5 Speaking Mistakes to AVOID in English

Vanessa: Hi. I'm Vanessa  

from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com. Do you speak  like this? You shouldn't. Let's talk about it. 

Imagine this scenario, your coworkers  have asked you to order a birthday cake  

for your boss so you call up the bakery and  you tell them that you want the cake to say,  

"Happy birthday to the best boss in the world."  But when you get the cake back, uh oh, there is a  

serious problem. On the cake it says, "Have a big  day to the best bus in the wheel." What? What went  

wrong? Something terrible happened. And then you  realized that when you were speaking on the phone,  

you didn't speak clearly enough. This is a  big problem. And now your mistake is in icing  

for everyone to see. ugh, so frustrating and  embarrassing. Well, of course a good baker would  

not write some kind of nonsense like this on a  cake but I've seen plenty of mistakes and typos  

from English learners when they're not speaking  clearly and making five common speaking  

mistakes that you should avoid. Let's talk about  them and a solution to help you speak better. 

To help you never forget what you learn  in today's lesson and to never make these  

embarrassing mistakes, you can download the  free PDF that I've created with all of the tips,  

sample sentences and ideas from today's lesson.  Plus, you can answer Vanessa's challenge question  

at the end of the PDF worksheet. Click on the link  in the description to download the free PDF today. 

All right, let's get started by talking about  the first speaking mistake that I often see  

English learners make and it is mumbling. Hi. My  name's Vanessa and I teach English online. You  

want to learn English with me? What? I did not  speak clearly at all. I was mumbling. It means  

my mouth is closed. Hi. My name's Vanessa  and I'm going to teach you English today.  

It's not good for an English teacher but  it's also not good when you're speaking a  

language that's not your native language. You  absolutely want other people to understand you.  

If you have not perfect grammar, if you have not  perfect vocabulary, you know what? It is not the  

end of the world but if you're mumbling, no one's  going to be able to understand what you're saying. 

What's the solution for mumbling? It is  enunciating. Enunciating means that you  

speak clearly. This might mean that you speak a  little slower than you normally would or maybe  

than you would like to but do you know what? As an  English learner, this is perfectly fine. When you  

speak clearly you avoid embarrassing mistakes  like we saw at the beginning of this video.  

Your cake, if you speak clearly, would say,  "Happy birthday to the best boss in the world."  

It would say it's so beautifully and clearly  and your boss would be really excited and happy  

that you put in such beautiful effort for him. Speaking mistake number two that I often see my  

English students make is not speaking up when  you have an idea. It doesn't even need to be an  

amazing idea. This idea of speaking up means that  you are telling other people your ideas or telling  

other people your opinions. The mistake I see my  English students make is if they have an idea,  

they don't say it. They just keep it and they  let other people speak their mind but they don't  

share their ideas. There might be two reasons  for this. The first one might be that you just  

don't feel comfortable speaking in English. You  don't feel confident enough that you'll be able  

to express yourself in the right way or use the  right words but do you know what? Saying something  

is absolutely better than saying nothing. The solution to not speaking up is to say  

something. It doesn't need to be perfect and I  think that perfectionism is often the thing that  

holds English learners back. In fact, it can  hold all of us back in a lot of ways in life  

but just saying something and realizing even  if my English is not perfect, it's okay.  

Another reason that you might not speak up is  if you doubt your ideas, maybe you feel like  

it's not a great idea. Other people's ideas are  probably better. This is not a language issue.  

This is something that's in your head and  those are the hardest things to overcome.  

Instead of over thinking, maybe this isn't  a good idea. Oh, maybe their idea is better.  

Maybe they won't like my idea. Instead, practice  speaking up for yourself. Say, "Actually I think  

this would be a good idea too." Or, "What do you  think about this idea? I'd like to share something  

that I was thinking." These are all wonderful  things to say, and they help you to speak up. 

The third speaking mistake I often see  my English students make is that they use  

offensive language or even profanity when it's not  appropriate. What's the solution for this? Well,  

I know that a lot of English movies and TV  shows use bad words, we call that profanity,  

casually, easily. They use it in daily life  but really, especially as an English learner,  

you want other people to feel comfortable  speaking with you and using bad words just  

isn't really a good idea. If you feel like you  might accidentally be saying some bad words,  

I recommend checking out this video that I  made about some common words that are often  

said incorrectly as a bad word. You don't want  to accidentally say a bad word instead but I  

recommend overall avoiding using a bad word.  Instead, you could say something like this,  

"Hey, I don't really agree. How about if we  do this instead?" Oh, that's so much better  

than confronting them and saying, "You bleep,  you blah, blah. Why are you beep, beep? No.  

Instead you can use softer language and  that's perfectly all right. Other people  

will feel more comfortable talking with you. The fourth mistake that I often see my English  

students make and that I make myself is to rely  too much on filler words. Like, you know, well.  

Yes, it's true that American English  speakers often use filler words but  

if you use these too much, it could make it  difficult to understand what you're saying  

and it might not really be pleasant to  have a conversation with someone who's  

constantly saying, oh, well, like, you know. When  you stall like that, stall means to wait between  

words or to wait between events even, then it  doesn't really flow well as a conversation. Yes,  

you can use filler words but don't overuse them.  Instead, don't be afraid of a little silence. 

It's perfectly all right if you're telling  someone about your day and you say,  

"Yeah, I walked into the office and I  couldn't believe i, but they're was a,  

what's that word? There was a printer on my  desk." If you can't remember the word printer,  

you don't need to constantly fill that space with  something to say. There was a, like, you know,  

there was a thing, what was it? A printer. You  could talk like that but you know what? If you did  

that too much, it would be a little bit stressful  to have a conversation like that. Instead  

don't be afraid to use some blank space. We all  need a little bit of silence in our lives and  

it's totally okay. Feel free to use a filler  word here and there but just not too much. 

The fifth and final mistake that I  often see my English students make  

when they're speaking is that they either  speak too quietly or they speak too loudly.  

Usually it's the first one. They speak too quietly  and this might be because they're feeling shy,  

they're worried about speaking up, like we talked  about before but really this might just be because  

you don't want to offend other or people, possibly  from your native culture. It's not polite to speak  

at a normal tone like this. Instead, it's more  common to speak softly and quietly but often in  

the US, this is seen as a lack of confidence,  it's seen as somebody who doesn't really feel  

comfortable being in that situation. And even if  that's true, as they say fake it till you make it,  

try to speak at a normal tone. As for speaking too loud,  

this might be because of your native culture  or this could be because you maybe feel like  

you need to speak extra loud in order for other  people to understand you. But I would like to  

suggest for you to moderate your tone. Notice  the volume that other people are speaking at  

and try to match that. This is especially true of  course, when you're out in public but I've really  

noticed this stark difference between cultures.  When we're sitting at a coffee shop in the US,  

it's pretty common to talk normally and usually  you can hear other people's conversations  

but you don't want to hear them too loudly.  If you're talking to your friend about the  

date that she went on and you said, "Oh, how  was your date? Oh really, he kissed you? Oh,  

he had bad breath?" Oh boy, if you say that too  loudly, everyone's going to kind of stop and say,  

"Oh, can you talk a little quieter?" This is  not meant for the whole cafe but you don't  

need to whisper it either. You can just talk in  a normal voice and that is perfectly acceptable. 

And the same goes for the workplace. If  you're giving a presentation, for example,  

you need to have a presentation voice. And that's  kind of what I do when I make videos for you is I  

make sure that I speak up, I speak clearly  and I enunciate so that you can understand  

but I'm also using the appropriate  words. I'm not using swear words.  

I'm speaking in daily life English and I'm  using the correct volume. I'm making sure  

that you can hear me accurately and clearly  through the camera, through the internet,  

to the other side of the world. Can you hear me? I  want to make sure that you can hear me. If you're  

giving a presentation at work, make sure that  you speak up and you use a good office voice. 

I hope that you can avoid these five  common speaking mistakes that I see  

my English students make. Don't forget to  download the free PDF worksheet. There is  

a link in the description. You can print it  out, put it under your pillow to sleep on.  

Review it before you give a presentation.  Review it especially before you call a bakery  

to get a cake made for your boss. Don't make that  mistake. And make sure that you are remembering  

what you learned today with the PDF. There's  a link in the description. Download it today. 

Well, now I have a question for you. I want to  know which one of these five mistakes do you make?  

Do you speak to quietly? Do you possibly use  too many filler words? Or maybe some bad words?  

Do you speak up and share your ideas? Or maybe do  you mumble too much? Let me know in the comments.  

I can't wait to see what you have to say  and I'll see you again next Friday for a  

new lesson here on my YouTube channel. Bye. The next step is to download the free PDF  

worksheet for this lesson. With this free  PDF, you will master today's lesson and  

never forget what you have learned. You can  be a confident English speaker. Don't forget  

to subscribe to my YouTube channel for  a free English lesson every Friday. Bye.