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| Presentation Training - If English is Your Second Language |
By TJ Walker
Presentation Training School
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 TJ Walker, president of Media Training Worldwide, is an authority on media and presentation training, with more than 20 years of experience. Walker has trained thousands of CEOs, prime ministers, authors, experts, diplomats and beauty queens in the art of carrying a message to large audiences. His clients include senior executives of Unilever, Bank of America, Hess, Allstate Insurance, Charles Schwab, Akzo Nobel, US Trust, Dun and Bradstreet, The Hartford, and EMC. He is also the official media trainer of the Miss Universe Organization.
Walker is the most widely published and produced media trainer in the world, with more than 50 books, training videos, CDs, and software programs to his credit. He has also been a media columnist for Investor Relations Magazine. More than 65,000 readers subscribe to Walker's weekly Media Training Tips Newsletter, including a majority of the Fortune 500 corporations in the United States.
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Many of my presentation clients come to me from around the world. Here is a common complaint I hear from them:
"TJ, English is not my first language. People have a hard time understanding me when I speak. How can I improve?"
I have them give a sample speech and we videotape it. Sure enough, they are hard to understand. In addition to having an accent, they are speaking softly and in a monotonous fashion. They also happen to be incredibly boring because they are doing a data dump and are going through bullet points on a PowerPoint (nothing specific to foreigners here - all my U.S.-based clients are guilty of the same crimes). |
| Starting Over |
We talk about the possibility of going through months of accent-reduction training, but that doesn't seem very appealing.
Next, I ask them to throw away their old PowerPoint speech and work from a new outline consisting of five main points and one story involving a real conversation with a real client for each story. Then, we watch the video of this speech.
All of a sudden there is a huge difference. When the English-as-a-second language speaker starts to tell relevant stories, all of the following start to happen:
- The voice is louder and clearer.
- The voice has a more conversational quality.
- Eye contact becomes better.
- Facial expressions become more varied and vivid.
- The hands start moving more fluidly.
- The body moves more.
- Pauses become longer and punctuate ideas better.
In short, the speaker goes from being hard to understand to easy to understand. Sure the speaker still has a foreign-sounding accent - but that is OK as long as he or she can be understood. |
| Your Communications Passport |
So, while I recommend that all speakers, regardless of nationality, use stories to highlight key points, it is especially important for foreign speakers to do so to make them more understandable.
Why is this? Because it is practically impossible to tell a story in a dull and lifeless manner, and only too easy to sound empty and flat if your speech is a PowerPoint data dump.
Additionally, it is hard to tell a story without communicating in non-verbal ways that enhance delivery of your message.
So when you are packing your bags for foreign travel, don't forget to put plenty of stories in your suitcase. |
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Additional Lessons for Living and Learning
Media Training - Making Use of Notes: the Do's and Don'ts
Media Training - Top 15 TV Appearance Tips
Media Training - Wimpy Words to Avoid in Interviews
Presentation Training - When Using Notes, Less is More
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