Accent Reduction Video Tip # 2 - Articulation
Communication is about one human being truly understanding another human being. There are several hurdles that can prevent that understanding from taking place.
Accent Reduction Training removes the largest of those hurdles: Your Accent. How many times have you been asked to repeat yourself while speaking to someone? Do you ever feel like the people that you are speaking to just doesn't understand you or they aren't even listening? It gets old fast. Don't worry. I'll help you out :) In this video, I teach you how to better articulate when you're speaking. Dropping your jaw and opening your mouth will immediately make you a more effective speaker. Watch the video, get your learn on, and do AWESOME things!
Video Transcription Hey everybody, Donald The Dialect Coach here! I'm going to talk to you today about the 2nd tip for reducing your accent and learning the Standard American Dialect. Now, this tip may seem easy. It may seem obvious. But, if it's that easy and that obvious, then why isn't everyone doing it?
How many times have you been talking and someone stop you and says, "Hey, What are you saying?" That means you need to open your mouth.
The other night my wife and I were out celebrating our anniversary - which was AWESOME - and the waitress was talking to us and I just couldn’t understand what she was saying. It got to the point where I felt bad asking her to repeat herself. All of that could have been remedied if she would just open her mouth when she speaks. I'm sure you've heard before that you need to open your mouth, but I'm going to talk to you today about another way of thinking about it. Instead of just opening your mouth, think about lowering your jaw.
You know, America is a pretty awesome place, but as American speakers we tend to be a bit lazy. We don’t move our mouth a lot when we talk. It doesn't matter if you're from Minnesota or New York you just don’t move your jaw very much when you're speaking. It's required. It's necessary. Once we go on and begin learning other dialects, like British and Irish, you're going to have to open your mouth or else other people won't be able to understand you.
How do you practice opening your mouth and lowering your jaw when you’re speaking? Think about how much you can lower your jaw when you’re speaking - How much can you have that happen? You'll be surprised. I would also use a couple of articulation drills.
My favorite one is, "Jiggle it a little, it'll open." It's very hard to say if you have your jaw clenched. You need to practice saying it with an open jaw. Start slowly, and then get faster. Lastly, try incorporating a sense of character to the line. "Jiggle it a little, it'll open!"
Another drill that I would recommend is saying, "You know you need unique New York." How much can you drop your jaw while you're saying that?
Guys, if you follow these drills and if you really work on dropping your jaw when you're speaking, you're going to be
- more articulate
- easier to understand
- building the foundation so that you can learn EVERY dialect out there!
That's pretty freaking awesome.
