Maximise team potential
Ear & Speak provides tailored spoken language services for executives, professionals and valuable employees to overcome communication problems or to enhance their skills. Services include accent neutralisation, language mentoring, and elocution, provided in Melbourne and by arrangement in other locations (ancillary costs must be covered).
We can help anyone with a strong customer-facing, communication or representative role to tune their oral language style to their usual audience, or perhaps a new audience. What’s more, for someone learning a new language for work purposes (eg, relocation), we can help speed up the process and overcome many of the hurdles.
For employers
Many companies understand the value of investing in their staff to develop their potential in existing or future roles. Communication is an essential element in building a strong team and public face.
It is important that companies are positive and encouraging when offering training to staff members, as language skill forms a key part of self-esteem. If you need advice about how to approach a communication problem in your team, you are welcome to contact us.
Some examples of how we have helped companies improve the value of staff:
- I.T. help-desk and project management staff: improved customer feedback and better teamwork as a result of vocabulary-focused training to correct pronunciation problems
- Key medical staff: resolved intercultural communication problems in a hospital setting and focused on speaking carefully and clearly with patients and nurses
- Advertising and real-estate sales: clearer presentation and promotion as a result of elocution lessons
- Warehouse staff: better English communication between staff from many backgrounds as a result of accent training
For employees
Not a native speaker of English? Business communication and style are a challenge for many non-native speakers, in addition to possible accent problems. We work with many clients in professions with a lot of technical terminology (medicine, engineering, finance, etc) or frequent customer contact to help them master the language demands of these roles. The outcome is always greater confidence and a feeling that things are under better control. It can also help social interaction in the workplace.
Native speakers of English can also have problems with public speaking, pronouncing unfamiliar terminology, or speaking in an appropriate style. We have helped many clients in Melbourne and elsewhere in Australia overcome these issues which often affect self-confidence and career prospects.
Some of these issues can feel uncomfortable or embarrassing, but our job is to make you feel more confident. Our training is not like a formal classroom lesson and individual consultations mean that you can practise in a private environment.
Some examples of why you might want to use our services:
- You feel uncomfortable about aspects of your oral presentation
- Colleagues have commented on something about your speech
- You want to adapt your accent to be more like the accent of your audience
- You find it difficult to make small talk and connect with customers or colleagues
- You have a mixed accent from having lived in another English-speaking country and some of your audience find it a problem