Virtual Speakers (Espoo, Hyvinkää in Finland) is unique in Europe – and we believe in the rest of the world: it communicates by means of video conferencing between two KONE* sites creating a virtual interaction space for speakers and evaluators. It thus offers the ideal environment to experience and train with video presentations, an important aspect of today’s professional communications.
Virtual Speakers welcome you on Kone’s sites in Espoo and Hyvinkää
I asked Luis Garcia, one of the founders of the club and current president, what were the main differences between his club and any other Toastmasters club:
“Communicating with the support of video technology is generally new to our members and guests: they have to tame the camera first. This requires to have one’s gestures and voice steered to it and keep the eye contact with the beam. Beginners always feel a little bit nervous about the presence of this tool. Speaking to the camera also implies a clear enunciation and pronunciation and, being direct, especially when…
Three weeks ago, I was attending Division C conference in Dresden on behalf of our district (D59). At the end of my bilingual speech in German and English, the chief judge, a distinguished 60 yr old lady, came to me:
– “You know, you were fantastic!” (author’s note: for a change)
– “Thank you!”
– “When did you join Toastmasters?”
– “Six years ago”
– “And you are already in a district position! They pick you up young nowadays! I joined many, many years ago… it’s my mother who introduced me to Toastmasters!”
– “Really?” And I have to admit that I expected this conversation to turn very “Toastmasters” but then:
– “She is 92 yr old and competes for the Eurovision song contest selection in Switzerland! It would be so nice if Toastmasters could support her by voting for her!” I was looking in Marion’s eyes full of sparkles when evoking her mother who I later discovered (see link below) was a Hollywood star song writer among others for the crooner Dean Martin and Doris Day. I could share her emotion for Inge’s song, Inge whose appetite for competing showed an uncommon determination and inner force! I would like to keep my promise to this Toastmasters member and tell you about her fantastic mother and if you feel like voting for her song, here is the link http://www.eurovisionplattform.sf.tv/videos/inge_ginsberg_s_song
Few days ago, I came across another “force de la nature” as we say in French (a person of incredible moral strength). As I could not attend our district autumn conference for professional reasons, I received lots of messages and pictures to compensate for my non-attendance – and some technical problems that prevented our OC and attendants to properly connect to the internet. Among them, a 79 yr old lady sent me a quite mysterious introduction:
“Hello! I have pictures of the Budapest conference. How would you like to get them by e-mail or do you prefer I upload them to flickr?” which sounded very much like a TM wikileaks attempt to my ears. It was signed Julie Kertesz, PhD, DTM – as if these two titles were equivalent – with numerous links under her name. I thought Flickr would make the whole process easier to manage, I replied “Please send them by linking to Flickr” (logical to remain in the world of the essential)!
When I got her pictures, I went through them. They were very poetical, some of them poignant such as this installation by the Danube river: dozens of meters of old shoes aligned by the shore, symbolizing people who were forced into its cold winter waters in 1944. I could sense she was an artist of some kind, and I came across her image on our district’s FB group, but I did not know anything about her life. And then in the middle of this wealth of pictures (she has posted more than 50 000 for the last 9 yrs when she started to photograph), there was a picture of herself on the plain page of a local newspaper http://www.flickr.com/photos/joyoflife/10901615273/ with a big 77. I thought maybe she is 77 yr old – but what journalist would stripe a plain page with the age of a woman over 40 even opening her arms widely with such vitality and appetite for life???
I e-mailed her back “What is this article about you – I do not read Hungarian?” One day later, I got the full text in Hungarian with a note “Do you prefer this text translated into French or English?” (always this brevity!). Although my mother tongue is French, for obvious reasons I said “English please, much easier to share with the others”… and there I got my portrait of an old lady as an artist: Julie, now 80, became a comedian at age 77 and in 2012 she won the silver newcomer comedy title in the UK. Equally successful is her story with photography: at times, several thousands of people visit her pages daily! Tell me who else gets similar results?
Julie’s message about Toastmasters is very clear: “As to what Toastmasters, gave me, ‘most important’ the interviewer asked, I did answer: the most important was giving me confidence. (And a tribe everywhere I go.)”
I know that in every corner of Toastmasters, there are such gems, people with purpose, positive, daring… they might be of another generation but both Inge and Julie are amazing women communicating the joy of life and the unbeatable spirit of challenge! Thank you ladies, you rock!
When I was a kid my mother used to give me multivitamins during the winter. The pills were white, about a centimeter wide and had the profile of an ellipse. I always found them a bit hard to swallow but with a gulp of orange juice they went down just fine.
As the pills had a slightly sweet taste a one morning decided to let one melt in my mouth. The sweet taste lasted for a while after which the bitter taste of the core pushed through, after which I quickly swallowed the pill.
Fast forward some 25 years to the corporate world. If you think about a typical Power Point presentation chances are your mind conjures images of slides full of graphs and charts. (The other possibility probably being slides crammed full with bullet points that the presenter reads out aloud.) You are being presented a long report with information you are hard pressed to understand the value of.
Assuming there is a reason for this bombardment of graphs and charts what is the point if you sleep through the presentation? Now matter how important the information is it does not matter if it is beyond your grasp. Maybe the problem is your concentration. Maybe you should have drank another cup of coffee or maybe you just have a short attention span. Or maybe there is a way to make presentations more interesting?
How do you make a report masked as a presentation interesting then? One way is to make them a better experience. How do you make them an experience? By sugarcoating the information with stories.
Storytelling, contradictory to traditional left brain thinking still common in corporate settings, is a very powerful way to convey information. As part of a suiting story information is put to context which helps the audience to see why the information might be of importance for themselves.
A story to support information needed be long, in fact shorter might be better. In his book The Leader’s Guide to Storytelling Steven Denning argues that in addition to a good story being true, positive in tone and contrasting the situation before and after the story also needs to be minimalistic in nature. A too detailed story may steal the focus from the information.
What inspired me to write this particular text however was another book, Nancy Duartes Resonate. In her superb book Nancy describes the value of stories in presentations like this:
Mixing report material with story material makes information more digestible. It’s the sugar that help the medicine go down.
As I read this description for the first time I had a big smile on my face. Not only did it take me back to my childhood but was also a great realisation as it nails the importance of stories that I long had known, but had had a hard time define.
For me storytelling was also one of the reasons i decided to join Toastmasters. Keeping regular presentations and receiving feedback is a great way to practise storytelling, something that is both a joy and that I am already seeing the benefit of professionally.
The first time I ever rode a real roller coaster was when I was 8 years old. My parents took my three older siblings and I to Disney World near Kissimmee, Florida, during a road trip from Charleston, South Carolina, to Montgomery, Alabama. We had spent the previous three years at the Panama Canal Zone where my father was stationed. We were oblivious to American television commercials and amusement parks.
Space Mountain was the name of this roller coaster. It still exists to this day. And yes, I was scared out of my shorts, no less. After the anticipation of waiting in line coupled with a great fear of the unknown, my white knuckles gripped the safety bars as the car slowly lurched clackety-clack up the hill, in total darkness!
Space, the Final Frontier.
Countdown!
10-9-8…..
No way to turn back now!
6-5-4…
I’m going to die! I’m going to die!
2-1
BLAST OFF!
Oh my gosh, all I saw was space around me! Stars, galaxies, meteors, comets smothered with a sudden moment of panic as I thought to myself, I can’t see the track!
Not knowing where this coaster was going, I squinted my eyes and focused ahead trying to catch a glimpse of a falling star illuminating any tiny part of the dark track. I tried to figure out how far this first drop was going to last and predict which direction the car would turn next. Not only did the designers of Space Mountain give me the fear of a fast, indoor coaster, but being virtually “blind” during the trip was a cruel, yet welcome, added bonus.
Whenever I prepare a speech for my Toastmasters Club in Helsinki, Finland, called Stadi Talkers, I think about Space Mountain. I have the same chills beforehand, the anticipation, the butterflies in the stomach, the preparation, the self-questioning stage, the point of no return, the out-of-body self-awareness of all eyes on me, including my own. Ridiculous, but true.
I just signed up for speech #7.
10 days out
I have time to prepare.
5 days out
What is my topic? What is my structure?
3 days out
I’m going to die! I’m going to die!
Prepare, practice, then deliver!
Do you know what is the best part of the speech writing process for me? I am the designer. I can map out how I want my audience to experience it. I can also build the introduction and the conclusion to have any effect. But most importantly, I am the creator of twists and turns and drops and hills and varying speeds, of which, the audience has no clue. Of course each audience member may try to figure out what would be said next, some of them perhaps more accurately than others, but they are all essentially — in the dark.
You have to ask yourself. Which do you enjoy more? Being the roller coaster passenger? Listening to speeches without knowing what is to come? Or do you prefer to create your own roller coaster and let it unfold before the audience as they experience it?
I highly suggest you aim to become an expert in both roles. Learn to be a better listener and practice to become a better public speaker. With both, you’ll need to have your mind and eyes wide open facing your own fears. Regardless of what you try first, you will induce the same feelings of foreboding, anticipation, excitement, butterflies, a sense of relief that it is all over, but above all, you will obtain a sense of accomplishment.
You have survived, you are alive! Now go and build your own Space Mountain!
– Photo of Space Mountain by Nando Miranda. All rights reserved.
Last year I started googling words “presentation skills” and “fear public speaking” and that is how the Toastmasters first jumped in. While abroad I also heard about Toastmasters through one friend who recommended it based on her very positive experience. That is how I finally discovered the Helsinki Toastmasters in my hometown Finland.
My reason to join was to overcome fear related to public speaking and presentations. Basically this means any situation where I am in the spotlight. Especially the working life can include many situations like that. I believe that I have benefited starting from the first guest experience, when I realized that performing skills are something that any of us develop at anytime in our lives. It’s never too late. During the latest period I have already given two speeches and taken actively the other meeting roles. We also learn how to constructively evaluate the presentations which is important. The mentoring program is also beneficial.
My goal is to become a confident performer including participating in the Toastmaster competitions… Speaking of which please join us on Saturday 20th October from 10.30-14 to enjoy the Finland area humorous speech competition, on this week! Place: Kasarmikatu 23, Helsinki (venue: Handelsgillet). The event is free of charge!
Looking forward seeing you all new faces too = )
Cheers, Nadia Chaichee Helsinki Toastmasters VP PR
Last year I became particularly interested in public speaking, and as many of you, I work in the technology sector; so I started paying attention to who speaks well, who is inspiring, and who can explain complex things in easy and enjoyable words. I tried to find some article or “top ten” in Google, and I only found lists of keynote speakers, unknown guys that can come to a big IT company’s headquarters and supposedly motivate all the employees gathered during a special event. I was not looking for this, however. I wanted to know about the real experts in technology and business, those whose innovation spirit, experience and expertise, drive the industry and have the power to change our world and way of thinking and teach us in what direction the wind of change blows.
I then decided to write a list myself. What do the people on my list have in common? The unequivocal answer is Experience. All these personages have been around for many years. Surely the list covers only those who speak in English, and whose focus is mostly Information Technology and Clean Tech. My selection also emphasizes speakers who have been active and relevant in the past two years.
This Top 8 list is shown in alphabetical order.
1. Jeff Bezos (Amazon)
(Jeff Bezos delivers graduation speech at Princeton University)
Amazon’s CEO is a very mature speaker, unarguably one of the best on this list. His drive made Amazon.com the most prominent survivor of the 90s’ dot coms. The company has evolved, continuously transformed its business model and reached a privileged position today. Even in the hardest and most uncertain times, Bezos has managed to convince investors on how his ideas would become successful products and services. If you see him speaking, you will clearly understand why. As a public speaker, Jeff has a special power and expressiveness that is rare to find and hard to ignore.
Strengths: Great body language and effective vocal variety while speaking.
2. Steve Blank (Independent author)
(Days of Future Past)
Do you think you know Silicon Valley’s history? No matter what you answered, you should hear it from Steve Blank’s mouth. His long experience as a technology entrepreneur makes him the best in the topic. Now retired, Blank is a very inspiring author and keynote speaker. When you listen to him, you can hear the voice of an extraordinary educator. And indeed he also spends his time teaching in Stanford and Berkeley, where students can learn his “scientific method” on how to manage a startup.
Strengths: Elegant, educational style of speaking. Use of stories.
3. Jack Dorsey (Square, Twitter)
(The Power of Curiosity and Inspiration)
Few tech entrepreneurs can count on their records having created two awesome and revolutionary products in few years. Jack is one of them. Now he is CEO of Square and executive chairman of Twitter. Not a small thing. In spite of his youth, his presentations and public appearances show both maturity and high confidence that inspire people. I find particularly remarkable his use of stories to present technical ideas and to show how they have a meaning for the society. Dorsey will have a lot to show us in the future.
Strengths: Use of stories. High confidence.
4. Bill Gross (Idealab)
(Learning From Failure. 20 Years of Entrepreneurial Lessons in 20 Minutes)
Idealab‘s CEO has been both an entrepreneur and inventor since he was in high school. He is the only one of this list who is more focused on clean tech than on IT. Bill always explains to us with endless enthusiasm his proposals on how to face today’s energy challenges. His fluency is extraordinary; few people can impeccably speak technically complex topics at that pace. Good humor is another salient ingredient of any Gross’ speeches.
Strengths: Great sense of humor. Capacity of explaining hard concepts in an enjoyable way.
5. Mikko Hyppönen (F-Secure)
(Fighting viruses, defending the net)
Have you thought that a presentation about information security has to be boring? If you said yes it is because you have never seen and listened to Mikko Hyppönen, Chief Research Officer at F-Secure. He is a real showman who is up to date in all the aspects of this branch of technology. His always creative presentations combine well-designed slides with impressive demos, and make you realize how important security is in today’s life.
Strengths: Excellent use of visualizations in slides. Easiness of saying complex concepts in a clear way.
6. Steve Jobs (Apple)
(Launch of MacBook Air)
He is not with us anymore, but the former Apple’s CEO has been probably the most admired person of the most recent years. In every new product’s keynote presentation, he showed us not only a product but a dream. Do you remember when he unveiled MacBook Air from a manila envelope? Steve Jobs was a showman at the stage: minimalistic, calm, but extremely powerful. I particularly liked his inspirational campaigns such as his “Think different” series of videos, which made him a naturally inspiring person.
Strengths: Minimalistic slides. Spectacular style of showing new products. Inspirational way of speaking.
7. Guy Kawasaki (Garage Technology Ventures)
(The Art of Enchantment)
He started a technology career as Macintosh Chief Evangelist in the early 80s. Nowadays he leads Garage Technology Ventures, and he is also author of great books such as “The art of the start” and “Enchantment”. The latter is an excellent guide of how to convince people of your ideas by saying the right words and by shipping great products. When you see him before an audience you clearly realize how mature speaker he is, and how his humor makes any of his appearances enjoyable.
Strengths: Great sense of humor. Maturity in public speaking.
8. Mark Templeton (Citrix)
(XenClient announcements during Synergy 2011 keynote)
Citrix Systems is nowadays a company leader in virtualization and cloud computing, but not long ago it struggled to survive. One of the biggest orchestrators of this transformation has been Templeton’s leadership and vision. He is an example of how a mid-level manager can become a CEO thanks to his excellence in communication. His use of body language is also a characteristic hard to ignore from him. Mark is mentioned as a Case Study in the famous book “Slideology“, by Nancy Duarte. In any of his presentations, we can see his innate gift to think visually.
Strengths: Powerful body language. Use of minimalistic slides and other visual aids.
These speakers are fantastic paradigms for any technical pitch. I am positive that, regardless of your taste, you will find excellent models to follow on this Top 8 list. Observe every guy’s best skills, and learn from the Masters!
Happy New Year! May 2012 bring you joy and happiness from communicating and leading with heart, insight and accuracy!
The well spoken woman cover
Some of you might feel I am starting this year with a rather discriminatory post as Christine K.Jahnke’s book, “The well-spoken woman. Your guide to looking and sounding your best” is prima facie intended for women only. Let me reassure you: as this book is helpful to empower your fellow female co-workers, whether you are a man or a woman makes no difference… you can help!
Before ordering this book, I had great expectations as I do believe that we, women, need a kick in the ass from time to time to propel our careers and it seemed it had this constructive aspect embedded. I have not been disappointed: it is very comprehensive and gives guidelines for all types of addresses – including very interesting tips on how to speak on TV, it enables you to assess your level of “well-spoken-ness”, and the WOMEN (not men) serving as examples to illustrate the guidelines are no other than Michelle Obama, Madeleine Albright, Melinda Gates, etc. truly appealing and successful FEMALE models.
The book is strongly built and its dynamics pushes the reader always further (chap.1 “Ann Richards – Your Best Self”, chap.2 “Indra Nooyi – Take Charge Confidence”, chap.3 “Barbara Jordan – Voice of Authority”, etc.). I dive into chapter 6 about “pre-planned spontaneity” – that very much resembles what we call “prepared speeches” – to support the reply to this burning question in your minds: is Christine H.Jahnke’s advice of a much different nature than what we find in Toastmasters manuals? I will give you some elements to form your opinion. According to this chapter, to prepare for giving your speech and fully enjoy the benefits of “pre-planned spontaneity”, you should:
1) “maximize the situation” and get to know as much as needed about the audience you will address, the type of event and even the setting (seems familiar?)
2) “break Murphy’s law” and anticipate on possible malfunctioning (mike, hardware, seating, noise, etc.). Anticipation makes the difference between an amateurish and a professional presentation, even if unforeseen events always might indeed their way in the most prepared speeches. What do you do then? At times, you have to be ready for impromptu, ready to seize the moment to increment the value of what you had prepared (seems familiar too? no kidding!)
3) have the type of notes and visual support that work for you (full-text speech, note cards, teleprompter… make your choice)… that means the type of support that reassures you and that makes you look and sound NATURAL – in my language!
The great plus of this book is that it is really meant to practicallysupport the planning of your speeches and therefore provides a
Toastmaster in action
series of checklists for each set of advice, all very wise and articulate. One of its flaws is that it is a little bit old-fashioned to my taste (no woman of my generation seems to be an example of success…) and it does not take into account the wealth of communication means generated by social media – and its potentially “new”requirements. “The well-spoken woman” is however a great attempt to provide inspiring women models and women-to-women advice in an era usually populated by all mighty male gods (and some are near to irreplaceable, thinking of Steve Jobs and his unique way to captivate an audience attention… http://youtu.be/UF8uR6Z6KLc).
Elina Aho "Embodied gesture"
Finally, training in public speaking is not a theoretical issue: you need to practice and even more than practice, you need to find a dedicated audience (or coach, or mentor) that gives you feedback and helps you further assess if your motivation and efforts are paying off… If Christine K.Jahnke is a competent coach that will devotedly help you, there are also Toastmasters clubs all over the world to welcome you and your pressing search for improvement in the field of communication and leadership. Why not pay a visit to one of our clubs in January and assess if Toastmasters could help you be that man or woman that stands up in the crowd?
Next Saturday 19th March at 10:30, Toastmasters and guests from all over Finland shall meet at the University of Helsinki for the association’s annual speech contest[i]. This is a marvellous opportunity to get acquainted with Toastmasters and the possibilities it opens for you. It is also the occasion to listen to an enlighting speech by our keynote speaker. This year, we are privileged to have Cristina Andersson, a Finnish educationalist, coach and singer who will take the stand to tell us about ” How to perform a winning speech”. It couldn’t be more appropriate under such circumstances, isn’t it?
I met with Cristina Andersson at Café Aalto in Helsinki to discuss about her self-improvement and learning organizations management book called ”The Winning Helix – the art of learning and manifesting your true potential” (in Finnish ”Voittava kierre”, WSOY) . “The Winning Helix” is not a pure theory book about action-learning but is built upon Cristina’s experience of learning how to sing opera and her dialogue with her teacher and coach. It is besides full of beautiful quotes.
– What does winning mean and is winning important?
– My definition of winning is “unique personal achievement and experience” rather than the more aggressive connotation of it. We have to learn to trust our cognitive system so as to prepare ourselves to the best of our ability, then, when the moment has come to give a speech or a concert for example, you have to let it happen, you have to let it flow. Your focus will be only on what is happening not on learning anymore. There is a form of concentration when we perform which I call alertness. It is twofold: alertness turned outwards (towards your audience for example) and concentration: inwards (inner knowing and total control). Winning, is important because it gives upheaval to your learning process and offers you unique moments of personal achievement. Vincit qui se vincit!
– You describe this ”flow” or alertness process quite beautifully in your book by referring to Merleau-Ponty’s
The Winning Helix
concept of “optimal grip”: ”When the learner obtains an optimal grip on his learning process, he is totally involved in it and he is able to learn and act without representing a goal; that is – the process has become part of the learner and outer motivation is no more needed – the learner has optimized his grip on the process” (p.57). Learning however seems to always start with a challenge, as the book demonstrates”.
– Learning is challenging ourselves. In my case, for example, I started to sing in 1991. I had never sung before, now I am preparing for an audition in Bayreuth and have launched a learning ecosystem dedicated to singing. In learning terms, I went from my initial volition to sing (I want to sing) to materializing it by intention (I will sing) as it is described in “the Winning helix” my book. In practical terms, it all comes down to putting your dreams into motion and develop ”success routines”, to creating your own personal learning system and environment.
– As the former editor of the Jokerit newsletter, you had the opportunity to approach and interview many hockey professionals and your book is full of examples from sports life. When is an athlete a winner?
– My interviews of several dozens of hockey and other sports professionals led me to conclude that what they enjoy most in this sport is the feeling of speed and the physical contact resulting from their fight for the puck. Barry Smith, coach assistant for Detroit Red Wings, said there is a mental price to pay to be a winning athlete however: you have to accept to regularly push your limits to the extremes, during training time and during the matches.
A young hockey player
– An athlete is a winner not only because he properly prepared technically and tactically but also because he has developed the ability to perform under specific stress circumstances. Is dealing with such specific stress part of the learning process?
– Learning is an action-oriented process. The title of my book is coming from the detailed observation of the DNA structure, where learning and action constitute the double helix of the learning-action process. When we are performing, be it a match, a speech or in a concert, we have to mobilize the energy circulating beyond this double helix. The main issue however, as I earlier said, is to prepare with both teachers – they teach you a skill – and coaches – they teach you how to use your skill. When you are well prepared, there is no such thing as stage fear and after sharing something with an audience it has become a friend anyways.
– Cristina you are also one of the directors of the poetry marathon in Lahti. Could you tell us few words about this event?
– There is a poetry week (runoviikko) and a poetry festival taking place in Lahti every two years. It is dedicated to Finnish and international poetry, over its 28 years of existence the marathon has contributed to the collection of about 55 000 Finnish poems – which is only 5000 poems less than those collected by Elias Lönnrot for the Kalevala. The marathon is open to professionals as well as to non professionals.
[i]Toastmasters Annual speech contest, 19th March 10:30 Helsinki University, Auditorium 8, 3rd floor
Have you felt the presence of poetry in your lives lately? I am asking you this question because three weeks ago, we celebrated Runeberg, the Finnish poet, and I was wondering, surrounded as I was by Runeberg cakes wherever I went, how many Finns still knew some of his poems by heart?
What about Valentine’s day, then? Isn’t it THE poetry day, THE day when your husband, partner, friend, whoever, is reciting a love/friendship poem to you – looking deeply into your eyes, hand on his/her chest, saying these words from the bottom of his/her heart? No?? Instead you got some modern poetry on your mobile in the style of: “L◯√∑ Today and Everyday! ˚*•.¸❤¸.•*”இ≻–‵♥இ≻–‵ ♥இ≻–‵♥இ≻–‵ ♥இ≻–…”. Isn’t it… a good start?
1) “poetry” rhymes with “inutility”
All these questions erupted into my life because I picked up the Toastmasters advanced “Interpretive reading” manual as my
upcoming Toastmasters assignment. It consists of the successive reading aloud of a short novel, a poem, a drama, a play and an oration from authors you like. This manual is often neglected because we all prefer giving persuasive PR speeches (advanced “PR” manual), inspiring technical presentations (advanced “technical presentations” manual), etc. that are besides much more valued professionally. If you read a poem for six to eight minutes, in whatever context, would anyone listen to you anyway? Would anyone even understand what you are talking about?
2) “poetry speaks” rhymes with “personal peaks”
Memories from our childhood often comprise an impressive set of rhymes usually revived at the birth of our children but what happens after this blessed period of our lives?
Virgil's Aeneid
The first time poetry spoke to me was during my Latin classes (no, I am not 100 years old!!!!). We started the reading of Virgil’s “Aeneid”: it was so lucid and intense to my ears, flowing like spring water, that I could memorize the Latin text as we were reading. Image, sound, history and story, rhythm, meter, cadence, rhymes and even Virgil’s overabundance of metaphors or distorted sentences with subject, verb and object separated by a full paragraph at times, all participated in building an emotional trap in which I was meant to fall. Relentlessly working on the translation of the “Aeneid” verses into French captured my imagination then and left an imprint in my life that a gradual oblivion of the original text has not taken away.
3) “poetry is loud” rhymes with “read poetry aloud”!
You have to deeply understand a poem before performing it in front of an audience: analysis, reading aloud,
presentation work are the basis of your preparation. As a non native English-speaker though, I personally also turn to audio and video resources, especially those where the authors read their works themselves. Most of the time, authors are not professional interpreters but they manage to convey a very specific emotion, one close to the creative source, which is electrifying.
In the absence of any interpretation of the Aeneid by Virgil himself, let’s take Margaret Atwood’s poem “This is a photograph of me” and try a small exercise. First read the text from within, letting it resonate with your emotions.
“This is a photograph of me”
“It was taken some time agoAt first it seems to bea smearedprint: blurred lines and grey flecksblended with the paper;
then, as you scanit, you can see something in the left-hand cornera thing that is like a branch: part of a tree(balsam or spruce) emergingand, to the right, halfway upwhat ought to be a gentleslope, a small frame house.
In the background there is a lake,and beyond that, some low hills.
(The photograph was takenthe day after I drowned.
I am in the lake, in the centerof the picture, just under the surface.
It is difficult to say whereprecisely, or to sayhow large or how small I am:the effect of wateron light is a distortion.
but if you look long enougheventuallyyou will see me.)”
Now let’s listen to the reading of “a photograph of me” by Margaret Atwood herself.
And let’s now turn to another interpretation by one of her fans.
How would you read the original text now? You have tro try numerous times before finding the most suitable way for YOU to say the text.
4) poetry spice: slam it, damn’it!
In the Toastmasters manual, there is a piece of advice which in my opinion is not in harmony with today’s trends – but it does not mean that the manual is wrong in general: avoid a “sing-song” interpretation. For training purposes, I would suggest a totally opposite direction: slam your text! I would go even further: slam everything you need to read aloud because the extremes it forces you to, will help you find your natural rhythm of enunciation, the moments when to pause, the moments when to suspend your audience’s breath to your words, etc. in one word, it will help you improve your communication skills tremendously and that’s why you joined or plan to join Toastmasters.
Katie Makkai is a famous slammer. Let’s listen to her interpretation of “pretty” that generated over 500 000 hits on youtube and lots enthusiastic comments and laughter.
That is probably more than “sing-song” but if you manage training and reading your next business report on the pattern of Katie’s “Pretty”, you will do wonders in the board room.
It is well possible that you don’t have enough time to allow poetry into your lives anymore but you could still download some poems randomly and schedule their podcast as a mental break in your busy day… I would advise you to establish this routine, because poetry could help you to approach the world from a different angle, deploying its creative wings on your daily joys and worries, and not only at a personal level.
Besides, it’s nearly springtime: why not try something fresh and new, why not to give poetry a try?
1) Intially, I wrote: ‘watching deeply into your eyes’. RLC comment: the verb should be ‘looking’ – “looking deeply into your eyes”. The verbs ‘see’, ‘look’ and ‘watch’ are subtly different. If we ‘see’ something, we cannot avoid it. Simply having our eyes open there are various things in front of us which we see. If we ‘look’ at something, we are deliberately focusing our attention on it. ‘Watch’ is used for things which are moving, where activity is going on. For example, we could go into a room and see a television. If we look at the television, we are looking at the physical object. But if we watch television we are following the programme. In the context of your sentence, ‘look’ is the correct verb as there is intense concentration. Watching someone’s eyes would be focusing on following the movements as they observed different things and moved around.
2)Initially, I wrote “it consists in”. RLC comment: the verb ‘consists’ is followed by the preposition ‘of’. Prepositions are not easy or entirely consistent in English. You just have to learn them!
3)‘If you read a poem during six to eight minutes’ . RLC comment: it should be ‘for’ six to eight minutes. ‘During’ implies that something else is happening too. E.g. ‘During the reading of the poem, the poet knocked a glass of water off the table.’
4)‘were all participating’RLC comment: it should be ‘all participated’ , i.e. simple past instead of past continuous. The past continuous implies that something else interrupted ( a little like my explanation for ‘during’). ‘As I was walking up the stairs, the doorbell rang’
5)‘In the front of an audience’: RLC comment: it should be ‘in front of an audience’. No definite article needed.
6)‘Laughters’: RLC comment: ‘laughter’ doesn’t have a plural. Even if different people are laughing it is just ‘laughter’. A common mistake in this area is the word ‘furniture’, or ‘equipment’ – they are always in the singular even if there are many pieces of the items.
8)‘could help you in approaching’ – RLC comment: it should just be ‘to approach’
9)‘why not to try’ – RLC comment: you don’t need a preposition after ‘why not’. It is just ‘why not try’
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Written by: Henrik Häkkä
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