Languages
Sounding like yourself in another language
People frequently report having a different personality in a second language, and the reasons are more practical than mystical.
Rafael Duarte
17 articles by Duarte
Voice & Accent
Silence and what it does
The pause is the most powerful device available to a speaker and the one people are least willing to use.
Voice & Accent
What your voice tells people
Listeners form fast judgements from voice alone, and knowing which features drive them is more useful than pretending they do not.
Voice & Accent
Your voice as you get older
Voices change with age in predictable ways, and much of what is assumed inevitable is not.
Voice & Accent
Nerves and the body
The physical symptoms of speaking anxiety have specific causes and specific countermeasures.
Voice & Accent
Sounding confident when you are not
Perceived confidence is produced by a handful of specific behaviours, and they can be adopted without deceiving anyone.
Voice & Accent
Volume, projection and being heard
Being told to speak up is common advice and it produces shouting, which is a different thing from projection.
Writing
Writing for the ear
Scripts, speeches and audio need different sentences from anything meant to be read, and the differences are specific.
Voice & Accent
Reading aloud well
Reading written text aloud is a distinct skill, and the flatness most people produce has identifiable causes.
Storytelling
Detail and how much to include
One specific detail makes a story vivid and four make it tedious, and the difference is what the detail is doing.
Voice & Accent
Filler words and what to do about them
The advice to eliminate them is mostly wrong, and the useful version is more specific.
Voice & Accent
Warming up your voice
Ten minutes before speaking changes the sound substantially, and almost nobody outside performance does it.
Storytelling
Humour that works
Being funny on purpose is a craft with rules, and most of them are about structure rather than material.
Voice & Accent
Speaking on recordings and calls
The medium removes most of the signals you rely on, which changes what the voice has to do.
Voice & Accent
Accent, clarity and being understood
Intelligibility and accent are different things, and the advice to lose an accent is generally both unnecessary and unhelpful.
Voice & Accent
Pace, pausing and being understood
Speaking too fast is the most common problem and the least noticed by the speaker.
Voice & Accent
Breathing and how it changes your voice
Almost every vocal problem in speaking traces back to how the speaker is breathing.