Speaking

Questions

1. How much do you speak during the day?
2. Do you need to speak a lot in your work?
3. Do you talk a lot with your friends?
4. How often do you speak with your family?
5. Are you comfortable speaking in public?
6. How important is speaking well to you?
7. Would you like to speak more or less?
8. What do you like speaking about the most?

Videos

When your job hinges on how well you talk to people, you learn a lot about how to have conversations — and that most of us don’t converse very well. Celeste Headlee has worked as a radio host for decades, and she

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knows the ingredients of a great conversation: Honesty, brevity, clarity and a healthy amount of listening. In this insightful talk, she shares 10 useful rules for having better conversations. “Go out, talk to people, listen to people,” she says. “And, most importantly, be prepared to be amazed.”

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Category:  Psychology
Keywords: Rules | Speaking | Words

The development of agriculture was a huge game changer for human beings and it may have even changed the way we speak.

Keywords: Change | Farming | Language | Speaking
Pop quiz. Try pronouncing the following. Ready? Go. Elucubrate. Smaragdine. Scherenschnitte. Head scratchers, huh? Not for Jacques Bailly. As the official pronouncer of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, he can tackle

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any word thrown at him. He started his wordsmith career as the 1980 spelling bee champion. These days, Jacques feels the heat of etymological battle from the other side of the mic.

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Category:  Education & Language
One of the reasons many of us find social encounters difficult is that they force into that particular conversational byway called small-talk – where we have to pay a lot of attention to the weather and the upcoming holidays.

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But what is small talk, why does it exist and how can we learn to navigate it more fruitfully?

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Category:  Psychology
Vox

Monkeys are our closest biological relatives, and they can’t speak. But parrots don’t seem to have a problem at all.

Keywords: Birds | Discussions | Speaking

Vocabulary:
cove
secluded
float
shore
anchor
lighthouse
greenhouse
handsaw
hammer
power tool
nail
board (noun)
ton
land sick
biomass
canoe
paddle
real estate
prosper
fulfilled

Expressions:
subsistence living
hon

Vocabulary:
word
word
word
word
word
word
word
word
word

Expressions:
expression
expression
expression
expression

Vocabulary:
prestigious
involuntary
swindler
fraudulence
unwarranted
concern
unfounded
impostor
syndrome
faculty
pervasive
prevalent
disproportionately
underrepresented
downplay
abnormality
self-esteem
spiral
accolade
threshold
susceptible
voice (verb)
peer
dismiss
excel
ease
mentor
competence
banish
frank

Expressions:
nagging doubt
shake a feeling
put something to rest
surefire way

Vocabulary:
filmmaker
principle
handcuff
clown
distill
underdog
aspect
familiar
unfamiliar
chopsticks
keyboard
organic
grounded
clarity
stuntman
steady
gag
perfectionist
rhythm
distinct
continuity
elbow
bunch
flail around
unlike
invincible
impressive
humanize
asset
payoff
relentlessness
finale

Expressions:
kick ass
going above and beyond
get smacked in the face
sell a joke

Vocabulary:
explosion
smoke (noun)
engine
unique
pilot
route
unemotional
terror
instant
reach out (to someone)
postpone
urgency
purpose
regret
humanity
ego
reflect
eliminate
frame (verb)
artistic
talent
bawl
miracle

Expressions:
bucket list
brace for impact
mend fences
make sense
connecting dots