Communication tip

Hello, Friends.

My apologies. The communication tip didn’t post in its entirety, so here it is.

Why is it that people don’t understand one word and you know you are pronouncing it in perfect broadcaster English?

This is an interesting conundrum. You work to have good pronunciation and then you are misunderstood or not understood. What is both irritating and amusing is that the more you repeat your perfect word (as a vocabulary word and as a pronounced word), the less confident you feel about it and your language skills in general. The good news is that this happens no matter what language you speak. This happens in your home language or if you only speak one language and no one expects another language from you (like when kids don’t understand what you are telling them and you taught them the language and they have been listening to you all their lives! Really, guys?)

There are two reasons why this can happens and both come from the expectation of the listener and not your ability. One is that is that you have an accent surrounding your word and when you say a word with perfect broadcaster pronunciation people don’t expect to hear that word pronounced that way.  The second is that the listener didn’t expect you to say that word to begin with and has to take some time to process and recognize the word. An easy fix is to spell the word and then triumphantly pronounce it perfectly once again. An alternative is to come up with a synonym (word that means the same thing) and then repeat your perfect word. Finally, give your listener a little time to hear and process what you said.

Remember that language is a communication tool and it takes a good speaker and a good listener to make it work perfectly every time.

My apologies: you can say this instead of I’m sorry. Often people will continue with an explanation.
entirety: completely, the whole thing
conundrum: a problem that doesn’t make sense
irritating: annoying
amusing: humorous
In general: not specifically, typically
Really , guys? an expression of disbelief
triumphantly: for the win!
to begin with: a midwestern add on statement that emphasizes the previous idea