Hi and welcome back to Love English.So, job interviews, University, work, meetings
business proposals even meeting your boyfriend or girlfriend's parents can be
pretty nerve-racking situations and of course in all of these situations you
want to sound intelligent smart you want to make a good impression and whether
you are a native or non-native speaker of English you really need to avoid
these three things that I am going to explain when you are talking in English
if you want to sound intelligent and not well like her like thank God I can vent
to you like my sister you get it and at least we have each other and it's like
the holidays and instead of like me let go of are talking to me we're like
whatever yeah so whatever your reason for wanting to sound more intelligent
smarter making a good impression and really to avoid sounding well a little
bit stupid you're going to want to avoid these three things in spoken English
that unfortunately have become quite common place by eliminating these three
features of spoken colloquial informal English you're going to instantly sound
smarter and make a better impression but unfortunately these three features of
English have become a very commonplace why have they become so common why are
people speaking in this rather dumb stupid way well good question
and in fact this is my answer squealers where we should take like hey that's
pretty that's right total crap on TV so today let me help
you help you avoid sounding like a Kardashian like somebody who really just
spends a lot of time doing their makeup and waxing their bikini lines to be
honest you can sound a lot smarter than that
and no doubt you are sometimes the way we speak doesn't actually reflect the
way we think so in today's lesson let's eliminate these three things from
the way you communicate in English and help you sound more intelligence right
let's get started number one and this is so simple
eliminating using these words in fact abbreviations in English are really
going to help you sound more intelligent stop using text talk oMG lol or worse
Lowell FYI TMI what the so this is text talk these are actually initializations
they're a form of abbreviation essentially initializations are when we
take a number of words put them into one but we actually say them as individual
letters VIP RSVP lol however when we create a word with that abbreviation
it's actually an acronym for example in American English they often say ASAP
whereas in British English we'd use it more as an initialization and say ASAP
but saying ASAP or I've heard VIP actually VIP really it makes you some
lazy it makes you sound like you don't care enough to say the whole word it
makes sense in text language even in informal emails because you're trying to
write something quickly and put a lot of information into a short message but
when you're speaking there's really no excuse now the worst one I have heard is
someone actually saying low rather than lol which to be honest is just as bad
saying low don't tell all just laugh haha it's funny not Laurel guys it
really does sound like you're lazy and to be honest a little bit unintelligent
so number one avoid using text talk when you speak it's text talk for a reason so
see if you can do that and do let me know have you ever heard a native
speaker talk like this just because they do it it doesn't mean you should avoid
it number two one word in the English language which when used in the
incorrect way or overused really does make you sound a little bit like her so
the use of like in English the overuse of it there are actually six principal
ways we use the word like number five and six I'm going to tell you in a
minute and these are the ways that will make you sound stupid so the most common
use of like is as a conjunction or a preposition and of course a verb she
used to have a car like mine a preposition here in a comparison fine no
problem you sound intelligent she looks like she's having fun she looks like
she's having fun conjunction no problem that's the
correct way to use it number three as a noun what are your likes and dislikes
number four as a verb I really like chocolate perfectly acceptable all those
four ways of using like are fine and of course very common however number five
using like as a quote ative or in informal colloquial reported speech
makes you sound well let's say again stupid so in this way we would have the
subject plus verb to be plus like he was like she said you were single and I was
like um no I have a boyfriend and so he was like well whatever you get the idea
there's a difference in the way I sound it really isn't the best way to
speak in more formal situations or situations where you want to make a good
impression it does sound unintelligent much better
to say he told me he asked me he said fine but he was like whatever doesn't
sound good so the second reason we use like in this
way is to express a feeling express how we feel so to say I was like whatever I
was like how dare you you're expressing your emotion rather than exactly
reporting what you said essentially you'll be paraphrasing what was actually
said in the conversation and expressing the emotion behind it I was like no I
have a boyfriend and then he was like how dare you you get the idea and
finally the sixth reason that you would use like but again sounding
unintelligent is as a filler and I've had this in classes with students in
seminars and presentations and I kind of want to pull my hair out when I hear
them use like as a filler in this way just tidy my hair a bit now okay so when
you use like as a filler basically you are using it in a way because you may be
unsure of what you're saying you may feel like you need to keep talking and
rather than using well of course too many of these these fillers don't sound
good but equally so using like consistently using like really sounds
terrible it's unprofessional it's uh NACA demmick and it will not make a good
impression so let's have a look at an example sentence first I'm gonna read
the sentence to you in a normal tone without using like as a filler and then
I'm going to add like so here we go I think we should focus more on
researching the topic before we start planning the report I think we should
focus more on researching the topic before we start planning the report so
there we have a very natural sentence now add the word
like as a filler I think we should like focus more on like the research before
we start like planning the report three likes in one sentence not needed at all
and of course this is a really bad habit that people get into the more you do it
the harder it's going to be to stop so if you do find that you've picked up
this habit through watching American movies through watching reality TV one
don't stop watching this if you enjoy it I'm not saying you're not allowed to
watch reality TV although maybe the Kardashians are an exception there but
essentially what you want to be doing is making sure you mimic the kind of
speaker you want to sound like so potentially listening to politicians or
I don't know Emma Watson these celebrities and people actually speak in
a more educated formal way that makes a really good impression so be careful who
you choose to mimic when you are trying to practice your English it's a great
way to learn but just be sure that you are learning from the right people Sabra
and I would be perfect mimic us we don't talk like that
no we don't never but I remember when she was pregnant with either Mason or P
she was crying like you were mom like didn't call her for like two weeks to
say that how are you feeling pregnant and I'm like you haven't even asked me
one time how am I feeling like I don't think her not talking to us affects her
and that's so weird to me and in addition to this some people also put
like at the end of a sentence a little bit like you know you know what I mean
so sometimes this is actually because of regional differences in dialects so in
the north you might hear the use of like in this
way but that's probably a little bit more natural it's more associated with
the region we have such a great time like I think you might hear that in
maybe Ireland or the north of England but if it's somebody else speaking in
this way some one may be from the south who you don't
expect to talk in this way it's it just doesn't sound very good we have such a
great time like it's a little bit like that right finally number three and this
is perhaps one of the worst things you can do when you're speaking English it's
not to do with vocabulary with the words you use but in fact it's to do with your
intonation up talk up speak rising intonation up put inflection high rising
terminal or intonation or indeed as I like to call it
Kardashian talk you starting to understand what I'm talking about this
is a way in speaking in which declarative statements affirmative
sentences are spoken in the same way as questions so in a question we often have
a full rising intonation for example where are you from where are you from
but in affirmative statements it should really remain more flat and in fact you
find a decreasing a lowering of the intonation
I'm from Bournemouth I'm from Bournemouth so up speak up talk
Kardashian talk is often associated with the west coast of America with places
like California LA now unfortunately it is no longer limited by geography and
you will often hear particularly younger people in the UK speaking in this way
that's right the Kardashians are everywhere so of course again you're
going to hear this kind of language in reality TV shows and certain movies
films where they are trying to portray a character has been a little bit well
clueless by the end of the day it was like the more the merrier and so if the
government could just get to the kitchen rearrange some things we could certainly
party with the aliens you don't want to speak in a job interview or in a
business meeting in a way that makes you sound unsure of yourself lacking
confidence you want to sound assertive sure confident so you don't want
to speak like this she's like this whole like situation with uptalk you find that
there are a series of statements so more than one where the inflection the
intonation goes up at the end these are affirmative sentences not questions and
then the final sentence would usually have a falling intonation a falling
pitch at the end so if I were to answer the question where are you from I would
say from a small seaside town in the South of England you might have heard of
it Bournemouth it's about a two-hour drive from London fine
standard falling intonation at the end of those statements with up talk let me
get ready for my Kardashian debut right with up talk it'll sound like this I'm a
small seaside town in the south of England you might have heard of it
Ballmer it's about a two-hour drive from London it's pretty hard it sounds
strange I'm trying my best it's not a natural thing for me to do to have a
rising intonation on affirmative sentences but you can see the difference
in tone and really the impression that I will give in an interview or in a
business meeting or at university it really does sound like I'm not sure
about what I'm saying so that was the worst the one that I really do hate to
hear when people are speaking and of course all of these features of spoken
English are very easy to eliminate from the way you speak it just takes a little
bit of practice and as I said choosing who you emulate and who you copy more
carefully so if you've heard any of these features of English or others why
not comment below and let me know and of course if you want any more tips or
tricks to help you learn to speak a little bit more intelligent you can have
a look at some of our lessons here and of course don't forget subscribe to the
channel click that little button and the notifications belt so you are notified
when we've got more lessons to help you sound intelligent in English thank you
so much for watching bye