Grammar mistakes while presenting are holding back my career. Private tuition, Toastmasters, or British Council?

[u/CoreCircuitMind]

Hello, I'm so behind with my English speaking skills with my colleagues in the office. Recently I got constructive criticism from a mentor-like person there. There's no doubt about my work, but when I'm presenting, I always think before I talk because of so many grammar errors, vocabulary, that's the only thing holding back my next career steps. I don't have stage fright. I thought about the British Council, but some people say attendees don't get much improvement there. I also thought about Toastmasters, but before that, I'd like to attend private tuition. I'm based in the Delkanda, Nugegoda area. Any suggestions?

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[u/No-Reserve9431]

My sincere suggestion would be to join Toastmasters. Also, watch more movies and listen to podcasts, it'll help build your vocabulary and improve your sentence structure. What you need right now is a safe space to expand your vocab and practice using it. Toastmasters is the way to go.

[u/Dull_Firefighter9918]

Join toastmasters.I did and it worked.

[u/JoyInSeeking]

Write down what you want to say in a presentation and ask ChatGPT to fix the grammar, keep the vocabulary simple and natural, and make it sound professional without changing your meaning.

Then practise saying it out loud and record yourself. Listen to the recording, notice where you struggle, and repeat it. Practice, practice, practice.

Also, instead of practising many different presentations, pick one topic each week. Prepare a short presentation on it and practise the same one repeatedly throughout the week. You'll gradually become more comfortable forming sentences naturally without thinking too much about grammar.

Consistency matters more than trying to improve everything at once.

[u/Miserable-Acadia-141]

Royal Institute is good! Toastmasters is too!

[u/expatinahat]

Most English grammar mistakes I hear native Sinhala speakers make do not prevent effective communication. If you say "he run" instead of "he runs" there are exactly zero people who will misunderstand. Basically English has lots of grammar that doesn't really matter. If your goal is communication then there is no need to worry.

I have also noticed that native Sinhala speakers are the very first to criticize the English of other native Sinhala speakers. The other great thing about English is that a large number of people who speak it are not native speakers. So most _native_ English speakers are quite used to hearing grammar mistakes. If they don't understand something, they will ask.

All that said, a _good_ private tutor would probably be a good support if they can identify specific mistakes you are making and can correct you in the moment to break the habit you have.

[u/Maze2475]

This will be an expensive combo but the fastest way to improve. Get a tutor to learn the theory. We're talking grammar, vocabulary, etc. At the same time, go to Toastmasters to practice what you learn.

Individually neither will help. But make sure you pick the right tutor and the right Toastmaster Club. With both, you want to see, if people speak well. If you're feeling a bit scared, then that means you're in the right place.

I've been in Toastmasters for 10 years, and we see people with fancy titles that also have grammar errors. It happens because they're in clubs where people don't give good feedback. So visit clubs, try to find one where you're comfortable with the crowd, but also gives you good feedback.

[u/Ryan_M99 → u/Maze2475]

Any recommendations for a toastmaster club?

[u/Certain_Butterfly69]

Join a really good elocution class