A good, but not great, speech
Okay, here’s something a little different… I joined a speech contest at my local Toastmasters Club in Beijing a few weeks ago. (Toastmasters is a public speaking club. There are more than ten thousand clubs in the world, probably at least one near you. Anyone over the age of 18 can join, so find a club and check it out!) I won the club contest, then last week I was able to compete against the winners of three other clubs in the same area. You can see the winning speech here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6jbiKV9lTY
I think I improved this speech a bit compared to when I gave it at the club contest, but I want to improve it more because next Saturday I will compete again, this time against speakers from clubs all over the north of China. I’ve heard there will be some very good speakers there, so I don’t think the above speech is good enough. For one thing, I must improve on my body language - too many pointless gestures. I think, because this is meant to be a humorous speech, that maybe I should exaggerate more. And finally, I should probably find a way to strengthen my message, “mistakes are good, even though they feel bad”.
So, take a look at the video and if you can think of any ways I can improve my speech, let me know. At the very least, I hope you’ll have a bit of a laugh…
Andrew - Six Minutes Public Speaking Blog Said,
April 15, 2008 @ 10:13 pm
Good luck moving forward to the division contest, Joe!
teacherjoe Said,
April 16, 2008 @ 6:22 am
Thanks Andrew,
I checked out your blog - the 25 Presentation Essential Presentation Skills (http://sixminutes.dlugan.com/2007/10/31/25-skills-every-public-speaker-should-have/) is very useful. Everyone should read it! I, unfortunately, have already broken rule number 2, as my contest speech started off as just a humorous speech and then morphed into a more meaningful speech. Next time I’ll be sure to get off to a better start with a strong focus.