Our catch phrase is on its way.

Dear Fellow Earthlings,

It is always fun to congratulate my clients as they improve. None of what I say to them constitutes mere flattery. Every compliment I give is sincere and based on verifiable improvement in various aspects of their abilities to perform wide arrays of speech motor skills implementation techniques.

The other day, however -- and in front of a client -- I sought praise on my own behalf for a job well done.

This particular client had been forced to take a break from attending Jingles sessions for two months due to some health problems he was having as well as to some major challenges that were confronting his young family.

As a result of these factors, the client had spent almost no time practicing his Jingles at home -- and had been unable to attend any Jingles sessions. He had resumed his Jingles training on the 5th of July and was definitely "out of shape" both in terms of his Jingles performance and in his general physical state.

By the way, after the two-month long absence he had taken, the client was taught not by me, but rather by one of my very capable fellow instructors. She did as well with the client as she could, but could not seem to bring him out of the state of lost momentum with which he seemed to be dealing.

My fellow instructor taught the client twice before turning him over to me a few days ago. When I saw him I could see a lack of color in his complexion and could hear a lack of energy in his voice.

So I spent time "measuring his applied pronunciation" as I had him tell me of what had been happening to him and his family the past couple of months. He explained all of the details (which I shall keep confidential) -- and as he did so, he began to move forward, out of the doldrums in which he had been trapped.

I told him that, surprisingly, his applied pronunciation level showed no appreciable drop despite his not having practiced his JINGLES for two full months. Then we went into a deep TRAINING MODE drill, in which he was introduced to our very powerful revised JINGLE A (its first upgrade in 15 years). His English allophonome began churning out absolutely gorgeous gestures!!! As we neared the end of his two-hour session, I measured his applied speaking again.

His applied speaking score had climbed from its previous 87.2 to 87.6 in a little more than one hour! Generally such improvement takes a month or two to fashion!

So I said to the client:

"Please congratulate me. I have done such a wonderful job of putting you a great deal closer to your goal of pronouncing English in a nativelike manner!"

I was thrilled when my client (who by the way is a young, high flying, capable manager) said to me.

"You are doing very well teaching me. Keep up the good work, Steve!"

Steve Walker Earthsaver and Jingles Creator

© 2013 Steve Walker, The Jingles-The Japan Foundation for English Pronunciation, Summit Enterprises.