Speak Simply About the Main Things

There are few skills that will bring more opportunity into your life than the ability to speak well in public. Marie Snyder, English language expert at America House (Kyiv), suggested how the effectiveness of public speaking can be discussed during English speaking club. The event on November 24 showed that visitors of Window on America in Kherson are good speakers. They named the following important features of a good speaker:

- Smile. Look like the content matters to you – if the audience don’t feel that it is important to you, it will be really hard for them to feel that it should be important for them.

- Start with a “grabber”. Give the audience a chance to see your personal connection to the topic.

- Know your material. Get really interested in the topic. Find good stories.

- Know the audience. Try to speak to one or two people in the audience as they arrive – it is easier to speak to friends than to strangers.

- Pauses. Include 3-8 second pauses at key moments – just before key statements or just after a story – this really brings the audience into the speech.

- Get experience. Take every opportunity you can get to speak (and listen to other speakers).

Good communication is never perfect, and nobody expects you to be perfect. However, practice matters, so we introduced ourselves to partners and told funny stories from our lives, trying to follow all the rules of a good speaker.