Sound More Professional and Confident! 10 Bad Speaking Habits You Need To AVOID!

19,009 views ・ 2023-05-29

JForrest English


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

00:00
Welcome back to JForrest English training.
0
49
2161
00:02
I'm Jennifer and today, you're going to learn how to sound more professional and confident.
1
2210
5979
00:08
When speaking English in public, and I'm going to share 10, bad speaking habits that you
2
8189
6381
00:14
need to avoid.
3
14570
2049
00:16
Let's get started.
4
16619
1601
00:18
The first bad habit is using one word answers.
5
18220
5090
00:23
Let's say you were at a conference and your boss asks, you how was the conference and
6
23310
6280
00:29
you
7
29590
1000
00:30
Fly back.
8
30590
1000
00:31
Can you say good?
9
31590
1000
00:32
Great, awesome.
10
32590
1440
00:34
What do you notice about these answers?
11
34030
4510
00:38
They're all
12
38540
1000
00:39
one-word
13
39540
1000
00:40
answers.
14
40540
1000
00:41
Now, it might seem a little comical that that's all you would say.
15
41540
4370
00:45
But I hear this from students all the time, I'll ask them about their vacation and they
16
45910
6270
00:52
were on a two-week vacation in another part of the world, and all they say was good.
17
52180
6550
00:58
Great.
18
58730
1090
00:59
Okay, not bad, very short answers, this doesn't sound very professional and you definitely
19
59820
8049
01:07
don't sound advanced in English.
20
67869
2691
01:10
The an easy way to solve this problem is to answer in a complete sentence, repeat the
21
70560
6571
01:17
question.
22
77131
1000
01:18
The conference
23
78131
1278
01:19
was
24
79409
1000
01:20
good, now still, this isn't enough information, you can then expand on that and you can provide
25
80409
7951
01:28
the reason why
26
88360
1280
01:29
why?
27
89640
1000
01:30
Or you can provide one example from the conference or the trip.
28
90640
5720
01:36
The conference was good because I meant a lot of new people in my field and I have a
29
96360
8660
01:45
lot of new contacts.
30
105020
3040
01:48
This sounds so much more professional and advanced compared to good.
31
108060
5890
01:53
Our next bad habit is using weak words?
32
113950
4300
01:58
Let's say your boss asks, you if
33
118250
1550
01:59
You can have the report finished by the end of the day and you reply back and say I think
34
119800
7260
02:07
so I'll try these are all weak words because they imply that you might not finish the job
35
127060
10750
02:17
or finish the request.
36
137810
1990
02:19
So instead of saying I think I can change that to something more confident, something
37
139800
6840
02:26
stronger.
38
146640
1000
02:27
I know, I can finish.
39
147640
2210
02:29
Wish the report by the end of the day, I promise I'll finish the report.
40
149850
5310
02:35
By the end of the day, you can count on me to finish the report by the end of the day.
41
155160
5970
02:41
The next bad habit is using very basic words.
42
161130
5719
02:46
Basic words like good okay fine.
43
166849
4301
02:51
All of these are very beginner words and they don't sound very professional and they don't
44
171150
6460
02:57
make you look very calm.
45
177610
2810
03:00
I didn't either.
46
180420
1319
03:01
So if you simply change that to something more advanced instead of saying the conference
47
181739
4261
03:06
was good, you see the conference was very beneficial and then you can move on and provide
48
186000
8920
03:14
more information.
49
194920
1140
03:16
Like we talked about in the first bad habit because often the one word answers that you
50
196060
6120
03:22
want to avoid are also very basic words.
51
202180
4020
03:26
Before we move on, I'm excited to tell you about this amazing.
52
206200
3899
03:30
Resource to help you become fluent in English called LiveXP.
53
210099
4701
03:34
LiveXP is an online platform where you can find the best language tutors for private
54
214800
5990
03:40
one-on-one lessons.
55
220790
2060
03:42
It's available both as an app and on your desktop you can find native English speakers
56
222850
5559
03:48
from any country.
57
228409
1261
03:49
You like the US Canada or the UK, for example, these are all professional teachers who will
58
229670
7500
03:57
help you master your conversational skills.
59
237170
3640
04:00
Expand your vocabulary improve your grammar, improve your pronunciation, and polish your
60
240810
5090
04:05
accent Lesson by lesson.
61
245900
2270
04:08
This is the platform that I personally use to help me learn Spanish and I absolutely
62
248170
5709
04:13
love it.
63
253879
1000
04:14
The reason I love this platform is because of this really cool feature where you can
64
254879
4920
04:19
filter tutors by interest.
65
259799
1791
04:21
So, you can choose a tutor, that's a yoga lover, or a guitar player, or a photographer.
66
261590
7410
04:29
This makes the
67
269000
1000
04:30
essence so fun because it doesn't even feel like you're learning plus.
68
270000
4190
04:34
You can choose specific goals that you want to focus on during the lesson.
69
274190
5090
04:39
Here's a clip of me enjoying my Spanish class with my awesome tutor.
70
279280
4900
04:44
We focus on my pronunciation and accent.
71
284180
2760
04:46
I feel so happy when the class was over because I learned so much and I had a lot of fun during
72
286940
7390
04:54
the lesson, plus my tutor saved our notes, right in the platform for me to review.
73
294330
5790
05:00
Later.
74
300120
1000
05:01
Now, I'll feel very confident.
75
301120
1530
05:02
The next time I speak Spanish with native speakers.
76
302650
3350
05:06
I also love LiveXP because it fits into my busy schedule.
77
306000
4350
05:10
I can learn and practice at my own pace.
78
310350
3310
05:13
And according to my own schedule, there are tutors available anytime that suits your schedule,
79
313660
6240
05:19
so you'll never miss a class.
80
319900
2230
05:22
I know you'll love LiveXP and I highly recommend it.
81
322130
4569
05:26
You can use this QR code or click the
82
326699
3021
05:29
Link in the description below to get your first trial class for only 99 Cents.
83
329720
7100
05:36
When you're ready to subscribe to the LiveXP platform, you can use my code j4s, English,
84
336820
6030
05:42
30 to get 30% off your membership, take a screenshot now.
85
342850
5920
05:48
Now let's move on with our next point.
86
348770
3000
05:51
One bad habit.
87
351770
1000
05:52
You definitely want to avoid is speaking too quickly.
88
352770
4990
05:57
So imagine right now I'm telling you about the rules.
89
357760
2440
06:00
Something and I'm speaking very fast, do you think you'll be able to understand very well
90
360200
6369
06:06
if that's how I spoke what a lot of students actually think they speak too slowly but in
91
366569
6731
06:13
my experience, that's not true, they actually speak too fast and when you speak too, fast
92
373300
6450
06:19
is difficult to understand and to follow your story.
93
379750
4560
06:24
So just take a breath, put some pauses into your words as well.
94
384310
5550
06:29
And that will help you slow your pace.
95
389860
2899
06:32
Now, let's talk about word, fillers, word, fillers, are those words like well you know,
96
392759
10741
06:43
like these words that don't have any meaning but people add them to their speech when they're
97
403500
5840
06:49
trying to think about what to say next.
98
409340
3310
06:52
So imagine you're in a meeting and your boss asked you to tell everybody about how the
99
412650
5790
06:58
project is going.
100
418440
1620
07:00
Wing and you reply back and say, well, I'm the projects going, pretty good.
101
420060
5669
07:05
Well, you know, we just need to obviously that doesn't seem very professional and you
102
425729
6811
07:12
certainly won't feel very confident when you have all those thumbs.
103
432540
5089
07:17
Let's talk about eye contact.
104
437629
2190
07:19
This can be a very difficult one, especially because culturally people have different rules
105
439819
6291
07:26
for eye contact in North American culture.
106
446110
3660
07:29
ER it's considered polite and professional to make eye contact with the person you're
107
449770
6440
07:36
talking to but you don't maintain eye contact 100% of the time.
108
456210
6350
07:42
You can absolutely Look Away.
109
462560
3330
07:45
Look down look up.
110
465890
1380
07:47
But you want to maintain eye contact at least 50% of the time.
111
467270
5780
07:53
Next, let's talk about intonation.
112
473050
3410
07:56
Intonation is the natural raising and falling?
113
476460
3480
07:59
Your voice our voices, do this naturally.
114
479940
3920
08:03
Now if I'm a way up high on the no come down low and then I go way back up high and then
115
483860
4480
08:08
I come down low.
116
488340
1329
08:09
That's not very professional and it won't make you look very confident but you also
117
489669
5411
08:15
don't want to talk on one specific note and maintain
118
495080
4850
08:19
that
119
499930
1000
08:20
know, right now I probably sound more boring to you because I don't have intonation in
120
500930
7040
08:27
my voice that
121
507970
1860
08:29
That's the impact of not having that natural rising and falling.
122
509830
4480
08:34
And I hear this from students all the time.
123
514310
3250
08:37
So you could do some vocal exercises and try to go up higher and then comb down lower and
124
517560
6840
08:44
just try to vary your intonation, which is the rising and falling of your voice.
125
524400
5930
08:50
When you speak to sound more professional and to appear, more confident are nice.
126
530330
6270
08:56
Bad habit is on enthusiasm.
127
536600
3500
09:00
And a lack of enthusiasm.
128
540100
3790
09:03
What do I mean by this?
129
543890
1660
09:05
Well let's say you went to this conference and you want to tell your boss and your colleagues
130
545550
5080
09:10
that the conference was very beneficial and you learned a lot and you made a lot of useful
131
550630
8459
09:19
contacts.
132
559089
1221
09:20
But if you deliver this, if you communicate this without enthusiasm, they're not going
133
560310
7570
09:27
to understand.
134
567880
1250
09:29
And the message, the conference was great.
135
569130
3590
09:32
I'm met a lot of people.
136
572720
2730
09:35
It was very beneficial, it was really interesting, a lack of enthusiasm.
137
575450
6740
09:42
Your intonation goes down, your volume goes down, just think of it as being very tired
138
582190
7000
09:49
or bored or not interested.
139
589190
3870
09:53
So think about the enthusiasm that you have in your voice.
140
593060
4410
09:57
Now, part of showing your
141
597470
1800
09:59
Easy as mmm.
142
599270
1680
10:00
And part of being confident, is also your body language.
143
600950
5050
10:06
Notice how I said, when you lack enthusiasm, it's like you're tired.
144
606000
4620
10:10
When you're tired, you have a hard time keeping your body up, but it doesn't look very professional
145
610620
6530
10:17
and I probably don't look very confident right now.
146
617150
3510
10:20
And same people often they speak, they cover up their body which makes them appear.
147
620660
5980
10:26
Very small that doesn't seem very
148
626640
3430
10:30
Confident either, when you're confident, just bring your shoulders back and take up about
149
630070
6980
10:37
as much space as your shoulders.
150
637050
2479
10:39
Go think of that as your box, your Communications box and that's where you want to be.
151
639529
7461
10:46
You want to make sure you stay upright in this box when you're communicating because
152
646990
5270
10:52
that will make you seem very confident.
153
652260
3130
10:55
And then also that will help with your intonation and your
154
655390
4370
10:59
Susie azzam because when your body is all crunched down, it actually impacts the intonation
155
659760
7160
11:06
of your voice and when you're upright more, you can get more enthusiasm or intonation
156
666920
6969
11:13
from your voice as well.
157
673889
2651
11:16
So remember shoulders back and pay attention to your body language.
158
676540
4950
11:21
Now, finally, let's talk about hand gestures.
159
681490
4159
11:25
So hand gestures is just simply using your hands when you communicate.
160
685649
4211
11:29
Kate.
161
689860
1000
11:30
Now there are some things you don't want to do like completely not having any hand gestures.
162
690860
6450
11:37
So if I did the entire video like this, maybe you could watch it for 30 seconds but imagine
163
697310
6860
11:44
watching it for 10 minutes where you don't see my hands at all.
164
704170
5520
11:49
Now if my hands are like this, most likely my body is going to start to to Sag as well,
165
709690
7440
11:57
and I'm not going to have good body language.
166
717130
2500
11:59
But when I bring my hands into it I'm more likely to keep my shoulders back.
167
719630
6769
12:06
Remember I said you want to have a communication box because you also don't want your hands
168
726399
5601
12:12
wailing and frailing about and just being all over the place as well.
169
732000
6820
12:18
You want to keep your hand gestures within this Communications box.
170
738820
5959
12:24
So just keep them very slight, very natural.
171
744779
3171
12:27
You don't want to go too far.
172
747950
1870
12:29
Far away.
173
749820
1259
12:31
Just close to the body but just keep them going and that will again help you with your
174
751079
5810
12:36
body language.
175
756889
1691
12:38
It will make you look a lot more confident and you'll appear more professional.
176
758580
6379
12:44
Because all professional speakers use their hands when they're speaking.
177
764959
5891
12:50
And if you avoid these 10 bad speaking habits, I know you're going to look instantly more
178
770850
6440
12:57
professional and you're going to feel
179
777290
2180
12:59
More confident as well.
180
779470
2370
13:01
So, which bad habit?
181
781840
1640
13:03
Do you think you need to improve the most?
182
783480
3500
13:06
Share that in the comments below?
183
786980
2220
13:09
And remember, you can use the platform LiveXP to take one-on-one lessons with a private
184
789200
7250
13:16
tutor, so you can start improving your communication skills.
185
796450
3939
13:20
So, remember, you can get that trial lesson for only 99 Cents.
186
800389
5390
13:25
And when you're ready to subscribe to the LiveXP platform,
187
805779
3881
13:29
You can use my code JForestEnglish30 to get 30% off your membership.
188
809660
5910
13:35
So you can use the QR code.
189
815570
3079
13:38
Click the link in the description or you can click right here on the screen.
190
818649
4091
13:42
So, take a screenshot now and I'll see you in the next lesson.
191
822740
4430
About this website

This site will introduce you to YouTube videos that are useful for learning English. You will see English lessons taught by top-notch teachers from around the world. Double-click on the English subtitles displayed on each video page to play the video from there. The subtitles scroll in sync with the video playback. If you have any comments or requests, please contact us using this contact form.

https://forms.gle/WvT1wiN1qDtmnspy7