Deep Dive on Speak Clearly | Sensitive Communication Tips

Hi there, Grace CW Liu here, and welcome to Sensitive Communication Tips!

So first of all, I will just like to clarify what I mean by sensitive communications. When I say the word sensitive, what I mean is that either you are a sensitive person, in other words, you can walk into a room and you can have a sense of what the room is like, or when you’re talking to the person, you can already sense the mood of that person that you’re speaking to. Or the other way is to say you are a sensitive person, and that you are aware of your communication so that you try to make the conversation in a constructive way. So when you’re speaking to someone, you want to make sure that the communication that you’re having with that person is constructive. So that’s what I mean by sensitive communication.

Now, in the previous video, I shared with you three tips to communicate with confidence tip number one, smile. Tip number two was to stand with confidence or stand up straight. And number three is speak clearly. Now in this video, I want just to deep dive just a little bit more on tip number three, speak clearly.

Now in the previous video, I did talk about the rate of speech. Some people are fast talkers. Some people are a little bit slow. But again, we just want to make sure we allow the time for the person to process what we are saying. And as long as we’re speaking at a rate that is comfortable to us, we will already somehow exude that confidence. But I want to speak also about speak clearly in a couple of other ways. You know, we have slang or idioms or figurative language, we have a lot of different other means for communicating. And we also need to make sure that the words we say or the slang that we use, or the figurative language that we use is also clear to the person that we are speaking to.

Classic example: English is not my mom’s first language, right? So you know, my mom emigrated to the US when she was about 18-19 years old. So she-she’s not familiar with the slang. And to this day, she still has some difficulties with that. And I remember that we got news that one of my cousin’s got accepted to one of the universities and everything. And I was just saying to my mom, oh, that’s so cool. And my mom was like, like, it’s 80 degrees weather here. How is it cool? How are you cold? How are you? And I was like, No, mom cool means like, that’s great. So they she looks at me, she goes, Well, why didn’t you just say that? Say that it was great. Um, so I realized that with my mom, you know, that I have to make sure that I used words that she understands, otherwise, we’re going to have this conflict.

So speaking clearly means that you’re using words, you’re using the vocabulary words that is familiar to the person and the person is not familiar with the use of that word in a slang or other means, then try to avoid it. So the other part of speak clearly was, you know, sometimes we speak fast, or because of some generation, we also make up words.

And a classic example is when I was in college, we made up the word “flustrated.” No, it wasn’t flustered, nor was it frustrated, it was “flustrated.” And our professors kind of looked at us and then figured it out that we– what we had done was we had combined the word flustered and frustrated together, to convey how we were feeling during our test or with the finals. But to this day, I have never heard of the word “flustrated.” Only when I was on campus did I hear that word but that didn’t– that word has not carried over to other places. So if I was to say the word “flustrated” now, most likely people are going to correct me and say, Oh, do you mean flustered? Or do you mean frustrated? Because I have not heard like I say outside of my college years, the word “flustrated” again. However, if I was to say that word I am sure I would be corrected with the word flustered or frustrated, so speak clearly also means to make sure that you are using words that are clear to people.

I know a lot of times we sometimes make up words. And as long as it’s in a context that people– other people can understand, that is fine. But however, if you– if there are made up words and people don’t understand, it’s gonna create some misunderstanding. And you know, you have to explain it and everything. And that can just sometimes decrease your feeling of confidence.

So speaking clearly, part of it in the previous video, I mentioned, is about the rate of speech and allowing the person to process. The second part is making sure you use words, phrases, etc. that is familiar to the person, you know, if you’re going to use some slang words, or figurative language or metaphors, whatever it is, that the person that is receiving those messages, understand those words and how it’s being used. And the other part is, you know, if you tend to make up words, and sometimes we do do that, just make sure that the person understands what the meaning of that word is, right? So that way again, as long as the person understands what you are saying, that is going to boost the confidence.

So I hope these tips helped you today. And if you did find the deep dive lesson or the deep dive explanation of speak clearly has helped you then please visit my website gracesoulutions.com. That’s gracesoulutions.com to book a free communication breakthrough session with me. If you would like to make any comments about this video, please feel free to do so I only ask that if you do that it’d be respectful, kind and supportive. And thank you for being here today at Sensitive Communication Tips.

I look forward to seeing you here again next time. Have a great day. Thank you. Bye for now!