Worried You Might Mumble? Here’s How to Speak Clearly
I’m glad so much of our communication these days is electronic, because on the phone, too many people mumble. It happened again a few days ago. I got a phone message from someone whose first and last names together seemed to occupy but a single syllable. I listened to the message several times, but I couldn’t even tell where his first name left off and his last name began. When I called back and learned his name, it turned out to be not at all like what it sounded like.
But it’s not just on the phone that people mumble. Examples of mumbling are everywhere, almost as if (as Dilbert reminds us) mumbling is a language. At a restaurant recently, the waiter described the dinner specials. His accent was delightful; it was also difficult to understand. Not wanting to dine on Dinner Surprise, I ordered from the menu. Maybe the waiter was nervous or afraid of saying the wrong thing, two of the reasons people mumble. Still, wouldn’t the restaurant have succeeded in selling more specials if people could understand what they were?
Other reasons people mumble include not wanting to be heard or being distracted while speaking. And some people mumble as a result of attempting to speak too quickly or too softly. But many mumblers, I believe, just don’t realize they sound like the interviewer in this humorous video. So, it may be useful to notice instances in which you have difficulty understanding someone else’s spoken message and use these situations to question whether you, too, could be a mumbler.
If you’re not sure whether you mumble, you can record yourself reading some text out loud and play it back. If you constantly have to say “Huh?” as you listen to yourself, you have your answer. Recording yourself reading out loud is also a way to practice speaking more articulately. Slowing down as you speak is also a good idea. If you think about speaking each word clearly as you say it, you stand a better chance of having it heard correctly; this is a good idea even if you already speak clearly.
Mumbling is one of those behaviors that conveys a lack of self-confidence. If you speak in a clear, authoritative voice, you sound confident, even if you’re not. In less than six minutes, the exercises in this video can help you become a confident non-mumbler.
