alltoooooowell:

Read Taylor Swift’s Inspiring Speech for NYU’s Class of ‘22

Click to read Taylor’s speech

loves-the-game:

for anyone that missed taylor’s speech

truly one of my favorite resources. thinking of uploading much more from this text.

1. Know The Power Of Silence

Whenever you hear people speak, you hear music. Language is sound. And if you’ve ever heard a beautiful piano sonata or a violin concerto, a bad note in the middle of a stirring melody can really ruin the mood. The same goes for someone who says “uhhh, uhmmmm” before and after every sentence. These are people who are, in some sense, afraid of there being silence in the conversation.

The people who speak eloquently know the power of silence, and if forced to pause, use that silence to their advantage. Silence creates suspense, and can either be seen as “uncomfortable” or as an opportunity to make the next statement that much more poignant. There is power here, and the greatest speakers know how to use it to their advantage.

2. Eliminate uhm, uhh, etc. Replace with “Well; you see; now…”

Going off the above, people tend to stutter and fill silence when they are nervous, uncomfortable, don’t know what they’re talking about, etc. We all learned this in middle school. The fastest way to make your teacher believe you didn’t do the work was to stand there with your hands in your pockets saying “Uhhh….”

Whether or not you actually are nervous or if you have no idea what you’re talking about is besides the point. It’s what your audience BELIEVES that matters, and these things can be easily concealed with words like “Well; you see; now…”. Instead of saying “Uhm, I was thinking…” you say, “Well, I was thinking…” Very different sounding, yes? These little words, especially “Now” is a filler word that can help you extend silence if you need time to think. Take a moment to pause, say “Now…” pause again, and then move on with what you were going to say. That’s 2 whole seconds you get to formulate your next thoughts.

3. Jargon Isn’t Impressive

The best talkers leave the jargon at home. Want to know the difference between a new salesman and a seasoned salesman? The new salesman leaves you confused, the seasoned salesman makes you feel like you are more educated than you think.

Jargon is pointless. It’s meant for people at your office, people you work with, to get more done faster. It’s not intended to be flashed around to make people feel impressed. It usually doesn’t impress them. It just makes them confused and feel left out of what the conversation really should be about, which is how to provide value, or an emotional component that is easier to relate to. Think more poetry, less endless prose.

4. Eliminate Curses

The sophisticated don’t use words like fuck, shit, ass, bitch, etc. They just don’t. I myself have a sailer’s mouth, but I also know there’s a time and place for it. The fastest way to earning the trust and respect of those around you is to speak well, and that means eliminating the “gutter” words.

5. Be Descriptive and To The Point

Somewhat in line with jargon usage, get to the point and don’t talk around it. There’s no point. Nobody wants to sit through your stream of consciousness. Say what you mean to say in the least amount of words, and then when you get to the meat of what you’re saying, describe it in such detail that the person you’re talking to can envision it with perfect clarity.

Details are everything. They’re what wet our senses and are ultimately what draw us in. It’s the reason why some people are terrific storytellers and others put you to sleep. This is not to be confused with saying “a lot.” It’s not about length. It’s about saying what you mean to say, and saying it well.

[online source] 

the power of speech has really been on my mind lately. so this is one of several pieces on communication that that ive come across & i’m hoping to find many more of. please join the conversation by sharing any tips you may posses!

Ed Winters: The hidden costs of our food choices

Bring on the Night, 7.10

Superb speech!

officialqueer:

lianabrooks:

hellishues:

saltenecker:

someone in a fanfic: s-stutters in embarrassment

me, closing the tab: sorry I must go

Unrealistic Stuttering: “S-sorry I-I d-d-didn’t m-mean t-to…”

Realistic Stuttering: “Sorry, I uh… I didn’t mean- I didn’t mean to do that…”

When people stutter, they usually reword what they’re saying as they speak, and subconsciously insert “filler words” such as “uh, like, you know,” and etc.

*puts on speech therapist hat*

ACTUALLY! It depends on why they are stuttering. 

A Nervous Stutter results in what is called Mazing, or rewording the sentence. That is the classic “I, um… well I… look it’s just that… so we…” that @hellishhues is talking about. When someone is mazing their words you’re seeing a form of Speech Apraxia where the brain is having trouble forming verbal speech. This can be brought on by brain damage, memory loss, anxiety, nerves, and several other things. 

The root cause of a nervous stutter is a disconnect between the mouth and the brain. 

With this you will also sometimes see the classic “S-s-s-sorry…” especially if the person has been training to speak clearly and is now at a point of fatigue or stress where they are not mentally capable of forming the words.

The other kind of stutter is a Physical Stutter, sometimes referred to as slurring, and another facet of Speech Apraxia. This stutter is caused when the muscles of the mouth, tongue, and throat are physically unable to form certain sounds. This is most often seen in the very young and victims of brain trauma. 

Sounds are acquired at different ages, so a 2-year-old will probably not be able to clearly pronounce certain words (which is why toddler sound so off when they’re written with developed dialogue). These mis-pronunciations are sometimes referred to as lisping, but only if the sounds are run together. If the person starts and restarts the sound because they got it wrong, it can also sound like the classic sound stutter. 

But it all depends on why the character is stuttering!

Do they have Speech Apraxia, Audio Processing Disorder, muscle dysfunction, or another medical reason to stutter? (1)

Are they stuttering because of anxiety, stress, or fatigue? (2)

Does the stutter stem from intoxication or blood loss? (3)

All of those will sound different! 

1 - Will have mazing, repeated sound stutters, and be the classic stutter that annoys OP.

2 - This is where you’ll see the repetition stutter, mazing, rephrasing, and filler words.

3 - This is where you are more likely to see starts and stops and slurring of words. 

My mum has apraxia and I just wanted to say that’s one of the most concise and clear ways I’ve seen it explained, thank you!

The tiny child’s eyes, yet to find their colour, peered out of his scarlet, Claymation face as they laid him in the cot.

Bunny said to Libby, ‘I don’t know what to say to him.’

‘It doesn’t really matter, Bun. He is three days old.’

‘Yeah, I guess.’

‘Tell him he’s beautiful,’ said Libby.

‘But he’s not. He looked like somebody stepped on him.’

‘Well, tell him that then,’ she said. ‘Only, in a nice voice.’

Nick Cave, The Death of Bunny Munro (Canongate Books, 2009)

who is amegaotaku and why are they apparently a freak…

I have a speech disorder called cluttering. I was diagnosed with it in college by a speech pathologist that my supervisor recommended for me. Basically cluttering is a speech disorder that causes your brain to struggle to process too much information at the same time and when you speak, your speech has a difficult time keeping up with your thoughts causing you to speak too rapidly and sometimes, wind up tripping over your own words. It’s often confused with stuttering. 

What having a cluttering disorder is like (or at least for me):

- When I speak, I have a very difficult time controlling the rate of my speech. I speak waaay too fast sometimes 90% of the time people can’t understand what I’m saying. So I often have to repeat myself several times. 

-I dread public speaking and speaking to people so badly that I often try to avoid having to speak to people in general unless I really have to. It also doesn’t help that I’m introverted. So I’m usually very quiet unless I’m around people who I feel comfortable being around or if I’m really happy. This is pretty bad because I started teaching an after-school illustration class to middle-school students this year and I always worry that the kids aren’t going to be able to understand me and they’ve already noticed that I speak very fast and they ask me about it. But I have a really hard time speaking the words “I have a speech disorder” so I don’t usually tell them about it. Which leads to my next point…

-There are so many words that I can’t say properly without tripping over my words. Like for example, here’s a list of some words and phrases that I have trouble saying:

1) What does it look like?

2) Particular

3) Participate 

4) Specific and other words that start with “sp” 

5) Comfortable 

6) Sometimes (when saying it at the end of a sentence)

7) Say that again

-Since I have so many things running through my mind at once, I often struggle with multitasking when I’m dealing with people. I have no problem writing, listening to a YouTube video and watching TV at the same time and being able to pay attention to everything I’m doing but if I have to perform a task while speaking to someone, my brain starts short-circuiting. I can’t comprehend what they are saying. I’ve noticed this for a while but just recalled while my girlfriend was speaking to me as I was writing this. 

-Whenever I speak, I wind up having to correct myself mid-sentence because I know that what I’m saying doesn’t sound right or that the person that I’m speaking to isn’t going to be able to understand me. 

-Whenever I’m angry or upset, my speech is at its worst. My speech becomes incoherent, I jumble my words too much and I have to wait until I calm down before I speak. 

-I say “um” way too much when I speak because I am trying to catch myself before my speech falters and to give myself time to process my thoughts before I speak. 

-I often slur my words together and when I hear what I say after I’ve said it, more than half the time, I ask myself “what the hell did I just say??”

-I have a problem breathing when I speak sometimes because speaking is physically and mentally draining for me. It’s really embarrassing because I’ll be trying to say one sentence and I can’t get out what I’m trying to say because I have to take a deep breath.

-I constantly dread going to my teaching job on Thursdays and Fridays because I have to get up in front of a group of kids, present a lesson, speak to them about their work, ask them questions and explain other things to them. I also have to communicate with my supervisors in person which is something I don’t do at my other job. We mainly communicate through email because my worksite is separate from the main site. But with my 2nd job, if I have to speak to my supervisors, I mostly have to speak to them in person. 

-Ihate speaking on the phone. The only people I feel comfortable speaking to on the phone are my mom, girlfriend and a few close friends. And this is terrible because I’ve missed networking events and opportunities to collaborate with people and have gallery shows because I was too afraid to call people. 

-Working retail was a nightmare because it involved so much speaking and communicating with people. I always volunteered to work on the register (even though I hated cashiering) so that I could avoid being on the sales floor longer than I needed to and have to help customers. Dealing with one person at a time at the register was a lot easier than dealing a million people coming up to me at once all asking for help. Since then, I’ve avoiding applying for retail/customer service related jobs like the plague. 

-I’m constantly angry and frustrated because I know that my speech disorder limits me from doing a lot of things like have a conversation with a person I’ve never met, public speaking and expressing my thoughts. It makes me feel as though I can’t function as a human being. 

I don’t know how common this speech disorder is now. I’ve seen some videos on YouTube and it made me feel a little better knowing that there are other people out there who have my speech disorder and that I’m not alone. So please, reblog this if you have a speech disorder and can relate. Also, below are videos of myself speaking about my disorder. 

A Brief on Tea*

A Brief on Tea*

How many of you drink tea?

According to the Tea Association of the USA, tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world after water. It is estimated that every day about half of the American population, or about 160 million people, is drinking tea. In order to understand why tea is so popular, we will look into the history, variations, and benefits of tea.

Photo by WELLSTUDIO on…

View On WordPress