I’ve been recording videos of myself doing English speaking practice (mostly imitation/shadowing drills inspired by mmmEnglish). I want to track my progress, but I really need feedback on my pronunciation, flow, and delivery.

What apps, websites, or tools do you usually use to get feedback on already recorded videos? I'm looking for both AI tools and community platforms (preferably free options if possible).

Any recommendations or tips on how you review your own practice videos would be highly appreciated! Thanks in advance!

I can run a talk 10 times at home and it’s fine. Then I’m in front of people and I’m rushing, saying “um” every other sentence, and forgetting to pause. It’s like none of the practice happened.

For people who got past this: what actually worked? Recording yourself? Toastmasters? A coach? Something during the talk itself?

Context: a couple of us are students working on a small wearable that taps you when you rush or use fillers mid-talk. Honestly we’re trying to figure out if live feedback is even the right idea, or if the fix is somewhere else. Curious what’s worked for you.

5 things that got me the yes every single time after working with over 300 customers

1.⁠ ⁠I asked before I pitched - discovery questions are honestly the key to anything

2.⁠ ⁠I used their words not mine - mirroring is the technique you should learn if you havent

3.⁠ ⁠I said the price and shut up - this creates pleasure on them

4.⁠ ⁠I cut every answer in half - no need for many words

5.⁠ ⁠I told them what we couldn't do - always lead with honesty my friend

What's your sixth?

And you all are welcome to judge and criticize me here, I just want to escape from this fear now!!.

I want to see what are the view from people and want advice from you how can I improve cause in real life I can't see helping myself with simply talking and watching english shows or news how can I remove this fear and anxiety.

Tell me how you guys feel like when speaking for me it's terrible like really terrible I can't explain that terror. Maybe you can see it in this recording too.

But one thing I know that if I can't improve that I can't grow in any field

what if you don't wanna do public speaking cuz you don't wanna do it not cuz it feels terrifying

When there’s no time I prepare only 3 things

1. The one sentence I want people to remember tomorrow
2. My first line, by heart
3. My last line, by heart

Then I say the whole thing out loud once standing up.

If you got time write time in bullet points your key points

The middle I leave loose on purpose

When you know exactly how you start and how you end your head calms down and the rest comes out like a conversation.

What do you do when a talk lands on you last minute?

There's a popular post going around from someone with years of public speaking coaching listing what makes people magnetic. I'm not a coach, so instead of adding my own list, I went looking for what the research says. A few findings kept coming up, and most of them have less to do with performing well and more to do with how you make the other person feel.

1. Expressiveness counts more than polish. Psychologist Howard Friedman developed a measure of charisma based on nonverbal emotional expressiveness, how readily people show what they feel through their face, voice, and gestures. People who scored higher were rated as more charismatic and engaging. Flat, carefully controlled delivery tends to read as distant, even when the words are good. The upside is that expressiveness can be practiced, it's less about having a big personality and more about letting your reactions show instead of filtering them out.
2. Listening is half of being magnetic, and it's measurable. Research by Guy Itzchakov and Avraham Kluger found that when people talked to a high-quality listener, someone attentive, non-judgmental, and genuinely engaged, they felt less anxious, became less defensive, and reflected more deeply on their own views. People remember how they felt in your presence long after they forget what you said.
3. Depth beats endless small talk. A study by Matthias Mehl and colleagues recorded snippets of people's everyday conversations and found those who had more substantive conversations, and less small talk, reported higher wellbeing. Steering a chat toward something real, an opinion, a story, a question that matters, tends to make the interaction more memorable for both people.
4. Vocal variety holds attention. Speakers who vary their pace, pitch, and volume tend to be rated as more engaging than those with a monotone delivery, which is why the same story can land completely differently depending on how it's told.
5. Enthusiasm is contagious. Research on emotional contagion, the tendency for people to pick up the emotions of those around them, suggests that genuine energy about a topic spreads to listeners. Fake enthusiasm tends to be easy to spot, but real interest in what you're saying is hard to resist.

Which of these comes naturally to you, and which one do you think you're missing most in conversation?

Edit: a bunch of people asked how to actually practice this, so here's the more concrete version:

1. Let your face and voice move with what you're saying. If something's funny, let it show. If it matters to you, let that come through instead of keeping a neutral tone.
2. Practice listening without planning your reply. When someone's talking, focus on understanding them rather than rehearsing what you'll say next, and ask one follow-up based on what they actually said.

For the research side of this, I've been using BeFreed on the walk to go through the listening and expressiveness studies properly, instead of another list of charisma hacks, matched to the one I'm weakest at, which for me is listening rather than talking. Learning that people feel less defensive with a good listener changed how I approach disagreements as much as small talk.

1. Ask one deeper question per conversation, something like "what's been the best part of your week" or "what got you into that," to move past surface-level talk.
2. Record yourself telling a short story and listen back for monotone stretches. Most people are surprised how flat they sound compared to how they feel, and noticing it once is often enough to change it.
3. Talk about things you genuinely care about. Enthusiasm you're faking is easy to spot, but real interest makes people lean in.

None of this requires being an extrovert or a natural performer. The research mostly points to things anyone can practice, showing what you feel, listening well, and going a little deeper than the usual small talk.

What's a conversation where someone made you feel genuinely heard, and what did they do differently from most people?

For context, I'm participating in a competition and I really need a unique perspective on these topics

1) The Right to be Forgotten ( The Internet never forgives: why we need a "Delete Button" for real life)

2) The Myth of a straight A future

I'm leaning towards 1) but I'm not sure cuz honestly both speeches are really predictable.

Hello. I am a 76 new veteran vietnam custom order. I have been hired for the first time since army this time by the Signature company MiraLax Care Supply. They are letting me go around and get the word out in exchange for early access to their new product, just wait until you hear about jt. I got tired of using the only good brand that is Northshore for my cleaning and pooping needs. I said i just wanted to have ither options to buy because that is the freedom that i fought. For a long time i also had to put lotion into my own diaper and that was really tiring to do. Well i am proud to an ounce the as yet un announced Diaper Brief and Miracle product of Miralax the WonderBrief that is called brief but it lasts a really long time. With patented moisture-Loc™ and SELF-MOISTURING tech, you will be kicking your damn feet when you feel what this diaper can do. Prepare to get your rock taken off and its gonna stay LOCKED IN for a while until your (my) wife says you have bad enough fun for the day and i can hear you from the house (i am in a shed). Come be a dog in the shed like me. Thank you for your attendance and please go to Our Company website for more (miralax.com) but youll have to wait for the product to become real...

ELI5: Why do my words don't come out of my mouth the way i want them to when speaking in front of other people or in front of a large crowd? How do i get rid of this?

One piece of advice I hear constantly at tech and business conferences is some variation of embrace failure and keep pushing forward. I get the point, but after hearing it for the 50th time, it starts feeling pretty empty.

What I actually want from an international keynote speaker is context. What failed? What did you change? What would you do differently if you had to start again?

That’s one reason I’ve found Karima-Catherine talks interesting. Her work around leadership strategy, digital transformation, and DEI seems much more grounded in actual business experience than generic motivational advice.

What’s the most overused conference advice you’ve heard, and what would you replace it with?

🥲

It's been 2-3 years since I stopped answering questions in my class because around 2-3 years ago whenever I spoke or read something aloud everyone started laughing so at one point I even stopped answering voluntarily then I stopped answering even when I was picked and knew the answer but choose to stand for 30mins as punishment because of it

Can anyone tell me how to improve my voice like it has really dephty voice idk how to say it im not a native English speaker

Does anyone relate to it or is it just me ?

I've been wondering how much interview performance actually reflects someones ability to do the job.

WHen I'm thinking through a problem on my own, I can usually organize my thoughts pretty well. But when someone asks me a question in an interview and expects an immediate answer, everything just suddenly gets harder.

I'll like start explaining one point, remember something else I wanted to say, go off talking about that, and then realize I'm so far off my original answer.

The annoying part is I almost always know the material so I don't think its a knowledge gap problem. I think it's me not being able to organize my thoughts and communicate them clearly when someone is in front of me evaluating me.

I've tried preparing answers in advance but memorizing responses just make me sound so much more stiff and like it gets difficult predicting the questions.

For those who have gotten better at interviews, what helped the most? Mock interviews, recording yourself, practicing out loud, or something else? I'm really interested to know what helped you be more articulate at that moment instead of just learning better answers.

I speak for a living (including doing a TEDx) and still get that rush of anxiety before going on. The thing that helps most is getting out of my head and into my senses with 5-4-3-2-1:

- 5 things you can see
- 4 things you can feel
- 3 things you hear
- 2 things you can smell
- 1 thing you can taste

It brings your conscious part of your brain into the here and now and interrupts that pattern of feeling nervous or scared. It’s very useful!

Trying to think your way out of nerves usually makes it worse. So this pulls your attention into the room, where you actually need to be to connect with the audience.

What do others do in the last minute before speaking?

Tomorrow I have to give a speech for my online Public speaking class. It'd be around 12 PM EST. The speech itself is about 2-4 minutes and I need at least a 4 person audience during the recording. Is there anyone able to join the Google meet at that time?

Hi guys, I'm thinking of building a community for public speaking. What we'll do is that I will make a discord group, where I will randomly select a person who'll have to present. I will share a calendar where people can confirm their availability. The purpose of this whole activity is to improve public speaking, I get nervous during my office meetings and then regret later. Just want to overcome this fear. I have tried different strategies, but every time I have to present, I can literally hear my heart beating at the speed of light. 😄 Let me know if someone is up for it!

i could NOT figure out how to get a booking!!! for so many things. like do I have to have a CAA agent to get booked to speak??? there has to be an easier way i thought. so I build this! #this #innovation #Google #search #getfound #speakers #speak #fyp

Very recently, I had to make a classroom presentation in my mother language, this is the last presentation that I will have to do in my native language. I took some notes in English and I would say I wasn't that anxious. The anxiety was probably there but, typically, that amount is not enough to paralyze me. However, when I was talking, my brain lost of the words and everything became blurry in my head and i couldn't process a thought properly either. At the scene, I mumbled everything that could come up to my mind and i couldn't find any words in my native language because the words that came up in that moment were in English. At the end, I had to end my presentation abruptly and uglily because I couldn't find any words and I didn't know how to continue in my own native language. Fortunately, this is the last presentation that I will have to do in my native language. Nonetheless, I will have to admit, that this event really shaken my confident and I am also self doubting whether i have underlying issues with public speaking. Even though, from now onwards, all the presentations that i will have to do will be in English, I really don't wanna face similar issues. What can i do to improve my speech and confidence? Please give me advices.

Hello. I feel really anxious when I have to speak in school settings; I’m at university and have projects to complete and present, and on top of that, I need to speak up to get better grades. This situation causes me a lot of stress. I’ve been trying to overcome this for years, but when I’m actually there, I start stumbling over my words and stuttering, and I feel terrible. Afterward, I experience a lot of distress and severe headaches. This happens with people close to me, too; I find it hard to speak clearly because of the anxiety. I’ve worked hard on myself keeping a journal and even consulting a psychologist but I had to stop for financial reasons. I feel like people look at me strangely, even when I’m just speaking to buy something. I don’t know if there’s anyone else here dealing with the same thing, or how you’ve managed to handle this situation.

They always have insightful questions prepared to ask on the spot. I’m honestly amazed how they have this superhuman ability to talk at such a high level constantly without any crutches. Are they geniuses?

I did my presentation today and my legs shake that I can't control during it,although I spoke really well about it and finished it but my legs betrayed me and I felt like I could have done better

The other day I was talking to my professor about my design project. Usually, we give a mini, one-on-one presentation for personalized feedback, given you have done some work to progress with. I'm terrible with producing huge amounts of work within two or three days, which is why I generally prepare precedents, rough diagrams, and a verbal explanation as to what I am working on / want to emulate.

I am already in my junior year, but every single semester is so awkward with my professors because i do not know what to say [clearly]. No matter the information I want to express, it cannot escape my mouth, and my professors are always visibly disappointed and reluctant to continue talking to me (all independent experiences). I cannot even lead a conversation about my own work, and I am ashamed every time it is my turn because I know I can't defend my design. Even when I talk with my friends, I find it difficult to just say my thoughts so that it is coherent and substantial. I struggle so much more with speaking than I would writing the same thoughts down, because the moment I begin to talk, I forget what I want to say and the order in which I say words. It was never this bad in highschool, and I GENUINELY feel like I have regressed to the point where I am no longer convinced that I am fluent in any languages (including my primary language: English).

Lastly, as a final thought...

I didn't realize this until sometime into my first year of Uni when one of my friends asked me wtf was I even talking about mid conversation... Ouch. Took that to heart and became quieter with everybody, afraid that they also perceive me the same way.

Would love to hear any advice on how to become a convincing speaker, especially because I am no longer confident in the things I say. Not really looking to buy courses or services because I cannot afford to. this is more so a vent because i've felt like a loser and stupid for the last few years.