TITLE : TALK LANGUAGE: HOW TO USE CONVERSATION FOR PROFIT AND PLEASURE.

When you were growing up, adults taught you how to read, write, add and subtract. As they corrected you, you mastered those skills. Conversational skills were another matter. You were taught to pronounce words and to organise those words into sentences, but nobody ever taught you how to communicate effectively with other people. When you made mistakes, you weren't shown how to improve -or even told that you needed improvement. Consequently, many people you met didn't warm to you as much as they might have done, or they went away and sought other company. In business, your associates or customers preferred to do their business with someone with whom they felt comfortable.

This experience is not uncommon. In fact, it's normal. According to researchers in communication and psychology, most people throughout their lives continue to make many of the same simple errors they made as children. Very few of us are as good as we might be at making contact with others, turning acquaintances into friends or putting warmth and vitality into long-term relationships.

Research has identified some specific skills vital for the personal effectiveness that few people have fully developed.

Further, it has been found that these skills can be learned in a relatively short time. Unfortunately, these findings have appeared mainly in academic journals and the associated skills are taught by a limited number of teachers.

This book combines two courses designed to fill this gap and to teach conversational skills to everyone in an interesting, straightforward and simple way. Alan Garner developed his course Conversationally Speaking: Training for Greater Social Effectiveness' in North America, and it has grown into a network of certified instructors teaching tens of thousands of people in the USA.

In Australia, Allan Pease developed his course Techniques and Strategies for Face-to-Face Encounters to teach people how to use verbal and non-verbal skills in business to persuade, sell, negotiate and interview.

After much contemplation and discussion, these courses have been combined and translated into book form. A course is usually conducted over a period of days or weeks, giving the participants ample opportunity to practise the skills and to integrate them into their lives, whereas a book can be put down or forgotten. Just as reading a book about skiing won't alone make you a more skilful skier and reading a book about body-building won't by itself improve your muscle tone, simply reading this book won't do much for your conversational skills. It will take dedicated reading and a lot of consistent, dedicated practice. We suggest you read no more than one chapter at a time and begin using each skill as soon as you learn it.

We have enjoyed writing this book and we know you'll be excited by the visible improvements you'll find in your everyday life as you become more and more socially effective.

ALLAN PEASE ALAN GARNER