What I've Got From ICEC Today

Today we have some kind of speech training. Here I want to make a description about our training today so that dear readers can also practice it themselves :

• coach give a member certain random word
• the chosen member has 30 seconds to build up what he want to say
• then the chosen member will have to talk about that topic for about 2.30 minutes
• the given time can be modified depends on you; the thinking time can be lengthened up to 5 minutes for longer speech, also can be reduced to 0 seconds to train your spontaneous reaction as I say. Optimizad speech is about 7-10 minutes, but it's vary from person to person

From what we did this morning, there's some conclusion that I've got :

• it's easier to talk about something specific. for example, if you're given a word "love", it's a very wide topic, and you might start to make an unfocused speech. When a word "warplane" si given, you might be able to tell the audience about the history of warplanes, the examples of warplanes, the classification of warplanes, etc. Of course, it's easier to talk about something you really know about, or something that you are interested in
• to make a good speech, you must understand what you are saying, so you won't be lost idea about what you are talking about. It's not funny if the one who is talking doesn't even understand about what he/she is talking about. You don't want to be a laughing matter, right?
• no matter how deep your understanding about that certain topic, not all the audience have the same level of understanding with you. That's why, you have to make a clear definition about the topic. Creating a general understanding for all the audience is very important to avoid multi-intepretation. Also, you can make a limitation about the topic to make it more specific and easier for you to talk about it
• the purpose of talking is to share your idea to another person. No matter how cool, or how great your idea is, if the way you talk is boring, the audience will not pay attention to you. So, you have to grab their attention. You can make a joke, or give them some question, or making a background story. But remember, these things are just an addition attached to your speech, the most important thing is still the thing that you are going to say. Don't make a speech that has so much additional feature but lack in idea; that's just like an over-decorated small piece of cake
• there're sayings like "no matter whoever the singer is, the most important thing is the song itself" or "don't judge a book by it's cover". Those are wise sayings, but in real life, the singer and the book cover are also important. So make sure that you look good enough for the audience. People will appreciate you more if you  are well dressed and have your hair neat, rather than wearing casual t-shirt and messy hair. If you have a good 'first look', you'll have better chance to grab the audience's attention
• no matter how  good your appereance is, if your voice is too low and you speak like a kid chewing a gum, noone will hear you. So it's a must to speak clearly and have a good intonation. It doesn't always mean loudly, but make sure you're not mumbling. Give an accentuation for the words that you want to be highlighted so they will know that this part is important. Even a single word from a confident person will convince the audience more than a full sentence from a mumbling mouth

Well, that's all I got (and all I can say today). Have a good practice guys, and don't forget to come to ICEC's next meeting every thursday,  7.30 a.m at 4t floor of the main building. Have a nice day :)