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.