakers do.

When I recorded myself in 2004 I was shocked to realize that even I could not understand what I was saying. Then, I started to look for a speech or elocution tutor who could explain how to position my tongue, lips and jaw for English sounds. I was lucky to find a top tutor in London and I fell in love with her method. We were practising accent reduction with funny sentences and verses, it was very enjoyable and extremely effective.

Later, together with Linda, my tutor, we have published 5 books to master English punctuation which became international bestsellers. In 2009 one of the readers of our books, who was a software developer contacted me and said that he absolutely loved our books and that they really worked for him. He offered to create apps based on our books and we have published 8 apps for accent reduction to date.

Here are more difficulties with English pronunciation you might have experienced:

1. Not all English vowels and diphthongs exist in other languages, you might struggle to pronounce them correctly.

2. There are 5 long and 7 short vowels In English. Long vowels do not exist in all languages and there is a tendency to shorten them. This can create a problem for others to understand what you are saying.

3. Bad articulation, in other words, weak consonants or incorrectly pronounced consonants.

4. Your intonation could be very difficult to follow, you might break phrases and make pauses in the wrong places.

In order to master English pronunciation you need to :

  • Learn and practice how to pronounce English sounds using received pronunciation (RP). RP is also sometimes called the Queen’s English, Oxford English or BBC English.

  • Practice articulation exercises to make your consonants clear and crisp.

  • Learn to speak in phrases rather than in separate words; knowing how to link words together correctly.

  • Learn patterns of English intonation and vocal techniques.

    The fastest way to get rid of your accent is to do your speech analysis and then download our app: Get rid of your Accent UK1.

  • To get the best results with these apps, download the video courses Get Rid of your Accent Part 1 and Get rid of your Accent Part 2.

Benefits of speech analysis:

  • During the speech analysis, we will do simple exercises to correct your English sounds. You will immediately see results from our method.

  • You will receive a written copy of the analysis with a list of English sounds to practise with corresponding lessons from our accent apps, books and video courses.

  • You will save time as speech analysis helps you to focus on particular sounds and other speech patterns and practise them with our accent apps, books and video courses.

  • Speech analysis will help you decide whether it would be better for you to join a mini group on our accent reduction course or have individual elocution lessons.

  • You will get great results with a plan tailored to your own needs, helping you to focus on the English sounds that will create a good accent.

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64. Top 10 tips to speak like a leader

By Olga Smith

Speech is a very technical subject full of subtle details. I have spent 30 years learning these subtleties and in this blog post, I would like to outline some top tips for people who want to speak like leaders with authority. I will divide the speech into three main categories:

  1. What do you say? What do you say refers to the content of your speech, word and phrases they use.

  2. How do you say it? How you say it refers to their pronunciation and intonation, power, pitch, pace and use of pauses.

  3. Body language. Body language refers to eye contact, posture, gestures and a way of carrying oneself.

Leaders speech content have the following characteristics:
1. Leaders use specific words that allow explaining something in a concise way, for example:
”The speech was not only entertaining but also well researched and clearly structured”.

2. Leaders are careful with words generalisation and superlatives because these words often wash out the true meaning. For example: “The speech was awesome (good, amazing, etc)”

3. Leaders use positive language. In order to sound positive avoid using the preposition “but”, instead of “but”, use the preposition “and”. “Because “but” negates the positive which happened before. Compare these two examples:
“The team has done well, but there are still more challenges to face.”

“The team has done well and is ready to face new challenges.”

4. Instead of talking about problems leaders talk about opportunities. For example, instead of saying: “ Our problem is that our business is very young and the competition is very powerful.” A leader would put it in terms of an opportunity: “We have an opportunity to learn best practices from our competition and offer the best to our customers”.

5. Leaders use assertive words that demonstrate belief and confidence. They do not use words that show hesitation and indecisiveness: seems, maybe, might, perhaps, would, etc. Compare these examples:

“I need this report by Monday. It is a final deadline”.
”It would be good to get this report early next week.”

Now would we come to the subject of how to say it as a leader.
6. The first thing to think about is the pitch if your voice. If you would like to demonstrate power and authority, then speak with lowered pitched voice. High pitched voice is typical for children, women and elderly people.

7. The second most important thing is the pace of your speech. Avoid rushed speech.

8. Use pauses between sentences, paragraphs and dramatic pauses. Do not be afraid of a pause, do not try to fill the pause with meaningless words. Allow yourself to breathe and focus instead

9. Think about your voice projection and articulation. Make sure your speech is clear and crisp and others hear you well. Leaders do not whisper so that people can’t understand what you say. Leaders do not shout, as shouting is perceived as a sign of desperation and weakness.

10. To look, feel and sound like a leader make sure you have good posture, maintain eye contact and have open gestures when speaking to show your confidence. Avoid slouching, looking down and closed gestures which are associated with people who are unsure of themselves and scared.

I recommend that you practise the language of leadership with our apps Elocution Lessons, Get rid of your Accent UK1 and Power, pitch, pace, pause.

More on www.batcsglobal.com

Read related blogs:

https://www.batcsglobal.com/accent-reduction-blog/2019/8/17/elocution-lessons-benefits

http://www.batcsglobal.com/accent-reduction-blog/2020/1/9/elocution-lessons-with-boris-johnson

http://www.batcsglobal.com/accent-reduction-blog/2020/1/19/elocution-lessons-with-boris-johnson-part-two

http://www.batcsglobal.com/accent-reduction-blog/2020/2/4/elocution-lessons-with-boris-johnson-part-three

63. What are some daily practices one should do to improve their communication skills?

By Olga Smith

The number one purpose of communication is to understand others and be understood. Therefore, communication involves three main skills:

  1. Listening and tuning in to your partner or audience.
    Good communicators use 3D listening which means they are paying attention to how people perceive their messages, understand who they are speaking to, and establish a rapport. It is important to pay attention to the intonation and voice. People constantly ask me how can they improve their communication skills. Often, when we talk to others, we do not have the patience to listen. We hear a few words and very quickly we start anticipating what the other person will say. We even try to finish their sentences which is not very helpful, particularly for the person who is talking. I recommend avoiding commenting, judging or advising regarding what you listening to. Just listen and engage your mind and heart by listening to another person.

  2. Communicating clearly and in an interesting engaging way to keep your audience’s attention. This skill is particularly important when speaking on the phone. You can achieve this skill by performing speech exercises.

I recommend the following daily practices.

  • Read, listen and make notes on topics that interest you the most.

  • Practice clarity of speech with the app Get Rid of your Accent

  • Look people in the eyes when you speak to them, smile.

  • Ask questions, and listen to the answers without interrupting the person you are communicating with. See what you can understand from the tone of voice, intonation, etc. Try to tune in to their speech pace, breathing and loudness.

  • Practise intonation and inflection with the app Fluent English Speech. The wrong intonation might be perceived as rude or inappropriate. The right intonation can make you sound powerful, compassionate, etc.

  • Practise stressing your messages and using the pauses in the right places with the app Fluent English Speech

  • Master colloquial speech with the app Elocution Lessons

To get the best results with these apps, download the video courses Get Rid of your Accent Part 1 and Get rid of your Accent Part 2.

Competent communicator knows how to speak confidently and use public speaking skills such as:

Informing
Inspiring
Persuading
Selling
Facilitating a discussion
Creating relationships and partnerships
Expressing yourself in front of others
Using visual aids successfully
You can also learn how to modulate your voice to show and understand emotions; you can do it with the app ‎Power, Pitch, Pace, Pause.

More on Get Rid of your Accent | Elocution Lessons

62. How non-native English can become teachers of English

By Olga Smith
24 June 2020
To improve your English skills I recommend that you divide them first into four main groups:

  1. Speaking and use of English

  2. Pronunciation and fluency

  3. Grammar and writing

  4. Listening

Bellow are my recommendations for each group:

1)To master speaking and use of English I recommend reading books phrases, sentences, verses, prose passages and extracts from newspapers out loud and speak to native English 10–30 minutes a day in person or on the phone.

2) To master pronunciation and fluency download apps Get Rid of your Accent UK1 (available on Google Play and the AppStore), Elocution Lessons and Fluent English Speech, Business English Speech (Available only on the AppStore).

3) Keep writing on a regular basis in English and check your mistakes with Grammarly

4) Listen to an audiobook or YouTube video several times, make a note of phrases and words you do not know, then listen again. This way you can enlarge your vocabulary and enhance your understanding of English. I recommend the audiobooks Get Rid of your Accent for Beginners, Get Rid of your Accent Part One and Two and Get Rid of your Accent for Business.

I propose that you address each point in a focused way. I recommend practising one or two skills a day for 45 minutes for each skill. For example, write for 30 minutes and make a note of Grammarly corrections and make up a few short sentences with the correct grammar form for 15 minutes. Then practice one vowel sound with the app Get Rid of your Accent UK1 for 20 minutes and one connected speech pattern with the app Fluent English Speech for 10 minutes. Then speak to a friend in English paying attention to the vowel sound and connected speech pattern you mastered on that day, also try to use grammar pattern that you have mastered on that day. If you live in the USA download the apps for General American accent mastery: ‎American Accent App and ‎Fluent American Speech.

To get the best results with these apps, download the video courses Get Rid of your Accent Part 1 and Get rid of your Accent Part 2.

You will see that this strategy works really well. When you become a teacher of English you can practise the same method with your students.

61. The best way to learn English fast

By Olga Smith

For the last two months, I have been travelling to Thailand, Spain and Israel. I tried to speak with local people in English and realised that the conversation didn't go beyond twenty words of very basic vocabulary. People told me that they learned English for five to seven years in schools, but according to their level of speech, it felt they learned it for two days maximum. How come? It turned out they learned spelling and grammar for those seven years, but rarely spoke.

Also, I met many people who have been living in the UK for thirty years and they still speak in pidgin English. Some of them were PhDs and they complained to me that people treated them like morons because of their primitive English. Well, the reason for their poor English was that they made a choice to stick to their native community (Iranian, Russian, Spanish etc.) and to not pursue English. Interestingly enough, their passive vocabulary was often very good as they could write well, read books and papers, but they didn't dare to use this vocabulary in their speech, because they were not sure how to pronounce it and it made them shy to use it.

One of my friends is a Chinese lady who has been living in London for seven years and has an English boyfriend. She is still hesitant to speak English, she constantly repeats: "I learn English, but it's very difficult... I am not good, it's very hard". No wonder, she learns English for an hour twice a week, but then she speaks in Chinese for the rest of the time.

I decided to do a little experiment with my Chinese friend. Firstly, I told her to say to herself and others that English is easy and that she speaks good English because when she was constantly repeating that her English was bad, to me it sounded like a self-programming for having bad English. Secondly, I gave her three new short phrases a day and asked her to repeat them five times several times a day. Thirdly, I asked her to reduce the time she speaks in Chinese and gradually increased the time she speaks in English and use the new phrases. After just a week her confidence to speak was so much higher and she felt powerful as a person.

For all who wish to talk in English with confidence fast I want to recommend three things:

1. Stop learning English, and start speaking it by repeating three new useful phrases several times a day. Your speech organ muscles will get used to English, you will enlarge your vocabulary and gain the confidence to speak. Repeating, repeating and repeating, like parrots!

2. Reduce the time of speaking in your native language and increase the time you speak in English.

3. Listen to English TV and Radio channels, make a note of phrases you hear and repeat them five times several times a day. In the past, I met Greeks, Dutch, Danish, Swedish and their English was advanced. Guess what these countries have in common: English TV channels that are not translated into their native language.

Listen to audiobooks in the series Get Rid of your Accent from Audible, or download our apps: get rid of your accent uk1 and Fluent English Speech. All audio tracks were recorded by trained actors, just listen and repeat after them.

I wish you to be empowered by your outstanding English! More on www.batcsglobal.com