How to improve diction and clarity of speech for adults and children: 5 powerful exercises + books and training

Making a good impression in society is a direct path to being accepted by that very society. This is important for every person, regardless of the social environment, because when you are accepted, this significantly increases your chances of achieving success in business or making useful contacts. What determines whether people's impression of us will be good or bad? Here it is advisable to talk about several factors: about society itself, a person’s understanding of its laws and principles, about goodwill towards its members, and about what and how we say. And here it is impossible not to touch upon such an issue as the culture of speech.

Each person's speech is individual. Voice timbre, vocabulary, stable expressions and speech patterns that we are accustomed and love to use - all this creates and gives a unique flavor to our manner of speaking. And also the culture of speech is closely related to thinking. Therefore, it can be used to judge the intellectual and even spiritual world of a person. If you want to belong among well-read people, you need to strive to improve your speech, which is often clogged with everydayism. How you can do this, read below.

Why do you need good diction?

First, let's figure out what diction is and why we should care about it.

Diction is a clear, clear pronunciation when a person pronounces words and phrases clearly and legibly. A person with good speech does not “suffer” from a lisp, nasal tone, or stuttering.

Good diction is not a requirement only for TV presenters and teachers. Everyone needs it in life and everyday life. We all get a job, communicate among our circle of acquaintances, we don’t know, in the end, where we will be “taken”, where and with whom we will interact.

A very striking example of a person with “good” diction was from 2021 to 2019 in the Supreme Council of Ukraine - A.V. Parubiy. Everyone who could laugh at his speech, because it’s not often that you hear a SPEAKER (from the word “speak”) of a country’s council with such diction! This is exactly what I mean: we need to take care of improving the quality of speech now, learn to speak beautifully, so as not to make people laugh later...

Types of vocabulary

Lexicon is the stock of words that a person owns or is familiar with. There are 3 types of dictionaries:

  • active;
  • passive;
  • external.

Typically, the active vocabulary is smaller than the passive one. Over the course of their lives, people become acquainted with new lexical units, but do not use them all, or completely forget them.

Active

The active vocabulary includes those phrases that a person uses when speaking and pronounces or writes them every day. He says them without effort or need to remember their meaning or pronunciation. Exact data on how many words are in the active dictionary is not known (approximately 5000-35000 lexical units).

Passive

Passive dictionary refers to words that are in a person’s vocabulary, but he does not use them or rarely expresses them. At the same time, he needs time to think and remember what it means. There can be from 20,000 to 100,000 of them in the vocabulary.

External

The external dictionary is highly specialized vocabulary, professional and scientific terms. They relate to specific branches of knowledge. Their meaning is not known to everyone and is not fully understood. This also includes neologisms (recently appeared words) and archaisms (outdated vocabulary).

Exercises to improve diction and speech clarity

Philologists have studied the issue of the development of diction and come to the conclusion that many people need to improve the articulation of speech of the Russian-speaking population. This is due to the fact that the Russian language is distinguished by “lazy” articulation, unlike English, for example.

There are even certain ways to check if you have good articulation for clear speech:

  1. Take a mirror and, looking into it, pronounce vowel sounds (a, o, i, e, u, s). Do your lips change position and shape? If they move well and change shape, then you are on the right track.
  2. Tongue mobility is important for good articulation. Roll it up into a tube. If it does not work out, it is due to muscle weakness or a congenital feature. But you can develop!
  3. It is also important to open your mouth well. To check this, prepare your palm without the thumb. Then open your mouth as much as possible, slide 4 fingers inward between the upper and lower jaw. If you managed to do this, then your mouth opens without clamps, which means the muscles are ready to work.

So, we’ve sorted out the diagnostics, now let’s decide what to do to develop speech and improve articulation. I present to you several effective exercises to help you achieve your goal.

Warm-up

Take a pen or pencil between your teeth and say any sentence or phrase of 10–15 words. In this case, the pencil must be squeezed as hard as possible. Then take out the stationery object and say the phrase again. You will hear the difference immediately! The entire articulatory apparatus will be tuned to correct speaking, precise and accurate.

It is enough to warm up with a pencil for up to 5 minutes before exercises; this exercise is necessary to “pump up” the articulation muscles.

You can also warm up with nuts. Demosthenes in Ancient Greece developed a unique method of training speech with stones. On the seashore, he picked up a mouthful of stones and shouted words into the stormy sea, trying to pronounce them clearly. Practicing with nuts does almost the same thing. You put them in your mouth and try to pronounce the speech-improving words as best you can.

Warm up with a pencil

Tongue Twisters

At home, you can perfectly improve your speech pronunciation, because everyone has pencils and access to tongue twisters. This is the minimum set of articulation development. But let's move on.

Tongue twisters are used for children aged 4–6 years. This is a very effective way. Tongue twisters are also used to improve the diction of adults; below I will write the most effective of them. In addition, with such phrases you improve not only your speech, but also your vocabulary. Select the tongue twisters you need, just focus on working out all the letters and their combinations.

Listen to a recording of your voice

Oh, I don’t really like listening to my records. I remember how I once heard my childish and funny voice on the recorder, and I was saying quite serious things... I and all my friends laughed at the recording.

But for the development of clear and competent speech, listening to your voice on a recording is a very useful activity. Almost every person will want to change it, work on diction. You need to do it this way: you take some passage from the text, then clearly try to read it, recording it on a voice recorder. If you didn’t like the entry, repeat reading. And so on until you perfect your pronunciation.

The same can be done to improve your English speaking. You can also bring in a good friend who speaks English to listen to an “expert” opinion.

A prerequisite is diaphragm training.

For vocalists and people who stutter, the diaphragm is a condition for success. Who would have thought that some kind of bridge over the stomach determines a lot of money in show business! But for correct speech and singing, mandatory training of this very diaphragm is necessary. A trained diaphragm makes it possible to finish a phrase and finish singing it.

You can train it this way: take a deep breath, then draw out the vowel sound until there is no breath left at all.

When you reach 25-30 seconds of this “pulling”, change the pitch of your voice, try to draw out the sound in a thinner voice.

When and under this condition you stretch the vowel to 25-30 seconds, proceed to inflating balloons. It’s good for your body, and you’ll please those around you! Well, jokes aside, inflating balloons very well develops the diaphragm and increases lung volume.

Combination of different sounds

In addition to tongue twisters, correct speech and diction can be achieved using special combinations of sounds. These combinations use consonants and vowels. By repeating them 5 times, you practice diction. Well, competent speech is added by the experience of reading different books (I’ll give a list below). What combinations will be useful:

  • bgi-pki, bga-pka, bge-pke;
  • vzdri-fstri, vzdro-fstro, vzdry-fstro;
  • stri-ztri, stra-ztra, stro-ztro;
  • gkru-khkru, gkro-khkro, gkra-khkra, etc.

Criteria that determine speech literacy

Speech culture:

  • relevance;
  • literacy of voiced information;
  • accessibility of expression;
  • use of epithets, metaphors and phraseological units;
  • variety of speech without tautology;
  • aesthetics.

The paucity of vocabulary and illiteracy repels the interlocutor and irritates. Even if you allow yourself to be tongue-tied at home, it is unlikely that you will conduct a business conversation correctly and will be able to express yourself competently when talking with your boss. And over time, when you have children, they will pick up illiterate words from you.

Recommendation from the author of the blog – Pavel Butor

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Me with Mikhail Kravchenko on Accel

I'll tell you what Mikhail will teach. You will never again:

  • be afraid to go live;
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  • eat words;
  • avoid recording videos and Stories;
  • be ashamed of your own speech.

Why doesn't your webinar bring in 1 million?

And if it brings, then why doesn’t it bring 2, 3, 5?

Most experts lose money right here, on the webinar! Weak engagement, retention, completion, low number of registrations and, as a result, shortfall in payments.

No one comes to a topical webinar if they are not interested in the topic and are not ready to buy. And then the question is only for you: “Why did 100 people come to the webinar and buy 10, and not 50, for example?” Mikhail also has such cases.

It's all about you. More precisely, in your sale. Submission. The ability to involve, grab the audience “by the metaphorical balls” and bring it to the end - to the offer. After all, this is obvious: in order for your offer to interest a potential buyer, he must first hear it.

Mikhail Kravchenko helps experts and online schools with a turnover of 1 million rubles increase audience engagement and retention at webinars and increase conversion to applications and payments up to +30% in 2 months through voice training and detailed development of a sales speech.

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It will reveal your individuality, charisma, natural charm and magnetism. Will teach you how to control your voice in order to better convey key meanings to the audience. Your performances will have a hypnotic effect.

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Where does beautiful speech come from?

A child’s beautiful speech is the merit of his parents. It is advisable to develop conversational skills from childhood. This is facilitated by visiting a theater studio or poetry club, as well as constantly reading and learning poetry.

The childhood of the modern generation is inextricably linked with computers, which is why there is practically no time left for books. This is a very important shortcoming of many parents, because in the question of how to learn to speak beautifully, reading is indispensable.

Language and literature lessons at school make a significant contribution to the development of children's speech. If school teachers do not produce the desired results, parents must take matters into their own hands.

It is worth considering individual lessons with your child, or enrolling him in private lessons with another teacher who will help him develop the art of speaking freely on any topic.

But what if your parents missed out on the development of beautiful speech as a child? Don't get upset and think that you have no chance of learning to speak clearly. You can still catch up, it’s never too late to improve!

The most effective tongue twisters for improving diction in adults

I wrote above about the importance of tongue twisters for the development of ideal diction for an adult. I will only note that after recording your voice, you must decide which speech sounds do not suit you. Perhaps it will be hissing or “l-r”, or other sounds. And in accordance with your observations, select tongue twisters that work specifically on them. And for prevention, you can train them all.

  • The Ligurian traffic controller regulated in Liguria.
  • The protocol about the protocol was recorded by the protocol.
  • Don’t smoke, Turk, pipe, better buy a pile of peaks, better buy a pile of peaks.
  • The angry widow put the firewood into the barn: once firewood, two firewood, three firewood - all the firewood could not fit, and two woodcutters, two woodcutters, for the emotional Varvara, expelled the firewood across the width of the yard back to the woodyard, where the heron withered, the heron withered, the heron died .
  • Just as you can’t ring all the bells, you can’t beat them again, you can’t beat all the tongue twisters, you can’t speed them up, but trying is not torture.

Well, something easier.

  • Tell us about your purchases, about which purchases, about your purchases, about your purchases, about your purchases.
  • The bull was blunt-lipped, the bull was blunt-lipped, the bull's white lip was dull.
  • The pig snouted, white-nosed, blunt-nosed, dug up half the yard with its snout, dug, dug.
  • Advertising for grips has seams with coverage, but potholders without coverage have been snatched up.
  • In the shallows we lazily caught burbot, in the shallows we caught tench.
  • Their pesticides are not comparable to ours in terms of their pesticide effectiveness.
  • We ate and ate ruffs at the spruce tree, we barely finished them off.
  • Appreciates the flail cut by the braid.
  • The hedgehog has a hedgehog, the snake has a squeeze.
  • From the clatter of hooves, dust flies across the field.

Tongue twisters are good for developing memory and attention in adults, in addition to speech.

Tongue twister to improve diction

Orthoepy - why it is important to speak correctly and how these rules arise

We live in strange times. On the one hand, we are told that in various fields professionalism is valued above all, and not how you dress, how you speak or how you present yourself. On the other hand, everywhere we have to deal with the opposite: a person is judged not by what he is, but by what he appears to be. Therefore, when applying for a job, a well-spoken candidate with dubious professional credentials has a better chance than a true master of his craft who cannot speak. So it is very useful for any person, regardless of his type of activity, to learn how to speak correctly. Even if his profession is not related to public speaking. Read more…

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Books that improve speech and vocabulary

To improve your speech, you need to read texts on different topics. In this situation, speech is enriched with new words, logic appears in statements, and speech literacy improves. You won’t find a professor who couldn’t connect two words or said “here”, “there”, “tuta”, “Thursday”, “sERtse”. This is because books improve the rhetoric of speech and help formulate thoughts.

I have made a selection of books that can become for you lessons in the Russian language, literature, as well as an excursion into linguistics and other philological sciences.

  1. Vadim Khrappa “From Adam’s apple to the apple of discord.”
  2. Korney Chukovsky “Alive as life.”
  3. Larry King: How to Talk to Anyone, Anytime, Anywhere.
  4. Nigel Brown "The Oddities of Our Language"
  5. Natalya Rom “I want to speak beautifully! Speech techniques.”
  6. Victoria Volodina “Album on speech development.”
  7. Lev Uspensky “A Word about Words.”

These books will help you improve your spoken Russian, and with their help you will determine how to use unfamiliar words for their intended purpose.

What does it mean to speak beautifully and confidently?

Listening to the speech of the interlocutor, a person can immediately determine whether it is a beautiful speech or not. This conclusion is based on subjective judgments and generally accepted “unspoken” rules. Words are intangible. They cannot be identified by sight, and therefore interlocutors rely solely on hearing.

Let's figure out what it means to “speak beautifully.”

  1. The speaker feels confident. He understands the topic of conversation and can answer questions. Consequently, he does not need time to extract the necessary information from his memory. There are no pauses, long silences, crumpled answers. Thoughts are expressed clearly and competently.
  2. The speech was delivered correctly. All distractions have been removed: pauses, filler words, jumping from topic to topic. Clear speech helps to convey information and express your thoughts in such a way as to be correctly understood.
  3. Neutral or friendly tone. The ability to gain trust with just intonation is a real art. It is difficult, but it gives enormous confidence. It is pleasant to speak in a beautiful voice, but the interlocutor does not want to stop talking.

It is difficult to change an already formed opinion about yourself. Therefore, it is worth forming positive connections right away. Charisma and correct speech work for this.

How to improve your child's speech

I once wrote many articles about improving the speech of a child aged 4 years and older. And now this is really a problem for many parents. We will not discuss the reasons, mechanisms and various nuances of this topic; this article is not about that. I’ll just say that you need to try hard to improve the oral speech of preschoolers and teenagers. That's what speech therapists are for.

And at home, your task is to teach kids to pronounce all sounds, and schoolchildren to formulate their thoughts and communicate in complete sentences.

Correct pronunciation of sounds is not an easy task for many. Here articulation exercises, gymnastics, massages, songs and the development of fine motor skills of the hands will come to the rescue - this, by the way, also develops memory and attention. There are actually a lot of ways.

By the age of 5, children should be able to pronounce all sounds. Older children already need the help of a speech therapist or psychologist. You can improve the speech of a child aged 6 years and older in terms of vocabulary and expressing his thoughts only with books and communication. After all, no gadgets can replace live communication, sudden questions and their explanations, presentations of characters from fiction books and their descriptions out loud.

Enriching your speech

There is no single and universal way to increase vocabulary that suits everyone. For one it is acceptable to read books, for another it is acceptable to learn foreign languages. Vocabulary enrichment methods include:

  • reading;
  • listening to audiobooks;
  • word games.

It is better if a set of methods is used when working on the lexicon.

Reading every day

Reading is considered a rich source of information. It enriches your horizons and allows you to learn and assimilate a large number of words. It is enough to devote an hour a day to this activity. Most often, an interesting plot captivates so much that the reader stops paying attention to the vocabulary. If there is such a problem, you should opt for memoirs or autobiographies. They must be read slowly and thoughtfully. If you come across an unfamiliar word, you need to look up its meaning in the dictionary.

READ How to get rid of loneliness: 10 steps to success

Having started working on the content of your vocabulary, the thought arises about which books you should read and which ones to refuse. Leafing through classic works, you can enrich your vocabulary, which is useful for daily communication. Scientific literature and reference books will allow you to expand your vocabulary, with the help of which you can understand specialists in a particular field and communicate with them (psychologists, engineers, biologists).

Don't be shy about reading cheap novels, magazines, blogs. They contain words and sentences that modern people use to express their thoughts. You also need to know them in order to be able to carry on a conversation not only with people with high intelligence. Those who are completely far from books can stop at reading newspapers. Speaking the text out loud will enhance the effect of memorizing vocabulary.

To make reading enjoyable, it is important to choose an author you like. Among modern authors, it is recommended to choose B. Akunin, S. Lukyanenko, E. Grishkovets. You should pay attention to W. Woolf, G. Melville, W. Faulkner, E. Zola.

Learning foreign languages

This direction has long been known for its benefits. It develops and improves memory. This allows you to actively use the vocabulary, construct sentences correctly, and select the appropriate words. That is, by learning another language, it becomes easier to improve your native one. In addition, many words in the Russian language were borrowed from foreigners.

Audiobooks

Listening to audiobooks will help you increase your vocabulary just as well as printed books. Only this method is most suitable for those who spend a lot of time on the road and do not have free time to sit with a paper book. Most importantly, there is a group of people who perceive audiobooks more easily. They are called auditory. It is easier for them to remember any information auditorily than visually.

Now there are many audiobooks that can be found on the Internet, listened to online, or recorded on a flash drive. It is convenient to use such electronic materials not only while driving, but also while cleaning the house, preparing dinner, or even at the gym.

READ Nonverbal means of communication as part of extralinguistics

Linguistic games

The next way to expand vocabulary is linguistic games. These can be scanwords, puzzles, rebuses, charades and other games. You can play both online and live, either with children or with adults. It is necessary to organize such activities every day, verbally or in writing. Here are just some of the games:

  • "Monophone";
  • "Synonyms";
  • "Nouns";
  • "Alphabet";
  • "Associations"

When playing “Monophone” you need to construct sentences in which words begin with the same letter (for example, first only with M, then with A). You might end up with the following expression: Masha waved to her mother. Playing "Synonyms" involves replacing one word with another. Their meaning should be the same (great, great, walk, walk).

The essence of the game “Nouns” is to compose a story in which there will be words only of this part of speech. The same can be done using adjectives or verbs. When playing “Alphabet”, you will need to name the words for each letter in order (A-orange, B-drum, B-helicopter). Lexical units must be in the singular; cities and names cannot be mentioned. First you can remember nouns, then other parts of speech. The game will be more interesting if you complicate it and say 3 words at once starting with a certain letter: bucket, knit, vanilla.

The game “Association” is loved and known by many. Her goal is to come up with a word that resembles a thing or phenomenon that the previous participant named. For example, telephone-handset-cigar-smoke-oven-pies.

In addition to games, you can learn new words by solving crosswords or scanword puzzles. If you do this constantly, you will notice that there are a lot of duplicate answers. This allows you to remember new words and their meanings. Those who don't like to write can install the application on their phone.

How to develop diction and clarity of speech with the help of training

School of speech technique and voice production @LABVoice includes 6 main blocks:

  1. Speech breathing.
  2. Working with diction, articulators, resonators.
  3. Manipulation, intonation and expressiveness of speech.
  4. Self-presentation, improvisation and speech logic.
  5. Speech therapy exercises.
  6. Public speaking, fear of speaking, discomfort in communication.

The training was developed by Maria Savicheva, an expert in speech technique and voice production (more than 20 years of experience).

Suitable for people who:

  • a quiet, expressionless, unconvincing voice;
  • there is misunderstanding on the part of colleagues and relatives;
  • difficulties with pronunciation, sluggish, unclear diction, sore throat, loss of voice;
  • relationships with the opposite sex do not work out;
  • no career growth;
  • They don’t listen, they interrupt, they don’t give a chance to speak in company.

After classes, 1,273 students were surveyed. Of them:

  1. 100% have become more confident in themselves.
  2. 84% began to earn more.
  3. 100% strengthened leadership skills.
  4. 94% felt much sexier and more attractive.
  5. 88% no longer have stage fright.

This is 100% online learning. More than 7,000 participants have already completed it.

How the training works:

  1. First you will conduct a Voice and Speech analysis. Receive personal recommendations and additions to the course program.
  2. Follow video lessons and strictly follow the expert’s instructions.
  3. Interim analysis of voice and speech with program adjustments.
  4. Final voice analysis with an expert’s conclusion and further recommendations.

For 249 rubles. You can get a voice test right now. Then they will create an individual program for you depending on your results. The price of training will depend on this (3,500–26,900 rubles). You can pay immediately or in installments over 4 months.

The training time is approximately 1.5–2 months.

If you don't like the training, you can get your money back within 14 days.

You can also get access to a free trial lesson for 5 days.

Intonation

Watch the intonation and correct pronunciation; it is important to correctly place stress in words and make logical pauses. This gives you the opportunity to take a breath, properly structure your further speech, and also attract the attention of your listeners.

So, before you start doing the exercises, you need to create a working environment. Sit comfortably in front of a mirror in a spare room, remove unnecessary objects and ensure the necessary acoustics. Complete all tasks for about 5-10 minutes, proceed to the next one after you have mastered the previous task. Record a video in order to correct errors in the future.

How to get rid of filler words: 5 tricks

This article tells how you can quickly, effectively and permanently get rid of filler words, while making your own spoken language cleaner and more understandable. If you wish, you can easily unlearn such popular parasitic words as “um”, “uh”, “in short” and others. It is very difficult to communicate with interlocutors whose speech is replete with such words, so many people work hard on themselves. By eliminating all unnecessary words from spoken language, any report will become clearer and ordinary small talk will become more enjoyable. This note contains five basic techniques for improving speech, the daily implementation of which will help you get rid of parasitic words forever. And we’ll start with the main question: “Why do we introduce filler words into our conversation?” Read more…

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Development of speech culture

"Say the word to me and I'll tell you who you are." Speech is our calling card. Speech culture reflects a person’s way of thinking, level of upbringing, education and awareness. Poor, clumsy and uncultured speech is not capable of influencing others. Moreover, it causes rejection towards the speaker. If you want to command the attention of your interlocutor, make a favorable impression on him and be convincing in your statements, develop a culture of speech, work on content, vocabulary, and lexical norms. In this article we will tell you how this is done. Read more…

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Online program "Modern Rhetoric"

In 8 weeks in this program, you will master and learn how to apply traditional and modern rhetoric techniques for speeches, presentations, vlogging, stand-ups and much more. You will learn to speak clearly, intelligibly, control your voice, behave correctly on stage and work with the audience, cope with the fear of speaking, prepare good speeches - from planning and searching for material to the actual text of the speech, and, of course, argue your speech. The program is suitable for both those who are just starting their journey as a speaker, and those who are already professionals but want to improve their skills. Find out more...

Working with words is work, but the work is interesting and exciting. The faster you immerse yourself in the process, the faster you will taste success. Go for it!

We also recommend reading:

  • Storytelling
  • Nora Gal's advice to those who work with words
  • Black rhetoric. Part one. 7 Rules of Clever Rhetoric
  • Preparing for a Public Speaking
  • Orthoepy - why it is important to speak correctly and how these rules arise
  • Best Blog Content of 2021: Writing
  • How to understand how a person feels
  • How to develop eloquence: some tips
  • Five Canons of Rhetoric
  • Marcus Fabius Quintilian: on the education of an orator
  • Lessons in Wisdom from Francis Bacon

Key words:1Rhetoric

Understand what you need to change

Evaluate different aspects of your speech and decide what exactly you need to work on. If you yourself find it difficult to understand what the problem is, ask a friend or colleague for help, or record yourself on a voice recorder.

Intonation

The way we pronounce a phrase often influences the listener's perception. For example, a raised (questioning) intonation at the end of each sentence undermines the credibility of your words.

Pace

Speaking too quickly without pauses gives the impression that you are nervous.

Volume

A voice that is too quiet or too loud does not add confidence to you either. Try to speak a little louder than usual so that you can be heard clearly without appearing rude.

Pause fillers

“Ah,” “uh,” “well,” and other similar sounds make speech difficult to understand.

Parasitic phrases

Here you will especially need someone's help, because we ourselves do not notice which phrases and phrases we use too often. Perhaps you always say the same thing when you take time to think about an answer - “That's a good question!” Or you overuse the phrases “Sorry to interrupt...”, “I’m not sure if this is important, but...”.

Smart words in colloquial speech. 20 words you need to know to look smart in conversation

1. Sentence - moral teaching.

2. Equivocations - ambiguous hints, subterfuges. 3. Deviant – a person who does not conform to the norm. 4. Catharsis - a change in consciousness through strong experiences. 5. Ataraxia – peace of mind, equanimity, serenity, wisdom. 6. Deprivation – a feeling of insufficient satisfaction of one’s needs. 7. Amok - a sudden violent mental disorder 8. Frustration - a period of complete disappointment in life. 9. Palinphrasy – pathologically frequent repetition of certain words or phrases in speech (for example, “damn”, “as if”, “actually”). 10. Antimony - chatter, empty talk (create antimonies). 11. Haptophobia – fear of being touched by other people. 12. Mojo - originally an African magical amulet (amulet) for happiness and good luck; in modern cultures the word has come to mean a positive state, something like charming charisma, which, by the way, can be lost. 13. Fetish is an object of blind, unconscious worship. 14. Distinia – depressed, melancholy mood. 15. Gestalt is a form or image, as some kind of holistic formation and the fundamental basis of the psyche. 16. A freak is a person distinguished by a bright, unusual, extravagant appearance and defiant behavior, as well as an extraordinary worldview, which is the result of a rejection of social stereotypes. 17. Zugzwang is a forced move in a chess game that worsens the position of the player who made it. In a broad sense: a situation in which any actions only worsen the situation. 18. Frisson - goosebumps. 19. A texttrovert is someone who finds it easier to talk about their feelings via SMS than in person. 20. Glossophobia – fear of speaking in public.

Nora Gal's advice to those who work with words

Any form of activity that requires the ability to find the right words is a difficult challenge for most of us. Whether we are writing a novel, composing a text for a rap battle, or thinking through a public speech, we are faced with the agony of choice: which word or phrase to choose? How to structure the text in such a way as not to sound like a robot? The answer is simple: you need to tirelessly monitor your speech, remove unnecessary things from it, be in a constant search for suitable words and read Russian classics. However, a person is lazy, and in the modern world he also has little time for this. Therefore, we need a book, after reading which you will be eager to learn Russian for the rest of your life, without considering it a waste of time. This book was written by Nora Gal. Read more…

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How to learn to understand the taste of a word

There are times when words are the tool that will allow you to achieve your goal: to find mutual understanding, to convince someone, to evoke emotions. People understand words differently. Despite this, first you need to do a lot of work on yourself, understand the taste of the word, and only then learn to influence other people. Therefore, we will primarily focus on the first step. Has it ever happened to you that you suddenly understand the essence and taste of a word that you use every day? This is called insight and happens to everyone. To put this process on stream, in order to develop the skill of noticing what is hidden under the iceberg, you need to adhere to several rules. Read about them in the article. Read more…

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Practice

Once you decide what you need to change in your speech, practice speaking in new ways as often as possible. Big public speaking doesn't happen very often, so start practicing in everyday situations.

  • When talking to colleagues . While you don't necessarily need to appear super confident over a cup of coffee, casual conversation with colleagues is a great opportunity to practice your speaking skills without fear or anxiety.
  • When you propose your ideas at meetings . How confidently you present your idea often determines whether it will be heard and respected.
  • When commenting on someone's work . If you need to evaluate another employee's work or skills, sounding confident is very important. In such a situation, try to practice at least one aspect of your speech that you want to change.
  • When you ask questions . There are many opportunities for practice here, because we ask questions often - at meetings, trainings, seminars.
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