5 Tips on How To Sound More Professional in English

Well hey there, I’m Emma from MmmEnglish.

And this week, I’ve pulled together five tips on how to sound

more professional in English.

If you’re surrounded by English speakers at work

or if you’re planning on getting a job at a company

where you have to speak English most of the time,

then this lesson is gonna be perfect for you.

I've got some tips that will help you to sound confident,

impressive

and professional.

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Alright

let's get professional.

Working at a company where the language, the culture,

and even the mannerisms

are different to your native language must be really hard,

even quite intimidating at times.

At work, you want to show your colleagues that you’re capable

of doing a really good job, right?

Well, the way that you communicate is a huge part

of being effective and productive at work.

So today we'll practise communicating your message in a clear,

professional and polite way.

My first tip today is to slow down.

If you speak English reasonably well,

you may think that talking fast

makes you sound smarter and more confident in your English.

It's probably what lots of YouTube English teachers have been

saying to you: speak quickly, link words together,

sound like a native speaker.

However, at work, it's a little different. It actually makes it

much more difficult to understand someone

if they're speaking quickly.

It’s harder to follow along with what they're saying.

And in a professional context, this is absolutely not ideal, is it?

We really need to communicate our message clearly

in the workplace.

So when you slow your speech down a little,

the people or the person that you’re talking to is gonna feel like

they're having a conversation with you

rather than you're just talking at them.

It’s much easier for them to understand,

and you yourself will have time to think about

what you're gonna say and think about how you're gonna say it.

so that it comes out clearly and accurately.

Now my next tip is to make direct statements.

Can you please hand this report in by Friday?

So this sentence is not as direct as it could be

because it introduces the option that it's not done by Friday.

Maybe that person's gonna think it's okay to get it to you

first thing on Monday morning.

They can work on it over the weekend, perhaps.

It's the way that we're asking it

with the modal verb, can.

We're asking is it possible?

Can does make the request really polite but it doesn't clearly

set the expectation that it needs to be done by Friday.

So to make it clearer, say:

Please hand in this report by Friday.

Now you're still being polite

and you're being really assertive and clear.

Assertive means that you're behaving or speaking in a really

confident way, clearly expressing what you want or what you need.

And when you respond to a statement just like this,

or a request like this,

do not say: I'll try my best.

Or I'll try.

It's so non-committal. It's like

Okay!

I can’t promise anything but yeah, I'll try.

You also need to be direct with your answers.

Yes, I can get it done by Friday.

Or:

It’s going to be difficult for me to meet that deadline

because I have a big meeting

with the marketing team tomorrow afternoon.

My next tip is to practise your intonation.

Intonation really helps you to express your mood, your feeling,

your attitude and your meaning.

And if you use the wrong intonation,

your message can easily be misunderstood.

Now what’s really interesting is that each language has its own

tone and intonation patterns.

To English speakers, Russian or Cantonese can sound

a little harsh when people are speaking

but most often that's not the case at all.

It just sounds that way to English speakers

because of what we understand about our own language

which really does make me wonder

what does English sound like to you?

Do you think that I sometimes sound way too excited? I'm curious.

I guess it might sound a little different to what you're used to.

Let me know down in the comments!

What does English sound like to you?

Okay, let's get back to intonation practice.

In English, we use a rising intonation at the end of

some statements and of course, some questions.

And that's when our voice goes upwards,

the tone of our voice goes upwards at the end of a sentence.

So of course, it can indicate a question and usually a question

that requires a yes or no answer.

But it can also indicate an emotion like surprise or happiness

and it can also indicate uncertainty or indecision.

So there's actually a few different ways that you can interpret

rising intonation in English.

So I want you to compare these two sentences.

I plan to join you at the meeting

and then have we'll have lunch afterwards.

I plan to join you at the meeting and then have lunch afterwards?

So that second example really showed

indecision, uncertainty, doubt.

And it's really not the type of message that you want to send

in a professional context, in the workplace, right?

So use that rising intonation when you're

asking questions and you're showing emotion, positive emotion

but not when you're trying to be clear and direct.

Tip number four is to avoid using filler words and sounds.

It's like

Totally annoying.

Words like: like

totally,

literally,

are all classic filler words, unnecessary words.

And sounds like

ehhh,

uhhh,

ehmm,

all of these are used to buy time

as you're thinking of the right word or the right idea

that you want to express.

When you use these words or these sounds at work,

it can be really unprofessional. It can seem quite distracting.

It may seem like you don’t really know what you’re talking about.

Or perhaps it might even feel a little too informal

especially if you’re speaking to people who you respect,

who are higher up in the company than you

or perhaps when you’re presenting to a group of people.

So what I really want to make clear here is that

pause is okay.

Instead of using these filler words and these sounds,

pause and silence

is okay between ideas.

Now I know that so many of you feel like

it’s a really bad thing to pause like you shouldn't be thinking

about what you have to say next, you should just instantly know it.

And that's what happens with native speakers as well.

Of course, it's not.

And at work, we're often facing challenges or really difficult

situations that require us to consider different options

and to discuss solutions.

Well that pause allows you to really consider and it shows

that you're considering your options and

coming up with solutions that are well thought through.

That pause helps you to sound more professional.

Okay the last tip is to avoid really unhelpful phrases.

A really common phrase at work especially when you have to

explain yourself is:

I thought

or I assumed.

You might use it when you’ve done something wrong and

you want to try and explain what happened.

You say: I thought or I assumed

we were including yellow in the website design.

This sounds like you weren’t sure about something

and instead of asking the question to make sure you understood

clearly, you just went ahead with it anyway.

A better way to explain yourself is to say:

My understanding was...

Now this reframes the problem as a simple misunderstanding and

your colleague or your manager will probably respond more

positively to that kind of thing.

My understanding was that we would use yellow as a

bold colour for this design.

“I don’t know” is another really, really common phrase

that you hear at work but it’s one that I suggest

you avoid completely.

Why?

Because it’s so unhelpful! And therefore, it's unprofessional.

It is much better to say:

I'll find out.

So this lets the person know that you’re committed to solving

the problem, rather than just waiting to be told what to do about it

or wait for someone else to do it instead.

Now this video up here is a great one to check out

if you are looking for words and phrases

that will help you to sound more professional at work.

So we’ve been through my five tips!

Now I want to check that you've remembered them all.

They were

slow down;

make direct statements;

practise your intonation;

avoid filler words;

and avoid unhelpful phrases.

So we all know that you won't make these problems go away

overnight. They're habits, aren't they?

So we need to break them and build new habits.

But it's okay, now we need to know what we need to be

looking out for.

You can put a note on your wall, or next to your desk at work

to help remind yourself about all of these different things

that you need to keep in mind to keep improving

your communication at work.

Here's a video that will help you to learn about some of the things

you should never say at work.

And as for next week's video, you're absolutely gonna love it

I can't wait to share it with you.

Hit that subscribe button and join me again next week.

Bye for now!