Today I'm sharing three strategies that you can use to help you express your thoughts much better in English. All right, let's get into it.

So the very first thing I want you to think about is don't worry if you have an accent having an accent is not a big deal. In fact, it's something that you should be proud of because it shows that you know how to speak more than one language, and that is a huge accomplishment in and of itself. So be proud of that.

Don't feel nervous about having an accent. The goal is to be able to communicate as clearly and effectively as you can, and that's what we call in linguistics intelligibility. The idea of being able to be easily understood by people who are engaging with you in conversation. It doesn't have anything to do with intelligence, even though it sounds like it could, but intelligibility is essentially being easily understood.

Okay, so with that little preamble, let's get into the strategies. The first one is keep your points to three. Don't give more than three points in any conversation because that is just too much for someone's brain to handle, in most cases. What ends up happening is short-term memory starts to get a little iffy when someone brings up three to five points.

And beyond that, it'll be unmanageable. So just think about that, right? We all have so many things we're thinking about constantly. We're bombarded with messages and emails and posts and texts, and social media is its own other thing. But the point is that we want to keep our points in conversation to a maximum of three.

Three is generally a good number to go by. One point may be too few. Two is somewhere in the middle. Three is just right. So when you're having a conversation with someone, what are the three points that you'd like to make? Now, there could be one main point with two sort of supporting points, if you will, and that's fine.

That will count as three points, but you don't want to go beyond three because like I said, people's short-term memory can start to go into overdrive, and that'll just be too harsh on their software. Okay? So that's the first thing that you can do. 

The second thing you can do is to explain something in three different ways. So you might resort to showing a picture of something or drawing something out, or playing a clip of something, some audio clip or a clip of a video or movie. To explain something, you can also use that kind of medium, and you can also do this by paraphrasing or by using poetic devices such as metaphors or similes.

And the idea is that this way you can help someone really internalize the concept that you are sharing with them. And keeping in mind everyone's different learning styles and different types of intelligences, because according to the multiple intelligence theory by Howard Gardner, people have different intellectual capacities and intelligences.

So intellectual capacities and different types of intelligences. So this could be musical intelligence, spatial intelligence, number related intelligence, word related intelligence, and so on and so forth. And so when you are explaining something in three different ways, that allows you to access different intelligences. 

Separately from the multiple intelligence theory that we want to respect and honor is the idea of different communication styles. There are three main types of communication styles, and not in the way you're speaking necessarily, but just in the way you communicate more broadly. So those are visual communication styles, kinesthetic communication styles so these people are very gesture oriented, they gesticulate, they explain using movement essentially, and also tend to speak slower paced. And then we have auditory. So these are people for whom tone is very important. Music is very important. So really tapping into the different types of communicators that are out there.

And we all have these three, but one is at the forefront. So one is dominant and then there's a secondary. So the second most, and then there's a tertiary one, which is the third most important, right? Because there's only three. Anyway. So what is their first sort of predominant communication style? And we can get into a whole separate lesson about how to figure that out, but to keep this video contained to the topic of being able to express yourself as clearly as possible.

I do want you to start paying attention to the multiple intelligences as well as the communication styles so that you can better communicate with people and express your thoughts in a way that they are going to understand them. So if someone is very much a visual person, you might use very descriptive language. You might draw something out for them. You might show an example on your phone of what you're talking about. You might send them a video clip of something so this way you can really harness those qualities in people and help connect them to your message. And this way you're communicating as clearly as you possibly can, and they also understand what kind of meaning you're evoking, what kind of message you're sharing.

And lastly, strategy number three. Don't be afraid of repetition. My rhetoric and communication professor way back in college used to tell us repetition is the soul of truth. And that really stuck with me. That was something that I still remember to this day, and I don't think I even ever wrote that down, but he would say it so often, so frequently that it really just stuck in my brain.

So it's this idea that the more you repeat something, and this also goes for habits that we repeat, right? Our lives are comprised of habits, things we do every day, working out, practicing and studying a skill, communicating in a way that is honoring your life's purpose and your authenticity. Whatever your habits are, they're going to make up your life essentially. So with this idea of repetition, sometimes with communication, you need to say something more than once. 

Now, this is not to say that you just repeat the same phrase over and over again unless there are certain cases for that where you really want to drive home certain statistics, or maybe you have an idiom that you want to share or a quote that you want people to remember.

But generally speaking, you can repeat something in a way that doesn't actually repeat the same words, but it repeats the message. So how can you repeat the message and tweak it a little bit, change it ever so slightly so that you're not just saying the same exact sentence three times in that conversation, but rather you are really honing in on that message. What do you want to communicate? What do you want to express. What thoughts are you trying to share with someone clearly? And then think about three ways of repeating that message. And again, we don't want to just repeat the same words, but we want to repeat the message. So this will require you to do a little bit of thinking, and that's okay.

Be creative, but really think about what is the essence of what I want to convey, what I want to share and then find three ways right, of being able to express those thoughts.

All right, so I hope that you remember these strategies. Use them the next time you want to effectively communicate and you want to convey an important message to people regardless of different cultural backgrounds, different linguistic backgrounds. Find that human connection and don't be afraid or self-conscious of your English or your accent.

Distill the message into its most essential, its most important aspects. Make sure that you don't bombard your communication partner with more than three points. Keep it to three. Find three ways of explaining it by leveraging the multiple intelligences theory as well as the different communication styles so that people really understand your points.

And then lastly, find three ways of repeating it, but not repeating it with just the same words, rather repeating the message. So that people really remember and that your message sticks with them for the rest of the day, for the rest of the week, for the rest of time. 

All right, so that's it for me today, advanced English learners. Let me know how you get on with these strategies. Try them out. Challenge yourself. Get out of your comfort zone and remember, confidence will follow from the actions. So take those actions, feel confident in those actions, and you'll feel much more confident overall. But confidence won't just come out of thin air. We have to work for it and toward it. So just remember that. Alright, so if you enjoy this, definitely show it some love, share the podcast, share the channel as well, and share our blog. So you can just go to advancedenglish.co.

We really appreciate the support. It helps keep the channel running. It helps keep the podcast running and I look forward to sharing another video very soon. Alright, bye for now and happy advanced English Learning everyone.

About the Author and the Explearning Academy:

Mary Daphne is an expert in communication, executive skills and professional development. She is the founder of the Explearning Academy, a platform dedicated to helping individuals enhance their social fluency, boost their careers, and elevate their social game. Through immersive group coaching programs like the Executive Communication Lab and self-guided journeys, participants gain the social superpowers and career catapults they've been searching for. If you're ready to take your negotiation skills to the next level and connect with like-minded individuals, visit academy.explearning.co and explore the various plans available. Join the Explearning Academy community and unlock your full potential.

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