Thursday, March 30, 2006

Public speaking

Apologies for not updating more often (actually its more like not updating at all). Things have been extremely hectic these few days since it’s the last few weeks before Easter Holidays. I’ve been trying to get my assignments done, my practical work report written and I’ve just went through a harrowing presentation.

Public speaking has never really been my strong point. I’m fine with talking to people (like complaining about something), but giving a presentation in front of my lecturers and classmates makes me nervous somehow. Maybe it’s the fact that for once I actually KNOW that there are people that can speak MUCH better than I can. Let’s face it, no matter how good your command of English is, angmohs will usually be better.

I know this fact too well, so I’ve taken precautions. I typed out what I was going to say and memorised it. Then I practiced and practiced until I can recite it in my sleep. Poor Yvonne had to stay awake till 3 in the morning listening to me giving her a mock presentation. On the day of the presentation, I did almost everything by the book apart from my hands (and voice) shaking from being too nervous. No reading from the slides, maintain eye contact throughout, don’t talk in a monotonous voice, throw in a few jokes, keep within the allocated time limit, elaborate on points from my powerpoint slides but don’t repeat what I wrote, etc, etc.

At the end of it, my lecturers commented that I gave a great presentation and my classmates said it was the best of the day. However, for the amount of work I put in, I think I got owned by my Kiwi classmates. They have the ability to think on their feet which I’m envious of. They had no ‘practicing in front of the mirror’, spent a third of the time that I took and yet words came smoothly, confidently and without error. Of course there were some that sucked, but most did very well.

So I have a question for all Malaysians. Have you had any problems giving a public presentation/speech/whatever in a country where English is its first language? Anyone actually managed to one-up their gwailo friends? Let me know so that I can leech some experience off you.
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