How to get rid of this common and irritating speech habit – transcript

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“The problem with her is she’s got such selective listening.  I mean this is a culture of entitlement and it’s not okay. As far as I’m concerned, it’s really not okay.”

Have you ever heard people speak like that?  They go up at the end of every sentence.

Now the problem is if you really want to express yourself: for example, tell the difference between an order and a question; a statement and a query…if you want to sound finite or curious, you’re not going to get that range if you keep on going up at the end of every phrase or sentence.

It can seem like a hard habit to get out of and it can sound like a very small version of Mean Girls and that ain’t so good to listen to in the office.

To get out of that habit all you need to do is think about the key words or phrases that you need to emphasise. For example, instead of, “She has such selective listening,” it would be what the the key word would be, which would be ‘selective’ so, “She has such SELECTIVE” listening.”

Now if you do that then it actually mitigates this need to go up at the end of the phrase.

By practising reading for one minute or 30 seconds into your phone a few times a week you will snap out of that habit but you do need to practise. You can get the back of the cornflakes packet and just record into that. For example, “Cornflakes is packed full of goodness for you and your family. It’s also ladled with sugar so your teeth will fall out.”  There we are. I didn’t even go up. All I did was use emphasis.

That is how to get out of that habit of sounding like you’ve just come from Mean Girls.  Knock that on the head.