Welcome back to English Speeches and Presentations. So today we’re going to talk about verbal skills for speeches and presentations. Actually, I mean that we’re going to talk about what the languages you’re going to use, what words and expressions that you’re going to use in a speech and a presentation. This sounds like “mission impossible”. But what we’re going to do is, well, remember this weird question, like “how we put an elephant inside a refrigerator in three steps?” Remember that? No. 1, you open the door of the fridge. No. 2, you put it in. No. 3, you close it. So basically, this is what we’re going to do. Yes? And it is, when you ask the question “how you deliver a good speech”, here are the three steps: No. 1, you begin your speech; No. 2, you develop your speech; No.3, you conclude your speech. So basically, this is very simple. But this sounds very silly to many reasonable persons. But I don’t believe so, if we look at this rule, and this is a universal business rule applied in many Global 500. I mean most business leaders, they believe that when you can breakdown a task in pieces, it is no more impossible. Ok? So what we are going to do is we’ll learn how you can begin your speech smartly. Well, I did a research based on a hundred speeches, very good speeches. And I find out that people start to talk with their own stories or experience. This accounts for 39%. So that means, literally, most of guys they want to share their own stories or experience in the very beginning. And some would do the direct entry way, the way means they go to the topic directly. Which is a, uh, I believe that like most westerners if they do not have many good stories to tell, the most of them, they will choose this way to go to the topic directly. And some will pose a question and then try to answer that. Well this way you may arouse your audience’s attention very easily. Because they got a certain kind of question in their mind. And some will prefer to tell you a figure, some data, and then he or she will develop that idea later. Some of them will pick up some props, In Chinese, props，like a cellphone, like an iPad or whatever he can show up to the audience. This may help to attract you audience’s attention very easily. Occasionally, there will be speakers who will quote someone, this is also insightful. And occasionally, some humorous speakers they may start by a humorous story. Most timely they are actually making fun of themselves. Maybe in the future we may talk a little bit deeper into how you can put a good sense of humor into speeches. But normally it’s very hard to achieve, especially you are making a serious presentation or speech. And you need to take many accounts. That means it’s so hard to find appropriate humorous story in the very beginning. And then we’re going to start by the first type, which normally we’ll start with a question. I want to reinforce on this because this is a type that you can always start to create a question that is closely related with your topic. And then you keep this question in mind, and also you have successfully attracted the attention and then you can go this way. Now let’s refer to Rachel Botsman from the TED Talk. And then here, we want to make a little bit analysis of here. If you want to pose a question in your speech or presentation in the very beginning, then what you should keep in mind of. I mean, would you ask a very complicated question? No, we don’t do that. A very simple one? No, then nobody would care to answer. So you need to create a question something like this “if someone asked you for the three words that would sum up your reputation”. Actually I like this question very much, that means the speaker is trying to push you a little bit hard to find out three words to sum up your reputation. This is some kind of a fresh question, and you would like to think about it. Right? Then we may look like another one, another example. It is also from TED Talk. We’ll be quoting TED Talk a lot of times. TED Talk is an open, educational platform that has a lot of great talks. It is like the moved house that we’re having, it’s always free and open to everyone. Let’s see. Great. Let’s do a little bit analysis. “Could I protect my father from the Armed Islamic Group with a paring knife?” This question actually, it poses a vivid picture in your mind, right? The paring knife, what we usually call it a fruit knife. “Could I protect my father” you see the worry, the concern from a daughter. “Could I protect my father from the Armed Islamic Group”, this is another keyword. It gave you a sense of terrorist, right? “With a paring knife”, so it’s a very danger. And that I mean“That was the question I faced on Tuesday morning in June of 1993”, it gave you a hint about when, where and what’s happened the time the speaker was a law student. It gives a lot of information in the very beginning and also this is a very good start, actually. And it’s very short. So I believe that Karima did a very good job in attracting your attention in the very beginning, and also giving out so much information in a short, all these short sentences. Ok? Let’s move on to another question. Yes, actually, to begin with, the speaker used a very direct and short question “I have a question: who here remembers when they first realized they were going to die?” Actually, this is not a normal question, this is not a question that you will be asked daily. So, in order to make his point, the speaker has to, you know, create an environment, so what he said is so simple, “I have a question.” This is why I’m telling you that you can always start by making a question, because you can simply make it up. And then you try to answer yourself. And I believe that this speaker actually has taken great advantage of it. Because this question is a very philosophical and is rarely asked. You only by this way, he can attract the audience’s attention very easily. So this is what we learn here. And then we can move on. Some will, uh, I believe the most speakers, the westerners they’re more used to this kind of starting just go to the topic directly. Remember the other day we were talking about the Chinese mentality and the westerners’ thinking mode. There’s a kind of different. We want to do it in a roundabout way, they want to go directly to the topic. Let’s just see it, OK? “Let’s face it: Driving is dangerous.” So, as for this part, we will see some words directly until we find this kind of feel. It means that the key point of his problem will be put forward in the very beginning. Let’s face it.Let’s face it. We know that each time we use the word "face" in English, it usually refers to something bad. That's why we need to "face it" So, his word in the very beginning, the word in the beginning will show all his potential opinions on it behind the whole story, including other people's views. Then, Driving is dangerous. So audiences will know what he is talking about the topic is, driving could be very dangerous. We know that he has made some discussion then “It’s one of the things that we don’t like to think about, but the fact that religious icons and good luck charms show up on dashboards around the world betrays the fact that we know this to be true. If cars can talk, accidents can be avoided.” The theme is over here If cars can talk, accidents can be avoided. In fact, we can guess the theme of his passage is about that kind of smart cars intelligent cars then they can directly use the Internet of Things as we said to avoid the accidents. But actually we’ll see that this is a quite direct opening, “Let’s face it: Driving is dangerous.” And this one sums it up: “If cars can talk, accidents can be avoided.” This is very good. Let’s see another example. “The two most likely largest inventions of our generation are the Internet and the mobile phone. They’ve changed the world. However, largely to our surprise, they also turned to be something else. Basically, what you got here is two keywords, the internet and the mobile phone. And then he’ll be talking about how they changed the world, whatever. Another way to start your speech is to show something physical. So in this case, Malte Spitz was using a cellphone. He was holding a cellphone and then, “Hi. This is my mobile phone. A mobile phone can change your life, and a mobile phone gives you individual freedom. With a mobile phone, you can shoot a crime against humanity in Syria. With a mobile phone, you can tweet a message and start a protest in Egypt.” By showing a mobile phone, attention will immediately aroused. So I believe that if the topic you’re talking about, you have some physical thing you can show up, this is one good way. And I mean the most attractive way, and it’s also very difficult to achieve, is you start by a humorous story or something, like this one. Yes, please. It’s very short and it’s humorous. Let’s look at this again. Why this is humorous? “Imagine spending seven years at MIT and research laboratories” You can imagine spending seventeen years 你想象一下，花了17年的时间 at MIT at research laboratories. At last,you just find yourself a performance artist, becoming a performance artist. So, this is so funny actually. And also I believe that this is a sense of humor that most engineers possess. Many engineers they have this kind of sense of humor. It’s a little bit cold. It’s a little bit cold. But most timely, it’s based on irony about themselves. it’s based on irony, satire about themselves. So that’s why I said that it’s kind of difficult. Well, what you need to do is that, later on, in the future sessions, we’ll be talking about how you can put a good sense of humor by observing many many examples. So you can adjust your sense of humor, a Chinese sense of humor to western style. OK. So basically these are the opening types that I want to talk in class. And for others, I seriously suggest that you may watch a list of good speeches, which I will provide you later. By carefully listen to those great talks, then you may form a better sense. Last one, I want to talk about opening type is if you can quote others. OK. Let’s listen to this again. OK. Now, she is the one who actually cited Patrick Henry “Give me liberty or give me death.” “Give me liberty or give me death.” Once has been used by him. It also gives us a clue of that how you may quote others. This is right in the beginning “Give me liberty or give me death.” Actually she made a big slide over this. For this, she has prepared a very large slide. Maybe at first, it's necessary for her to use it to express her theme. “When Patrick Henry, the governor of Virginia, said these words in 1775, he could never have imagined just how much they would come to resonate with American generations to come.” So when we make this kind of quotation, we need to be cautious, which means, one part is the quotation itself, another part is the information you want to pass on, such as who and when said it. As for the latter words,actually he may not know that what influences it could have on Americans in the future. Then it could be possible exactly when we are quoting some words, especially,some words in the past we may use them.Ok
