Brandon Learning Centre: British Education - process, preparation and practicalities

We talk about presenting, speaking and performing but do we ever stop to consider the other side of the equation? How about listening? Today I interviewed a 16 year old girl for a place in a UK school. I asked her questions, she responded and I listened. In return, she asked me questions and I responded. Rather than listening, she said "yes" every two minutes. Now, there are many ways to interpret this. If I want to be generous, I could say that this was a way of showing that she was listening (although it is tricky to listen if you are speaking at the same time) Alternatively, I could assume that I was being tedious and she already knew everything I was about to say (also possible) The third interpretation is that she wasn't listening, just waiting for me to stop talking so she could speak again. Irrespective of the interpretation, my impression of her was that she valued her own opinions above mine. Active listening is a skill. You hear, process and respond to comments

We Irish have always been famed for having the "gift of the gab". Language is our currency and, when I was growing up, it was pretty much the only currency we had in any quantity! We all know what happened next... This week, Brian Lenihan, Irish Finance Minister (and not a man who will be sleeping well in the next few days!) described the EU bailout amount requested as being "less than 100 billion euros." This is a perfect example of how, when giving presentations, speakers can frame numbers and statistics in order to create the effect they are after. Example one: The loan is going to be in excess of 99.9 billion euros. Example two: The loan is going to be less than 100 billion euros and substantially less than 110 billion euros. The second example aims to minimise the perception that a large amount has been borrowed. This technique can be applied to any type of figure which you anticipate will be badly received. Alternatively, politicians use it to discredit oppone

I had an interesting experience at Brandon Learning Centre today. We teach presentation skills to children of all ages. One of our policies is that every child who walks through our doors should learn to return the greetings they receive from our staff. Every member of staff tries to acknowledge every child and make them feel valued and we hope that our students learn to return the compliment. Today James (not his real name!) who is seven and has been coming to us for a few months walked through the door. "Hello!" I said. No response. "Hello" I said again. James headed for the bookshelf and ignored me. Rather than ignore the incident, I knelt down next to him and started talking to him about the book he had chosen. He joined in. After a few minutes I said; "James, we still haven't said hello to each other have we? Shall we start again?" "Hello" he said. We had a talk about how it makes people feel better when other people are friendly to th

You are more likely to see starlight over Hong Kong than meet to a natural public speaker.. When we try to see the stars, we are competing with light from buildings, cars and even fireworks. When you try to present, you are competing with years of fear, the belief that you are not really a presenter and even against people you perceive to be "good speakers" So what do you do? If you want to see the stars, you need to block out other light sources. If you want to be a good public speaker, you need to silence the distractions. So to tackle them in turn... 1: The fear. Read back in this blog to find ways of removing the physical effects of nerves. 2: not really a presenter? Record your speech, play it back,listen to it critically and work on the areas you aren't happy with. Play it again, not bad eh? Remember that feeling. 3: Good speakers? Learn from them. You don't leave the house every day expecting a battle do you? You can copy ideas, listen to techniques and even a

In an ideal world, you would have months to prepare for an interview. In the real world, you might have a couple of days to prepare. Perfect if you have nothing else to do but time and tide stop for no man and the fact that you have an interview looming does not mean that work/projects/assignments will stop piling up. A time saving idea; use technology! The morning of the interview, scan the following sites: Brilliant up to the minute news from the Economist; how do they manage to be so timely? Insightful writing and cunning layout means that you can scan headlines and first paragraphs to become informed. A UK newspaper with a broad international flavour Step Two: Look up the company website, identify the key players. Alternatively, if you are going for a university interview, find the name of a few members of the department you are hoping to join. Then use; A fabulous site which scours the internet to find any references to your chosen person Try to incorporate your learning into

Every year, I stand on a stage in a shopping mall and give a speech in shocking Cantonese. Why? Not because I want to be a source of general amusement for passing shopppers or because I think that it is fair to inflict my poor language skills on innocent passersby. I do it because I am on the board of Helping Hand (www.helpinghand.org.hk) a charity that looks after the poorest elderly in Hong Kong. And there are two links to this piece. Firstly, public speaking related... When you are speaking in a different language, one thing to bear in mind is that the phrasing you add naturally to pieces in your own tongue may not apply to the second language. You may want to think about getting a native speaker to read your piece to give you the chance to listen to their phrasing and pauses. Even better; get two opinions. Second link: we take and therefore we need to give back. In Hong Kong, the public support for charities is inspiring. If you have enjoyed reading my ideas, please can you do some

There is an interesting analaysis of President Obama's five pillars speech on the Guarding (UK) website. Michael Tomasky looks at the political content of the speech and speculates on it's possible reception. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/michaeltomasky/video/2009/apr/14/tomasky-talk-barack-obama-economy From a delivery perspective, part of the US President's distinctive style is the use of the pause. Dramatic pauses after key phrases are scattered liberally throughout the speech. Dramatic pauses don't have to be long, just enough for your audience to focus on your words. If you listen carefully, you will also note hat here is a brief pause in the middle of words, dragging them out and adding to the sense that the President is weighing each word carefully before he delivers them. The measured pace creates a feeling of gravity which (if we refer to Tomasky's analysis) matches the downbeat mood of the message.