How to speak clearly so that others understand you: 5 tips

There are those who experience some difficulties in connecting with others. How do you make yourself understood?

There are people who, no matter how much they like to talk, have trouble making themselves understood, have trouble making themselves understood when they do so. when they do.

Many people find it easy to express themselves spontaneously and naturally, while for others it is a bit more complex, a task that requires a greater degree of concentration and voluntary control of their speech and the message they are conveying. It is normal, each individual has his or her strengths and imperfections. In this article we will focus precisely on the difficulties in communicating verbally. How to speak clearly and be understood?

The problems of expression in the use of language

Language makes us capable of describing almost any real or imagined phenomenon and other people are able to understand the meaning of what we say. It sounds normal and ordinary, but in reality it is extraordinary: basically, we are able to convey very precise information, we are able to convey very precise information and, in addition, introduce "mental images" or ideas into the mind of the listener, the interlocutor.

What makes this ability unique is that we can adapt our words, our sentences and our speech in general to the circumstances, taking into account not only the content of what we want to say but also the way in which the context can modify or give meaning to what is said. It can be said that all the spoken or written messages we emit are unique, because the contexts in which they are created are also unique.

However, this adaptive, dynamic and fluid nature this adaptive, dynamic, and fluid nature of language also makes it relatively easy to create confusion and misinterpretations.

Tips on how to speak clearly and be understood

We all fall into a mistake at some point when expressing ourselves or when interpreting what we read or hear, and these errors are, to a certain extent, shared by the sender and the receiver (except in the case of trying to deceive us, of course).

In any case, there are those who are especially prone to generate, involuntarily, messages that are difficult to interpret and usually cause incomprehension.. The following tips for speaking clearly can help to improve in this aspect, since the use of language is something learned and modifiable through proper training.

However, this series of tips are oriented to help in the psychological and behavioral aspect of education. If the basis of the problem is in an organic alteration of the parts of the body responsible for articulating speech, whether based on muscles, bones or specific areas of the nervous system (including the brain, of course). In this type of cases, the best possible solution is necessarily through the doctor and the guidelines given to you as a patient.

Speak more slowly

This first step is not only a piece of advice that will help you speak more clearly; it will also make it easier for you to follow the rest of this advice.. It consists not so much in placing pauses here and there in your speech, but in slowing down your speech in general, i.e. it should affect all the words you pronounce, up to a certain point. Test at home to make sure you don't reach a level of slowing that is artificial. Keep in mind that the key is consistency. Trying it just once or letting too much time pass between sessions won't do much good.

Think that slowing down your speech does not have to be a bad thing from the perspective of your listeners. Some people almost always speak in a relatively slow manner, and while in some contexts it can be a bit attention-grabbing, in others it is even a good thing, because if it is a well-used resource, it adds importance to what is being said and lends a certain authority.

In any case, this step does not have to mark indefinitely your way of speaking, but as we have already mentioned, it is rather an aid to facilitate familiarization with the rest of the tips.

2. Avoid strange references

Often, communication problems arise because in order to express ourselves we use references unknown to the other person. we use references unknown to the other person. This happens especially when talking to people who do not belong to our closest social circle or who have a cultural background very different from ours.

The main problem is that in these situations the reference to a book or a movie, for example, does not even have to be understood as such. This creates very confusing situations in which the other person does not know exactly what has been said, or how to respond, since he or she has no clues to interpret our intentions in saying that, or even whether we have said what we meant or have had a confusion of words.

Therefore, it is advisable to be guided by the information we have about our interlocutor to estimate more or less which cultural fields he or she has more or less knowledge of and, from there, to use references, since we should not give up using this resource in our conversations (since they enrich the dialogues and make them stimulating).

In any case, however, we must pay attention to see, immediately after using them, whether or not they have been understood and, if not, to clarify what was meant by the other person's expression, clarify what was meant..

3. Check if you are projecting your voice well

In some cases, the problem when expressing yourself is simply because you speak very softly, and the others hardly hear you. This can be for several reasons, but the most common is shyness. Those who are very shy and worry about what other people will think about them, they try to "mask" their speech so that possible errors go unnoticed... at the price that everything they say goes unnoticed.

In this case, it is good both to combine voice projection exercises in front of a mirror, and to work on the more psychological part of shyness, either alone or with the help of psychologists.

4. Practice pronunciation

This tip is simple and complicated at the same time. If you want to speak clearly, you will have to internalize the pattern of Muscle movements that leads you to articulate words well, without mistakes. For that there is no choice but to practice, but pay attention to the mistakes and, instead of being ashamed of them, take them as a challenge and repeat what you have said againcorrectly this time.

Over time, the habit of paying attention to what the habit of paying attention to what one says makes it easier to prevent these mistakes before you make them by pronouncing sounds that don't play or changing words.

5. ...or get help

In case this type of problem becomes very complicated, it is worthwhile to consult speech therapists or professionals trained in the field of this type of training, although each one will offer you different guarantees based on their training experience. Choose depending on the type of problem you have detected when expressing yourself.It is not the same to have problems in pronunciation as in the relative disorganization of what is said.