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!