Do you enjoy giving public speeches? Are you good at it? Public speaking is an acquired skill that improves with practice and honest feedback.

DID YOU KNOW… Speaking for 20 minutes before the right group of people can do more for your career than spending a year behind a desk!

How to Give a Darn Good Speech! (Take note because your final exam is to give a speech.)

1. Why Are You Giving the Speech? Know your reason! “Because I have to” is not a good reason. You give a speech to inspire, entertain, persuade or provoke.

2. Ask Yourself: “Who’s My Audience?” By knowing your audience, you can speak to their interests, needs, goals and dreams.

3. Don’t Procrastinate! Don’t jam yourself up by waiting until the last minute. Be ready to grab those speech ideas!

4. Be on the Lookout for Information You Can Use in Your Speech. For example, If you are giving a speech today about the SuNeung (수능) and you hear something interesting regarding it on the Korea Today TV show, reference it…incorporate it into your speech.

5. Organize, Organize, Organize! Your speech should have a beginning, middle and end. Consider the “radio writing rule”: Tell them what you’re going to tell them (beginning) Tell them (middle) Tell them what you’ve told them (end)

6. Hook Your Audience Begin your speech with something that “hooks ‘em” right from the start. For example, start with a joke, an interesting quote, or a startling fact.

7. Involve Your Audience Ask them a question or pose a problem. But, don’t lose control…You’re still the person running the show.

8. Practice with Someone You Trust See where their eyes glaze over…and where they light up. Pay attention to sections where you feel uncomfortable or awkward.

9. Be Yourself The audience wants to see you- not a mannequin.

10. DON’T MEMORIZE This is the easiest way to “be yourself”. Create a series of main points you want to discuss and spontaneously expand on each point.

11. Be Vulnerable Reveal your humanity…let your audience know how you’ve screwed up in the past and how you’ve learned from those mistakes. This makes you CREDIBLE (“Wow, he’s telling us the TRUTH!”)

FINALLY, BE BRIEF. As the old saying goes: “Stand up, speak up, shut up, and sit down!”

PUBLIC SPEAKING: GESTURES 1. Avoid the death grip

2. Make eye contact…Really! Look at people directly and in the eyes for 5-10 seconds. Create a bond.

3. Avoid Distracting Mannerisms Have a friend watch as you practice and look for nervous expressions such as: Fidgeting Twitching Lip biting Key jingling Hands in pockets or behind back

4. Make Gestures Convincing Every hand gesture should be a total body movement that starts from the shoulder—never from the elbow. Half-hearted gestures look artificial.

5. Telling a Story? Highlight the action verbs and look for ways to act out one or more parts.

6. Vary your Speaking Position Walk to the other side of the room/stage as you move to a new topic. Move toward the audience as you ask a question.

BIGGEST PUBLIC SPEAKING MISTAKES 1. Starting With a Whimper Exhume confidence! Don’t say “Thank you for that kind introduction.” Start with a BANG!

2. Speaking Without Passion The more passionate you are about a subject, the more influential you’ll be (Great for debates!)

3. Using Someone Elses’ Stories Illustrate your most profound thoughts from your own life experiences…not somebody else’s. If you think you don’t have any interesting stories to tell, you’re not looking hard enough.

3. Ending a Speech with Questions and Answers Instead, tell the audience that you will take questions and then say, “We will move to our closing point.” After the Q and A, tell a story that relates to your speech, or summarize your key points. Conclude with a quote or call to action*. *CTA is a marketing term, a word or phrase, that persuades a person to take immediate action.

4. Failing to Prepare Every time you face an audience, your reputation is at stake. Rehearse well enough to ensure you’ll leave a great impression!

FINAL EXAM: Are You Ready to Give a Speech? Final Exam Requirements: 1. Choose a partner. 2. Collaboratively decide on a topic you’re passionate about. 3. Research your topic. 4. Each pair will speak at least 5 minutes on the topic. (This is a short amount of time, so I want you to especially focus on presentation mannerisms.) 5. Audience members are expected to ask the presenters questions (you will be graded on this). I will limit the number of questions to 3 per presentation. 6. You may use PowerPoint, but certainly don’t have to. 7. Be creative. Be interesting. Follow the Public Speaking rules in this presentation. Practice, practice, practice!

LET’S PRACTICE! Grab a Partner. I want you to talk about the intense education system and/or competitive job market in Korea. Talk about any aspect you choose. Spend some time writing down your main points. Think about incorporating personal experiences. Stand up. Work the room. Evaluate your partner’s presentation mannerisms. Be honest, yet polite, about your feedback. Give your speech to your classmates. How did you feel afterwards?