Why is the Mastery of English Important?
Being the most commonly used language around the world, English is an essential skill for everyone – from students to professionals. This is particularly important in the workplace where you need to talk to clients, present your work to higher-ups, and communicate well with your colleagues.
If you want to be commended for your efforts and ensure that your point will be delivered across, you must have good communication skills and an excellent command of English. It will definitely boost your confidence if you are able to express yourself in a clear manner.
5 Tips on How to Reduce Your Accent to Sound Like a Native Speaker
Having an accent is not a bad thing; one should not be ashamed of it. A person’s accent represents his or her background and culture. Lots of people take pride in their accent as it reveals their cultural heritage. Even English native speakers have their own accents such as American-English, British-English or Australian-English. However, this sometimes causes difficulty in understanding so some people are embarrassed by their own accent in English Speaking. It turns out that having a residual accent might affect self-confidence in communication and interaction.
There are some techniques that non-native English speakers can use to reduce their accent in speaking.
- Slow down and clearly pronounce words
People tend to speak fast when they are excited or nervous. If you have an accent, try to speak slowly and clearly pronounce words so that everyone can understand what you want to say.
- Feel the rhythm while speaking English
English is considered “stressed language” as every single word have its own stress, differently on verbs, words and adjectives. Same to sentence. People said that sentence stress gives English a rhythm or beat.
- Listen and Talk to native speakers
Listen and repeat to sentences spoken by native speakers until you can naturally speak those sentences. Try to speak to the native speakers as many as possible. You need to overcome your in-confidence and speak to the native speakers. It might make you feel embarrassed at first but failure creates success. People also tend to imitate others whom they frequently interact with. Therefore, the more you talk to the native speakers, the more you could improve.
- Record yourself
Don’t learn from others only, learn from yourself. Take your time to record your speaking and listen again to identify your weaknesses. Recording will also make you proud of yourself in how clarity in your pronunciation has progressed.
- Take a class or tutor
Consider working with an experienced tutor or teacher to help you with pronunciation, intonation and even vocabulary. An ESL teacher will have his/her strategy to quickly help you with your accent. Joining a class might also motivate you as you have partners in your accent reduction journey.
English Pronunciation: Compound Adjectives
A compound adjective is a fixed expression which is made up of more than one word and which has the function of an adjective. Most compound adjectives are written with a hyphen, but a few are written as one word:
skin-deep long-term threadbare
The following types of compound adjective usually have main stress on the first part:
- compound adjectives usually written as one word
- ‘ airtight ‘ carefree ‘ praise , worthy
- Exceptions: , nation ‘ wide, , hand ‘ made
- noun + -ing form
- ‘ hair- , raising ‘ fee- , paying ‘ time-con,suming
- noun + past participle
- ‘ poverty- , stricken ‘ pear-shaped ‘ health-re,lated
- Exceptions: , eagle- ‘ eyed, , home- ‘ grown
The following types of compound adjective usually have main stress on the second part:
- noun + adjective
- , fat- ‘ free , sky- ‘ high , snow- ‘ white
- Exception: ‘ camera-shy
- adjective + noun
- , long – ‘ term , full – ‘ length , high – ‘ profile
- adverb or adjective + past participle
- , fully- ‘ grown , long- ‘ sighted , well – ‘ dressed
- adverb or adjective + -ing form
- , easy- ‘ going , hard – ‘ working , well – ‘ meaning
- Exceptions: ‘ backward – , look ing, ‘ forward- , looking
- self- as the first part
- , self- ‘ confident , self-in ‘ flicted , self- ‘ governing
Most compound adjectives with main stress on the second part can have stress shift. Compare:
- The tiger was fully-GROWN. but: It was a FULly-grown TIger.
- The prices were sky-HIGH. but: They were SKY-high PRIces.
5 Reasons Why Good English is Essential in Business!
English is the language of communication: English is the most widely spoken language in the world with over 1 billion people using it as a foreign language.
English spoken in business is different from English spoken in daily lives, as certain industries have certain vocabulary or jargon. For example, English vocabulary is different in business administration, finance, law or retail.
Mastery of English is beneficial even though you are working in your home country. Many businesses are international in scope and English is official language in the company.
Better job opportunities: if you work in English-speaking countries, English is a must. In non-English-speaking countries, it would be another skill that you can add to your resume and would boost your chances of job promotion.
More confidence in working: Business English with Sydney Language Solutions will improve your confidence in presentation, negotiation, conversation, better comprehension and pronunciation in Business context. All of these will boost your confidence in conducting Business in English.
The Importance of Business English
Language is a major part of business. If you want to succeed in it, you don’t just need facts, figures, numbers and the ability to type. You need to know how to master the language for several reasons.
- You want people to be interested in the things you say. Whether it’s a proposal, a suggestions, an answer, an explanation, a solution, or an offer, people should want to hear it. If they are interested in what you say, you will be able to promote your product or service a lot more efficiently.
- Editing is vital. You want to avoid to repetition and overuse of words. Redundant and excessive words make people bored and disinterested. It makes you look uncreative, and readers may miss the special points in your documents.
- You want to be able to negotiate in a manner that successfully convinces your client to join. You don’t want to sound rehearsed, that makes you look like you have no idea. You don’t want to be forceful or rude, that deters people and gives you a bad reputation.
- You should be able to resolve conflicts. You never know when you will be needed. It’s like being near the emergency exit on a plane. It may not always be needed but there might be a time when it’s necessary. Everyone knows conflict is bad for business.
- Adaptation is a useful ability. One size does not fit all. Not all audiences want the same thing in a report or proposal, even it’s about the same product. You may need to tailor your text to the individual needs of the client.
- There are many types of business texts; letters, e-mails, faxes and memos. They may be about similar subjects, but they written in different styles. You may have to read them, you may have to type them, you may have to do both. You never know how many you’ll get. It’s good to be prepared.
- Reports are always a big part of business. If you continually write good reports, your promotion and par raise chances could go up. This skill can also help you convey information accurately and coherently.
- Minutes and briefing notes are another important part of business. You might need to refer to them or compose them at some time. Briefing notes help a meeting run smoothly, minutes may be needed in the future. Whether you have to read them or create them, your ability to compose and decipher them will help you. You may need to refer to them in a legal dispute or a financial disagreement.
- E-mail etiquette is another important aspect of business life. You want people to respect you in the things you do. The way you type to people shows whether you value your work and the recipient of the e-mail. You don’t to appear as flippant or overly casual, you want to show you’re serious and creative.
- You want to know the kind of people you’re working with. Hopefully, if you know what makes respectful English, you’ll know when it’s not being used. You could find out if people are indifferent about a project, if they treat a report as a social occasion.
Business English is very to help you get ahead, cope and navigate.
Ways to improve your English conversation skills
Write your own blog
You may not know that writing is actually a good way to improve your vocabulary. When you want to describe something but get stuck, you will have to look at the dictionary. By writing your own blog, after a period of time, you will be surprised in the way you can express your idea in a conversation.
A meet up group
Join an English conversation “meet up” group to meet with people who want to practise their English speaking skills and you certainly will learn a lot from each other.
Sing karaoke
Learning through singing is such an effective way to improve your pronunciation and confidence. Why not surprise your friends in a party night singing your most favourite song?
Take an English conversation course
It is a good way to start, if you have no idea at all. The tutor in the class will guide you on what to do and correct your individual common mistakes. Later on, you can learn by yourself easily.
Think in English
Try to force yourself to think in English but not your own native language. It will likely be hard initially, but this will be a great way to learn more things around you which you didn’t really actually think of in the past. Later on, you will find more things to say when you speak in English
Pick up your favourite movies
Watching movies in the English language with English subtitles may help you to understand the movie and help you to know how people actually converse in real life. We always learn from something and someone, so this is one of the many ways.
Vocabulary list
Building up your own vocab list will help you a lot in the long run. Don’t forget to go through the list whenever you have spare time. Make the most of your smart phone, iphone and iPad apps such as note taking app, and to do list.
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