Comment by ethanbond | Hacker News Reader

Comment by ethanbond | Hacker News Reader

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I strongly recommend playing the SpeechSkills SoundBites[0] game with someone for a few minutes per day. I just had it on my dining room table and after dinner I'd play it for <5 minutes with my partner. My verbal skills - especially in normal impromptu conversation - got dramatically better after a week or two.

Essentially the key is feedback, ideally instantaneous and non-disruptive. So one person reads a prompt and starts their response. The other person starts the timer and merely raises their hand and/or counts the number of "undesirable" words/sounds that come out.

Focus on one skill at a time, e.g. if you are focusing on cutting out filler words, do not even think about eye contact. If you are focusing on eye contact, do not even think about the content of your words.

[0] https://www.speechskills.com/speechskills-resources/soundbit... - but these are really just a bunch of prompt cards. You can make your own or surely find some prompt set for much less, just make sure they're not intellectually or emotionally challenging. The whole point is just verbal processing!

Sounds like Just a Minute[1]. You have to speak for one minute on a subject. You may not deviate from the subject (or the English language), repeat yourself (except the words literally on the card) or hesitate (including umm and ah).

There are hundreds of episodes: the original presenter, Nicholas Parsons, held the chair for over 50 years, and it's still going. You can find some on the Internet Archive.

While the panelists on national radio are perhaps above average in terms of wit and comedic turns, it's also good fun at home or in the car. And all you need is a timer and a few subjects on cards (literally can be anything).

Having to avoid umm and ah is half the game. A well-timed pause for thought between words (but not long enough to be hesitation) may be tolerable, but an umm is an instant handover of the subject to the next player.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just_a_Minute

I like the idea of this, but $149 for a deck of cards...?

Yeah I was also shocked by that lol. I don’t think I paid that much however many years ago I bought them… at least I hope I didn’t!

It looks like they have a free sample they’ll email you from their site. You can probably take it as inspiration and make your own deck if you want!

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