Hi, everyone and welcome back to Happy Hour. 欢迎回来酒馆. Hi 安澜。

Hi, lulu. Hi, everyone.

So having talked about voices, how to describe different voices, especially different pitch, let's move on to speaking style.

Okay, yeah.

There's one speaking style that I really cannot stand is when people mumble.

When you mumble, you're doing a little bit like this. It's just very quietly.

Exactly, 中文里我们说的嘟嘟囔囔的, like speak out for crying out loud.

Yeah, so you do say mumble and that just means to speak unclearly and quietly.

Mumble更好的应该说是这种嘟哝或者咕哝就是很小声以及说不清楚的.

Usually when they are, for example, they don't feel very confident.

Yeah. It's normally about feeling confident but if you're doing that because you feel annoyed. That's what we would say is muttering.

对, 更像是我们说的嘟囔 , for example as a kid, when your parents are like telling you off, criticizing you, you can't really because you're still so tiny, you can't really stand up to them, you can't talk back.

Yeah, you mutter something under your breath.

Yeah, just you wait, when I grow up...

Just you wait, so that is muttering under your breath .

To mumble, it just simply means you're not saying it clearly, perhaps it’s because you're insecure, or you're not confident; but muttering is also speaking in a low and unclear way, but usually it's because you're annoyed, but you don't have the guts to speak up.

Exactly. So you do that with your teacher, do that with your parents, with your boss, with your boss, you wanna say something, but you know you can't.

Some others speaking styles include things like stammer or stutter.

Yeah.

口吃.

So this is repeating sounds when you're nervous or because you have a speech impediment.

Speech impediment means a problem when you're speaking, I think people stammer or stutter because they were super nervous or because they grew up perhaps being bullied or even abused.

So you think about that film probably about 10 years ago, The King's Speech about our present king’s grandfather and it's all about him trying to overcome his stammer or his stutter.

Ages ago in China, there were comedies, I think same as in English comedies, you would have these characters and they would stammer or stutter,and they will be basically the laughing stock. But now people are obviously more aware of it, understanding you shouldn't laugh at people's speech impediment.

Yeah, exactly. People are much more sensitive to those type of things now.

Exactly.

And, yeah, in a lot of cases, it's a real condition.

The other speech impediment is a lisp .

Lisp.

Lisp is when you就是我们说的有点夹舌头, si , shi 不分的, for example, lisp.

So it's when the “s” becomes a “th” sound. So for example, if you say someone has a lisp, how they might say is “I have a lithp or litht”. So the tongue comes out a little bit.

A lisp is also seen as a speech impediment, and that usually when you were very little, your teacher would try to correct it.

Yes.

But obviously in Chinese our pronunciation rules are very, very different, for us, lisp would mean something completely different.

Exactly. So it is based on language.

Oh, having said language learning, language teaching, a lot of the times our audience keeps saying oh yeah, when Lulu and 安澜, when you guys talk about things, you always seem very clear. And when I watch like movies and TV shows, I would feel like they slur their words. 好像很多时候他们都说我们讲得很清楚, 但是他们去听电视电影的时候会有吞音, 懒音。

Yeah,

That's because as experienced teachers or trainers, we enunciate.

Yes, so to enunciate means to speak very clearly and pronounce every word. So you're not speaking too fast, in a natural way, or too slowly. You're pronouncing every single word, so it's very clear what you're saying.

所以我们没有什么太多的连音或者懒音或者吞音. Because you know in order to make it clear, we almost over pronounce.

Exactly .

And sometimes I feel like that is affecting my everyday speech.

I have been accused of speaking very, very slowly now and that's because of years of teaching.

Yeah, because of how we enunciate, listen to how we pronounce this word, right? I don't say enunciate, I say enunciate.

Yeah, you kind of have to do that when saying this word.

Yeah. But the opposite would be you slur.

Yes. So you mentioned slurring, so this is speaking unclearly, and it's usually because you are tired or drunk, I'm not drunk, I’m not drunk , I'm not sleepy. I'm okay. Slurring in your speech.

But then again, it's not just how you pronounce. It's also how you would organize your words. For example, I sometimes say that I can be a bit of a rambler, or babbler.

Yeah, so a rambler or to ramble means to talk in a very long disorganized way in such a way that it's really hard to find out what you're talking about and also to investigate and see what you're talking about. And then you start talking about something else and then you go back to your topic that is to ramble.

Yeah, because my mind works in a way that it really bounces off the wall like goes everywhere. 因为我的思维特别发散, 就特别有跳跃性.

So sometimes when I... and 安澜is very logical, logically minded. So sometimes when we're discussing work and 安澜would say Lulu, you're rambling again, stop rambling, get back to the point.

You are babbling .

Babbling, babbling is basically the same. Babbling is you talk quickly, but there's not a lot of cohesion.

Exactly. You're talking very, very quickly because you're so excited. You just don't really know what to say. And you're really, really, really happy. You're really excited, but you just really don't know what to say. So you start babbling. That's babble.

Some people they babble because they're nervous, not just excited, they can be very nervous. I can say that if you meet your crush, a lot of people tend to start babbling, 就你看你的男神女神的时候, 见到他们的时候.

Precisely.

But I have to really make this clear, I babble in front of you, really not because you're my crush.

I'm fully aware of that. But then again, I sometimes waffle.

Yeah, that is so annoying. Waffling is when you talk too much without getting to the point. You know people who like to really build up to the point, especially when 安澜is trying to tell me a joke, it's like I waited for half an hour, I still haven't heard the punchline. Get to the point , what is the joke about?

That is waffling.

Yeah.

So you can say, for example, he waffled on about his weekend, so he just kept talking and talking and talking, but there was no point to the conversation.

Yeah, and I would be like what is the point get to the point, please? One more thing is to bark.

Yes.

Dogs bark, but if we say someone is barking at you, it means they're shouting orders.

Yes.

They yelling at you,

So go over there. Do that! Sit down!

So for example, we would say teachers bark orders or bosses bark or the officer barked at his soldiers, is speaking in a very short and angry tone.

True. I mean stop barking at me. Usually it's the other way around.

Well, yeah. You very rarely say that to me because you don't have to.

Yeah, that's why it's barking orders.

Okay. So now as we're coming to the end of this topic, let's talk about some idioms. so we go beyond the actual a voice or ways of speech. Let's talk about idioms relating to voice, for example, “to have a voice or have a say in something” means you have the power to share your opinions and probably influence.

Exactly. We would say it's important to have a voice in deciding what you want to do.

Yeah, exactly. As we grow older, we're basically having more of a voice or more of a say in things.

Yeah, but sometimes, particularly if you're a bit inexperienced or you're young or you're not very confident, then you have to find your voice.

Yeah, that's true in a lot of coming of age stories.

Yeah.

很多种成长故事里面, it's all about a young kid, a young a boy or a young girl growing up and entering into adulthood and finding their own voice.

Or even if they're not that young. But for example, if you want to start in a new field, for example, 安澜, you want to become an artist, then because in the art world you're very, very new, and you're still trying to find your voice, find your style.

Trying to gain confidence in speaking.

But it's not just speaking is it? The voice can also be... you can have other connotations, like your own style, your own thoughts.

Okay. And we'll finish off with one more. I love this one. We would describe someone as he is someone who likes the sound of their own voice.

Yeah. So that means someone who's really narcissistic that just doesn't want to stop talking.

Sometimes we see this in bosses, this trait in bosses...

Sometimes I see this in friends.

Yeah, I know you're looking at me, you think I'm someone who likes the sound of my own voice, and I do ,and that's what I do every day in order to work in social media, you really need to be a little bit narcissistic. You really need... when you have to talk 5 hours a day in front of an empty audience. Like the camera, you have to like the sound of your own voice. Otherwise you're driving yourself insane.

Exactly. So on that note, do you know anyone who likes the sound of their own voice or would you say that you're someone who likes the sound of their own voice.

Or you can also share in the comment section with us whether you are a 声控 and what type of voice you like, please say you like my voice, not 安澜’s.

Please say that you like my voice.

And you can also put in requests for other topics that you want us to talk about in the show. Can't wait to see your comments. And thank you, 安澜for coming to the show.

Thanks, Lulu. Thanks, everyone.

We'll see you next time.

Bye

Bye.