Ushering in the 2024 Year. Did you accomplish your communication goals?

As I reflect on the year, the things I accomplished and the things I failed to accomplish, I have a hard time reflecting positively on my successes. I have a hard time sitting down and saying that I

accomplished something because I am constantly comparing myself with what I think i should’ve done.

Of course I should’ve been able to learn how to pronounce that word, I should’ve been able to learn more words and more pronunciations.

I think many clients and many English pronunciation learners are similar. And I urge you to actually sit down and reflect on the words you have learned, on the skills you have adapted, and reflect on

how far you have come on this pronunciation journey. Because it is certainly not easy, and you certainly need to celebrate your accomplishments.

When you practice your English pronunciation skills, you are ultimately trying to reconnect and relearn how to use your lips and mouth. You are trying to basically use the same equipment and tools -

your lips, tongue, and mouth shape, but for a different skill.

Let’s imagine every day you use a hammer. And you use a hammer to hammer in nails. Then one day, someone tells you that in this country, you use the hammer to instead make holes in the wall.

Both uses are “correct”. But if you’ve never used a hammer to make holes in the wall, then you have to learn to have a different perspective, have the ability to switch from hammering nails to making

holes and feel comfortable switching between those two use cases now. You’ve got to retrain your first reaction depending on who you are working with.

This is what you are doing with English pronunciation. Your mouth shape, the rules of the language, and your eventual pronunciation change depending on who you are speaking with and if you’ve

spent your entire life hammering nails, then it can be a challenge to rewrite these habits and rewire your thinking.

So bottom line - celebrate when you’ve successfully accomplished it.

1 year ago, I couldn’t say the word _______________ like a native English speaker.

1 year ago, I used to say ____________ when I meant to say ___________.

1 year ago, I would always mix up _________ and _________.

This year, I learned a good tip on how to accurately and reliably make the _____ sound. It rhymes with ___________.

Being able to reflect and recognize the things you have accomplished and the connections that you’ve made to make your English communication more effective is important. It is important to

remember those moments that you confidently and clearly communicated your ideas.

Whether that is successfully ordering your meal at a restaurant without needing to repeat yourself.

Whether that’s saying a technical word or communicating clearly and confidently during a work presentation to stakeholders.

Whether that’s effectively expressing your emotions clearly to a loved one or family member and doing so calmly and clearly without needing to rely on your native language.

Communication is an integral part of being human and celebrating your successes in communicating are huge. We take it all for granted so easily because it’s expected to be a no-brainer, easy

accomplishment.

And yet, only the greatest of the greatest recognize the power that is effective communication. Only the CEOs, the high salary earners, the movement makers and culture-impacting people who can

communicate well that recognize the power and responsibility that effective communication brings.

So celebrate. Celebrate every little thing you do well with communication because it is a lifelong skill, there’s a never-ending skill tree development, and the better you get at communicating, the more

you can network, the more you can express yourself and the more you can engage with the world around you.

For me, although my accent is not something I have prioritized because I am a native English speaker, I have worked to try and become a bit more in tune with my emotions and express how I feel. I

typically communicate with facts and logic. I express what happened but rarely communicate how I feel about those events. This year, I’ve become more comfortable with expressing how those

events make me feel. And so, I learned to slowly give value to my feelings. That they are not something to smother or squander. That they are valuable and although they are not the only valued thing,

that they still have a seat at the table.

For example, if I feel frustrated with my wife and we fight, I would get angry and try to smother that anger. I would try to logic my way through things or stick to the facts or try to logically explain to her

and rationalize why she was wrong and I was right. I think what I have learned this year is that my emotions have a seat at the table. That it is okay for me to feel frustrated and hurt. And even if it

doesn’t make sense, I’m allowed to feel those emotions because those emotions are part of my experience of the situation. She doesn’t necessarily have to fix those feelings or resolve those feelings

for me, but acknowledging or identifying those emotions means that she is acknowledging and identifying that part of me.

And simply by talking about it more, I feel like I can better communicate and express myself with regards to my feelings a bit better.