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Don't try this in public! Public Speaking Tips

If you are a musician, you play scales to warm up you fingers before playing. If you are a sportsman, you stretch before the vital match. If you are an artist, you sharpen your pencils before beginning your masterpiece. So why on earth would you begin a speech before preparing your voice? Find a quiet place and do the following. Step one: shake all the stress out of your body. Don't be shy; as my mother would say as she forced us to try on clothes in Dunne's Stores, "who is going to be looking at you?" Step two: breathe deeply, releasing your stress. Breathe in to the count of five, out to the count os six. Step three: hum to yourself to warm up your mouth and chant to open up your vocal chords. Put your heart into it! There are many more exercises you can do prepares yourself but the key is this; no one can see you and this is your chance to prepare the only instrument you will be using for your speech... your voice. And to finish; thank you to all my stu

Know thyself - identifying public speaking problems

According to the personals columns, the majority of us have a GSOH (Good sense of humour) In contrast, I have yet to hear anyone saying that they are a Good Public Speaker! In this update, I would like to try to provide a quick check list for you to identify areas which may need work and will be providing some ideas to help in the near future. The voice: You will need: a voice recorder, a newspaper Put the voice recorder in a place where it will pick up your voice but not so close to you that you do not need to project. Record yourself reading any article from the paper as though you are reading to an audience. When you play back the piece, you are listening for: 1: Words which are indistinct (is there a pattern; are they at the end of sentences? Do they include the same letter combinations? 2: Changes in volume; are they logical? 3: Pace; do you rush? 4: Tone of voice; would you want to listen to yourself? Based on your self-diagnosis, you will have a better idea of

Speech Festivals - A source of lifelong learning

The Hong Kong Schools Speech Festival is an event in which many children compete and only a few win. Or do they all win? I believe so! Why? 1: Experience speaking in front of an audience is never wasted; the more opportunities you have, the more confident you become. 2: Poetry enhances vocabulary. I can still remember GK Chesterton's The Donkey which I recited a hundred years ago in a speech festival! It taught me about alliteration, parody and made me look at animals in a completely different way. 3: Festivals are so called because they celebrate the power and beauty of the human voice. Listen to the myriad of ways people read and you may pick up some new skills We compete, some get placed but all are winners and the prizes last for a lifetime. To read "The Donkey" by GK Chesterton an outstanding poem for reading aloud To find out more about Brandon and our philosophy we are opening in Jordan shortly, very exciting !

England from a distance

Anyone associated with England cannot help but be dismayed by recent events. There is beauty and strength in the hearts of the majority of British people and we are all diminished by the chaos in English Cities. Macaulay wrote a stirring epitaph from the perspective of an exiled Jacobite (supporter of King James II) The language, love of country and people and yearning to return to homeland is a tonic in these grubby times. I defy your audience not to raise a sigh of appreciation when you read this stirring call for peace. A Jacobite’s Epitaph To my true king I offered, free from stain Courage and faith; vain faith, and courage vain. For him I threw lands, honours, wealth, away, And one dear hope, that was more prized than they. For him I languished in a foreign clime, 5 Grey-haired with sorrow in my manhood’s prime; Heard on Lavernia Scargill’s whispering trees, And pined by Arno for my lovelier Tees; Beheld each night my home in fever’d sleep, Each morning started fro

Interview Traps Number Two - You never get a second chance to make a first impression

The limp handshake... the avoidance of eye contact... the muttered greeting. Typically not the way you would want to start an interview? Agreed but a poor start does not necessarily mean a miserable finish. The prospective interviewee has their mind on answering tricky questions but the interview has started the second they walked through the door. We all suffer from nerves and this affects the way we behave when meeting strangers. Once we have calmed down, we are different people. Unfortunately, those first few minutes count. So does a poor beginning always result in a total failure? Not necessarily... Be aware of your behaviour under pressure. Do you quake? Do you become aggressive? Do you want to hide in a corner? For adults, once we realise our behaviours we can start to take action. For children, parents can help by observing how they react and make them aware of the effect this has on people. Having to overcome a poor start means you have to work harder to establish a bon

Interview Traps - Number One - "The Robot"

"I interviewed a boy yesterday and it was like interviewing a computer; all you had to do was enter the question and an automatic pre-set answer came out! After half an hour, I still had absolutely no idea about what really made the boy tick." (House Master, UK School) As parents, we can see that being selected by one school over another will set our child on very different paths. Behind this poor boy will have been parents who only have his best interests at heart and will have stuffed the poor child so full of "good" answers that he could probably recite them in his sleep. They have unwittingly created a barrier between the delight of their child's personality and skillset and the interviewer. In an interview situation,it is immediately clear and ultimately frustrating when a child is a mouthpiece for parents' ideas. It is your son or daughter who will be joining the school, not you! Resist the temptation to cram them with answers and focus instead i

Poetry - for sheer pleasure

Lying on the sofa in Chelsea, shivering on the beach in Ireland, sitting on a bus in Hong Kong. All places that I have read this poem. Each time, I shiver with the exhilaration of the first verse, and the courage of the second. The Hill - Rupert Brooke Breathless, we flung us on the windy hill, Laughed in the sun, and kissed the lovely grass. You said, "Through glory and ecstasy we pass; Wind, sun, and earth remain, the birds sing still, When we are old, are old..." "And when we die All's over that is ours; and life burns on Through other lovers, other lips," said I, - "Heart of my heart, our heaven is now, is won!" "We are Earth's best, that learnt her lesson here. Life is our cry. We have kept the faith!" we said; "We shall go down with unreluctant tread Rose-crowned into the darkness!" ... Proud we were, And laughed, that had such brave true things to say. - And then you suddenly cried, and turned away.

Speech Festival Heaven!

Today, I had the most inspiring and delightful morning. I adjudicated a Speech Festival; one hundred and forty five year olds all reading short poems! For some people, this scenario may be their idea of hell. For me, it is a vision of the potential of our Hong Kong students. To stand on a stage at the age of four requires both courage on the part of the child and support on the part of their parents. The children this morning had both in abundance. The Festival (第四屆全港學生公開朗誦比賽)I am involved in is organised by the Speech and Music Recital Foundation who believe in encouraging and nurturing students. Of course, there are winners but every participant gets a medal and a certificate of encourgement (including the little girl who recited the title and name of the author five times, bowed and fled the stage!) So how do you prepare your children to take this first brave step? The Brandon Learning Centre way is simple: 1: Learn and understand the poem 2: Practice makes perfect; ensure

Interview preparation for children - an education for life

"How do I prepare my child for an interview?" is a common question we get at Brandon Learning Centre. In an ideal world, this question would be "How do I prepare my child for life?" The two aims are very closely linked! Children with no outside interests are children with little to say in an interview. Equally, in later life, they may not have the cultural richness which will allow them to multiple environments. We are surrounded by opportunities to expand our children’s horizons; museums, galleries and plays are all available and are not necessarily expensive. These environments not only provide stimulation but as parents and teachers, we can also use them to challenge children to develop their critical thinking skills. As a child, my parents would take us to libraries where we developed our ability to explore literature and learn about the history of our areas (the Thomas Ashe exhibition at the Dingle Library which included the dessicated remains of the last p

The Perfect (Royal) Wedding Gift - Posies fade but Poetry lasts forever

Wedding presents serve a number of purposes; they demonstrate that you care for the couple, that you want to give them a good start or (if we are being cynical) that you want to use your wealth to impress or even to cement business contacts. If you are short on the cash but long on the love, a poem is a heavenly present that really does keep on giving. Beautifully re-copied on a scroll or frame (depending on your creativity and budget) a poem is always a winner. As an extra gift, you could even offer to recite at the Wedding Breakfast. Last year, we had a fabulous student at Brandon Learning Centre who wanted to practice a poem for his Grandparent's 50th wedding anniverary. I heard later that his Grandmother said that this was the most meaningful gift she had every received. Ideas could include: Sonnets from the Portugese - Elizabeth Barrett Browning Sweetly pretty and has the benefit of being instantly quotable: How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to

Poetry - the mirror that permits us to reflect on life

The Brontes; marooned in their Haworth parsonage on the edge of the wild moors. Writing thrilling, visceral and untamed literature that touches the deep core of our beings. At the risk of sounding like a Sixth Form essay, I want to spend a few Good Friday moments on Emily Bronte's Last Lines ; a poem which explores the role of God in our lives. This poem is a powerful Good Friday reading. Traditionally Good Friday is a time when we are looking for hope and reflecting on the coming resurrection. The language of the poem is a powerful; full of imagery of being tossed on life's ocean. There is a stunning series of verbs "changes, sustains, dissolves, creates, and rears" which encapsulate the circle of life. Last Lines is a poem which should be read slowly, giving listeners time to reflect. The main trap for a reader is the enjambment (when the sense runs on to the next line) which needs to be respected in order to convey meaning. Emily Bronte only lived for thirty