How to Improve your speech, fast! You can incorporate a new vocabulary!

The way we speak, the words we choose, and the things we talk about have a profound effect on how others think of us. The feeling of getting blown away in a conversation is never fun. But what if you could feel good about yourself in public and in social situations instead of feeling like a loser. Knowing the right thing to say can sometimes get you out of sticky situations. You can impress an interviewer with your eloquence and thoughtfulness, escape the police when you are clearly intoxicated, or even win a four hour game of monopoly. Speech effects the way we think about ourselves too. Self talk can make or break you. The way we speak can both help and hinder us in the way we make new friends. Improving the way you talk will improve the way you interact; with your boss, your co-workers, friends, family, and your significant others.

• Listen
• Watch TV, watch movies, read (books, magazines, articles, journals)
• Pay attention to who you are talking to and what you are talking about
• Stay up on current events and pop culture
• Incorporate new words into your repertoire
• Eliminate words from your vocabulary
• Add some spice and personality
• Don't give up!

Listen to what is around you. As you are starting out, take some time and really hear the conversations around you. How are people talking? What are they saying - what are they actually saying? What kind of things are they talking about?

How do you react to what others are saying? Look for words and phrases that you like or don't know. Also, look for words and phrases that you don't like or words that are over used. Look out for "place filler" words: words that exist to hold the place of a different word. Keeping a list can help you remember these words and phrases later in the process.

Consider the way you use language. How are you communicating? Carefully observe your speaking habits, look your body language. Are you accurately communicating your thoughts verbally and physically. Evaluate what you like and don't like about your speech pattern and the patterns of others. Look out how language is used in different situations. What kind of words do you use at work, in class, with friends, with your family. Try and see yourself from the perspective of others. How do you sound to other people?

Take a look at the way you write as well. Writing is an important tool in communication. Writing puts abstract thoughts into a more tangible form.

Now, we'll put our observations and evaluations together. Writing down your impressions here will be helpful later. Next, you'll take all your observations from listening and observing and start building your new vocabulary!

By now you should have a solid idea about what you like and don't like about language. Keep this in the back of your mind for the moment. We are going to expand the first step into the wonderful world of media. Media is all around us, we get a daily dose of media in many varying forms. With the internet we can access programs, movies, articles, and books from all over the world.

This is a fantastic reference for changing the way you speak. You can hear the vernacular used in different populations. Ever watch a British TV show? The words they choose our very different than the ones we'd choose in a simillar conversation. Listen to this, surround yourself with media. Reading books with help you increase your vocabulary. TV and movies are a fantastic chance for you to here the sentences are structured and the common vernacular of our culture.

When exploring language in media, again, pick out what you think will and won't work for you. Listen for words and phrases that bother you or that you admire.

Now here's the fun part! By now you should know how you would like to sound and now its time to master the words your going to use everyday. Don't worry this doesn't involve reading the dictionary. But be sure that you know what the words you are using mean and that you are using them correctly. Find some new words that you like and start incorporating them into your vocabulary.

Now that you have some new words in your vocabulary it's time to delete the old and over used words. Limit the amount of "space filler" words such as like. Get ride of any words you don't want to use anymore. The goal is to stop using words and phrases that don't match up with the way you are trying to sound.

Slang, the ever changing vernacular of culture. Everyone uses slang, frankly it's unavoidable. Be sure to use slang wisely and appropriately. Cursing like a sailor, or even cursing at all, is not appropriate in many social situations. Properly used slang and curse words add spice and personality to your vocabulary!