Once again, I am the speech coach who has run into a very accomplished person who mumbles. He’s on the fast track at a major American corporation, and his boss has gotten word that senior people can’t understand him when he presents.
Receptive to help and concerned about the consequences of this life-long habit, he is struggling to be mindful of his speech. Since the physical process of speaking is something we all do without conscious thought, the effort to be aware of the placement of his tongue and lips is a challenge.
He’s getting there. He’s louder than he was, which is great, and he’s keeping his voice up all the way to the ends of his sentences, but he still needs to slow down and land on every vowel and consonant. He tends to zip through syllables. For instance, for constitutional he says cons-too-tional, leaving out that middle ti syllable.
When these mistakes pile up during a high stakes presentation, it makes him appear nervous, and makes him harder to understand.
Smart guy. He shouldn’t be held back by something mechanical like not knowing where to place his tongue and lips when speaking plain old English. Of course it’s nothing that voice and speech training can’t fix.
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