Conversation Skills: What's your communication style?

Do you want to communicate better? Understand how people think? Find the best ways for you to learn English? In today's lesson, you will learn about the different ways in which people think. By understanding how people think, you will learn how to communicate with them effectively. There are three basic communication styles: visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. I will teach you how to figure out what style of speaker a person is, and teach you how to speak with each type. Make sure you understood the lesson by taking the quiz. This lesson will not only help you with your English, but with all your communication! http://www.engvid.com/conversa....tion-skills-whats-yo

TRANSCRIPT

Oh, poor E. Hi. James, from EngVid. You know, people see the world differently. We all do. I mean, what sounds good to you may not feel right for other people. And we also learn differently. What I want to do in this lesson today is teach you how to communicate more effectively. I want to teach you the three styles that people have when they communicate, how they communicate, and how you can use these styles -- understanding your own -- to learn English more effectively. Let's go to the board and take a look, shall we?

We've got Mr. E. He doesn't seem to be so good today. Professor E, or whoever this guy is with the funky glasses, right? Like a doctor. Like Freud. "So how do you feel about it, Mr. E?" Mr. E says, "I don't like how it sounds. It just feels wrong." I can't see myself doing it.

Now, each one of these things, they're different styles. There's a word called "modalities", which is a way of seeing or learning things, right? Modes, models. Now, he's talking about different ones. Sounding is for hearing. Feeling could be your hands or your body -- how does it feel? And seeing -- your eyes. We're going to look over here, now. And I'm going to give you the titles or the proper names we say when we talk about these things, okay?

So when we talk about a person who is "visual", we mean they see -- with their eyes, of course. But what we're talking about is when they're thinking, they see pictures or movies. When you ask them a question, a picture appears in their eyes right away. When you say "the large, black dog", they see a dog, a large, black one. They tend to be like me -- they speak quickly. That's why I'm slowing down now. But you say something to me -- I see a picture, and I want to get it out of my head as quickly as possible because pictures are like a thousand words. Okay?

Now, they like things to look good. Why am I telling you this? Well, if you understand how these people think, you'll understand how to communicate with them, right? So a visual person likes things looking good. They speak quickly, and they see pictures when they're speaking. That's why they speak so quickly to you or rapidly. Okay?

What about an auditory person? "Auditory" comes from "audio". You know, your MP3 player? You like music? That's auditory -- with your ears. These people need clear speech. What that means is what I'm doing now is best for an auditory person. They need to hear clearly what you're saying or they don't understand you. It's not such a bad thing. We should all be a little bit more clear in our speech, especially when learning a language. They also need to manage sound level. What would happen is if I'm talking and they're talking and several people are talking, they're the people most likely to say, "Hey, guys. Shh! Calm down. Lower the volume." Because they can't concentrate because they need that clear speech. Okay?

And what's the third thing we're going to talk about? Well, body. It's called "kinesthetic". Sometimes, that includes taste -- delicious! -- and smell. Okay? These people need really slow speech because they feel with their body. So the slow speech helps them to process the information, okay? They like to do things. They are what we call "hands on". They want to touch something or move something. They understand things when they're doing it. If you draw a picture like you would for the visual person, it won't make as much sense. And even if you just speak to them, they won't get it. But as soon as they touch it, they understand it. Okay? They like comfortable environments, something that makes them feel comfortable.

So in each category or sense, these people like things to look good -- the visual ones. These people like to make the sounds nice for them. And these people like to be comfortable in their environment. The nice heat. The right chair. Okay?

How does this help you with your English? Well, this isn't a beginner lesson. What we want to look at is how people learn and how we can speak to them so that your messages are understood more readily. Also, I'm going to show you how you can use it to help yourself learn. Are you ready?