Feel Comfortable Telling Personal Stories In English
Feel comfortable telling personal stories in English is a good skill to connect with people and to feel confident.
A good way to feel more confident speaking in English is to practice telling personal stories in English.
Personal stories are a powerful way to help us connect with people and audiences. In the video below watch and listen to one of my personal stories.
Here are my top tips to help you feel comfortable telling personal stories in English:
- The “why”, why should the other person listen to the story – (e.g. to learn why I admire my wife so much)
- Explain the pain of the problem – (e.g. my wife’s phobia of swimming and she felt sad and lonely that she couldn’t socialise with new friends at their apartment blocks with swimming pools, at public swimming pools or by the beach)
- Introduce the protagonist or hero of the story – (e.g. my wife)
- Introduce other characters and their role to make the story more interesting (e.g my wife´s friend who went with her and supported her while learning how to swim)
- Have a good beginning – (e.g. she was really scared when she went to swimming classes when she was 5)
- Clear structure – beginning, middle and ending
- Make it interesting – use plenty of adjectives to create good colourful descriptions
- Body language – use positive and expressive body language (e.g hand gestures, smile and make good eye contact)
- Highlight the progress and steps of the protagonist. Also how the protagonist felt during their progress (- e.g she went to a shallow pool and she realised she could float – that was an important step. Every step of the way she got better and learnt new swimming styles)
- Maintain the suspense – (e.g what happened next)
- Strong ending – make sure there’s a clear ending that provides closure and answers any questions (e.g and this is how my wife overcome the challenge with courage and heart to learn how to swim when she was an adult”)
I hope this helps you in your job and professional career, Christopher Wright!
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Recommendation – my top tip: How To Prepare a TED Talk in English
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Help a colleague
If you think a colleague or friend would find this post really useful, please share it with them via email or social media.
See you soon! / ¡Hasta pronto!
Christopher
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For Business English classes and courses (face to face in Madrid and online), contact us via the website or by email info@englishtco.com or a chris@englishtco.com.
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