4 ms·
If anyone wants a "weird old tip" for better enunciation: finishing schools had an exercise where students would practice speaking with their mouth full of marb
by Eric_WVGG 7y ago
If anyone wants a "weird old tip" for better enunciation: finishing schools had an exercise where students would practice speaking with their mouth full of marbles or gravel. After talking out loud for a few minutes, one can spit them out and have perceptibly better enunciation.
You can do this more safely by biting down on a wine cork. Read a page or two out of a book out loud, remove, and then read another. It's quite remarkable. (I learned this trick from a theater class back in high school I think…)
https://www.activepresence.com/blog/public-speaking-articulation-exercise https://www.activepresence.com/blog/public-speaking-articula...
- amflare 7y ago2-3 fingers vertically in mouth also works in a pinch if you don't have anything else handy. It's really good for those about-to-walk-on-stage moments to induce enunciation.
- copperx 7y agoI thought biting down a pencil was the state-of-the-art. What are the advantages of using a cork vs a pencil?
- amflare 7y agoSize. It is more difficult to speak clearly with a larger object, so it forces you to focus a bit more.
- MiracleUser 7y agothis could be turned into a pickup line that'll likely never work
- yesenadam 7y agoIt certainly is old – Demosthenes was 4th century BC. The indistinctness and lisping in his speech he used to correct and drive away by taking pebbles in his mouth and then reciting speeches. - Plutarch's Lives, Demosthenes
- big_chungus 7y agoNot just that, he would shout over the ocean with pebbles in his mouth. I'm sort of wondering how he didn't damage his voice, though.
- wenc 7y agoGood tip. My theater coach in high school taught me another trick -- no cork needed. For (almost) every consonant of the alphabet, stress lips and recite that letter, e.g. for "m", "muh-muh-muh, muh-muh-muh, muh-muh-muh, muh-muh-muh, mah". (cadence needs to be fast but consistent) This does wonders to loosen things up around the lips, especially if you have "lazy" lips like I do. It can be surprisingly hard to do m's, n's and p's.
- cyberferret 7y agoCurious to see if that would work for me. My main problem (as well as talking too fast), is that I tend to set my jaw too stiffly when talking, so I am not moving my lower mandible too much. In fact, I actually tend to smile when talking, so my lips are stiff and my jaw is set, which makes enunciation harder. I would think that having a mouth full of pebbles would tend to make you not want to move your jaw too much, which kind of defeats what I am trying to correct?
- Eric_WVGG 7y agoThis is difficult to describe, but when talking after removing the cork, my tongue feels "stronger" and moves with greater deliberation. I'm unsure what it would due for your jaw but you should certainly give it a try.
- piinbinary 7y agoWould food in your mouth work?