well hey there i'm emma from m
english 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 going to be perfect for you
i've got some tips that will help you to
sound confident
impressive and professional if you do
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alright let's get professional
[Music]
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 practice 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 going to say
and think about how you're going to 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
this report in 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 practice 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 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
these are all classic filler words
unnecessary words
and sounds like er
em all of these are used to by
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 color 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 practice 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 that's okay now we
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