How to reduce my speed in speaking?

by Preethi Selvin
(India)

I'm too fast in everything when compared to others of my age group... too fast in speaking.. too fast in walking.. too fast in completing a job.. too, too fast in falling to the trap of frustration...

All other things helped me to be competitive... BUT I'M TOO TOO FAST IN SPEAKING... THIS IS WORSE BECAUSE OTHERS FEEL IT HARD TO GRASP WHAT I SAY...

I feel embarrassed repeating the same thing again and again so that others can understand what I am saying... I dream to be a speaker too...

Is it possible for me to reduce my speed in speaking?

Doug's Reply. Here is an excellent video called "Accent Reduction: Tip #1, Always Speak Slowly" that I think you should watch. I'm optimistic that by practicing the techniques in this video you could learn to speak more slowly.



The video was created by Cheryl of SpeakingYourBest.com, and as the title suggests it explains techniques for talking slower. Cheryl is a Speech Pathologist with 30 years experience helping others speak more clearly.

Here are some observations she makes in the video about speaking too fast:

- When you speak too quickly, you don't have time to pronounce the words correctly. That's why people find you hard to understand.

- Speaking very fast does not indicate that you are more intelligent or more fluent. There is really no advantage to talking too rapidly.

- Speaking slower is always better.

- Your goal should not be to speak fast but to be understood.

Next she discusses how to slow down your speech:

- In English, speech rate is determined by how quickly or how slowly we say the vowel sounds in words. (I don't know whether that's true for all languages.)

- Stretching out the vowel sounds slows down your speech. As you slow down, remember to keep your words connected.

- When you speak slowly, your tongue has more time to reach the proper placement for sounds

- Practice: Try repeating sentences more slowly. Here are a couple example sentences:

"Speaking slower is better."

"I'm beginning to speak more slowly."

Say these sentences out loud to yourself, as slow as you can while still being intelligible.

Practice at home, often. Cheryl recommends that you should read aloud every day for two minutes.

Read an article in a magazine, a page in a book, or a story to your son or daughter. It doesn't really matter, as long as you read something.

Focus on prolonging the vowels and saying your words slowly.

You can even practice saying words slower than the normal speaking rate. Get used to this rate. Then incorporate this less rapid rate when talking to other people, especially at work.

As Cheryl advises, speaking slower needs to become a part of who you are so you can make sure that everyone understands your speech.

For more information, you might want to check out her website www.speakingyourbest.com.

Clearly the way to learn to speak more slowly is to practice speaking more slowly.

Best regards,
Douglas
Memory-Improvement-Tips.com