Intonation: confident & boldness vs insecure, professional, intelligent. Say it with certainty.
We impress people by our appearance, our dressing, and our intonation.
Pitch changes: rising and falling intonation
Questions – pitch goes up. Statements – pitch goes down.
[US teenagers uptalk a lot.] Uptalk sounds immature and unprofessional. Uptalk makes people think that you don’t know or you are not sure about what you are talking. People won’t take you seriously. [I was annoyed by my daughter’s uptalk. In 4th grade, I particularly talked with her teacher and hoped to put her in a speech program. But the teacher said it was OK. A lot of teenagers do that and she will be fine as she matures. I will check her again.]Be careful you imitate! [So true! I tried to follow up a handsome Chinese golf coach on youtube. I hurt my arm, chest, and back. I am seeing my acupuncturist and still in recovery.]
Don’t prolong the last vowel too much.
From DailyMail.com – Survey of 700 company bosses:
“Eighty five percent of supervisors thought that uptalk would hurt an employee’s chances of receiving a pay raise or promotion.”
From Psychology Today – “The Uptalk Epidemic” (comments)
“Uptalk is highly irritating and it gives the impression that the talker is uneducated.”
“It hurts me to listen to it. Many YouTubers uptalk, and it makes me stop the video, as I can’t deal with it, no matter how interested I am in the subject. Please make it end!”
“Uptalk makes you sound like a shy little girl.”
“It’s beyond annoying, and it makes most adults who do it sound really immature.”
Examples:
- Is he from China? He is from mainland China.
- Has the meeting started yet? The meeting has already started.
- Let’s start the meeting.
- I need you to do this for me.
- You made a few mistakes on this.
- We need to finish it by Friday.
- I believe this is our best option.