How to effectively present in English in the 21st Century

Your language ability does not matter if your story is compelling

The story of Hyeon Seo Lee and her escape from North Korea is an amazing story. The fear, the risks and the sheer bravery this young lady has shown is incredible.

From a presentational point of view, what you will notice is that because the story is so compelling, you very soon forget that Hyeon Seo does not speak perfect English, her pronunciation is off a little and sometimes she struggles with her words.

But when you have a compelling story, that resonates with your audience all these small details are very quickly forgotten.

You do not need PowerPoint slides full of text. You just need a great story. Hyeon Seo used a few images that were powerful and really showed the dangers she encountered. But the stand out feature of this presentation was the story. It was not her slide deck or how she spoke it was the pure power of her story.

A true inspiration to anyone presenting in English

As an adult learner of English in full-time employment, you face many challenges. Many of these challenges are caused by your work and lack of time to study regularly for any reasonable length of time. It is because of this that you need to design your own learning programme that fits into your schedule. Everyone will be different, some people prefer to study first thing in the morning, others may prefer to study late at night. Whichever is better for you, that is the first step.

Below are a few suggestions to designing your own learning programme that will fit your needs and requirements and ultimately give you a better chance of being successful with your learning programme.

1. Begin with language that you actually need and will use regularly.

To do this you need to make a list of the situations you may find yourself in where you will need English. Think about the times when you wished you could say something in English, but you lacked the words or the phrases to express yourself. Think also of any future situations that you feel you may need to be able to express yourself in English. Places like the airport, train station, immigration control or a night club. Whatever situation you think of, add it to your list.

2. Short, consistent periods of time is better than long periods inconsistently.

This one should be a no-brainer. It is far better to spend twenty minutes per day doing something in English, than to do three or four hours straight once a month. You are going to learn far more in those twenty minutes than you ever will if you just cram everything into one three to four hour period.

The best way to do this is to schedule a time every day that you know you will be able to consistently meet. It is no good saying to yourself that you will wake up thirty minutes early to study, when you know deep down that you are not good at rising early. Much better for you to schedule time during lunch or in the evening. It is only twenty minutes afterall. You can find twenty minutes per day if you really want to.

3. Write Out A timetable

Once you have scheduled your daily time, prepare yourself a schedule that reflects the list you made in step one. Put only the English you want to learn into the scheduled slots. This way you will maintain your motivation after the initial enthusiasm has died down.

Now for the best bit. Part of your daily twenty minutes can, and should, include the research you need to do the study. For example. On Monday you may do an internet search for dialogues related to calling a taxi. Then on Tuesday, you can spend your twenty minutes learning the dialogues you found on Monday. Perhaps during your research you found an interesting dialogue on conversations with a taxi driver, now you can expand your learning on Wednesday to answering simple questions from taxi drivers.

4. Don’t Set a Deadline

Learning a foreign language is a neverending process. New words, phrases and expressions are entering languages every day. I am a native English speaker, but almost every day I am picking up new phrases and expressions. These I have heard on the radio, on TV or even read them in a book.

By all means set yourself a goal to do this programme consistently for twelve months, or even three months to see how you get on. But do not say to yourself I will only do this for six or twelve months. What you need to do is to make it a habit. Like an exercise programme, to maintain your fitness you need to consistently exercise. Just because you ran a full-course marathon, does not mean six months later you will be able to do it again if you do no training. Like exercise, learning a language is an on-going process.   

The most important thing to remember is to be realistic. Too often Learning programmes fail because we set unrealistic time scales and expectations. Take it easy, there really is no rush. Take one situation at a time and get comfortable with each situation before moving on to the next one. By being realistic and controlling your expectations you will find that learning English is not only easier than you imagined, but it is much more fun.

Professor Robert Winston is a British professor of medicine and science, as well as a member of the British House of Lords, a TV presenter and pioneer in human fertility treatments.

It is as a TV presenter that Professor Winston has become a household name in the United Kingdom, because of his ability to take a very complex subject, science and medicine, and to simplify it through the use of stories.

As presenters we can learn a lot from Professor Winston’s style.

The key element to Professor Winston’s style is to use words and descriptions that everyone would understand. He does not use medical jargon or difficult to pronounce latin words, he uses every day common words such as “the heart”, “the brain”, “the liver”. This is language that is understandable to everybody.

Using jargon in any presentation is bad. Even if you are sure all members of your audience will understand what you are talking about, but you can never be 100% sure. It is far better to avoid jargon altogether and keep the words you use to everyday phrases and expressions.

Professor Winston communicates his message by making data interesting. For example, when talking about the number of people who die in the UK each day, he expresses it by saying “by the end of this programme, 60 people will have died in the United Kingdom” this number is easy to understand and appreciate, and is simple to understand. It is also remarkably memorable.

Taking your presentation subject and turning it into a story with easy to understand examples and data sets, really does make a difference to your presentation. It makes it memorable, and actionable. And that is what you want to achieve.

Professor Winston’s voice is also a strong factor in his speaking style. It is not monotonous and he varies his tone and inflection. He speeds up when he needs to and slows down when pointing out something that is important.

You too need to vary your tone and speed when speaking. It will help you to sound much more natural and much more human. Far better than speaking with one tone – then you just sound like a robot.

At a presentation seminar recently I was asked a question about Prezi and whether or not it was a good way of doing a Presentation.

The answer to this question is actually quite simple.

As with any presentation software or tool, it is not the software or tool that really matters, but whether or not the tool you use coveys your message in the most effective way.

To me, a presentation is a method of communication that allows us to inform a large group of people our ideas and messages. It does not matter whether we are giving a presentation on our latest sales figures, launching a new product or telling the world of an idea we have through TED, what matters is that we inform our audience in a way that they find both appealing and memorable.

The danger with Prezi, and any other presentation software, is that the presentation becomes more about the animation than it does about the message. It is when this happens that the tool you are using becomes a barrier rather than an effective way of delivering your message.

So, before you decide what software or tool you use to do your next presentation, decide what you main message is and what you want your audience to remember and take away with them. Once that is decided, then you can make the decision on what is the best method of conveying that message.

아래는, 저희 블로그의 게스트인 Carl Kwon 과 Liam Lusk의 블로그 Presentation Expressions 에서 이들과 함께 찍은 인터뷰 영상 링크입니다.

링크를 클릭하시면 블로그 원문과 함께 인터뷰 동영상을 보실 수 있습니다.

 프레젠테이션 전문가이자 한국의 많은 대기업체에서 트레이너를 맡고 있는 칼 풀린씨를 다시 한번 초대하게 되어 기쁘게 생각합니다. 원래는 15분동안 인터뷰를 할 예정이었지만, 칼이 인터뷰를 너무나 잘해 준 바람에 거의 30분 가량이나 이야기를 나누게 되었습니다! 하여 저희는 칼의 인터뷰 동영상을 두 파트로 나누어 올리기로 결정했습니다.

 인터뷰를 하게 된 주 취지는, 최근 동계 올림픽 유치 기간에 있었던 한국의 프레젠테이션에 대한 칼의 의견을 얻고자 함 이었습니다. 특별히 그 중에서도 이명박 대통령과 올림픽 피켜 스케이팅 금메달 리스트인 김연아 선수의 프레젠테이션에 대해 그의 의견을 듣고 싶었습니다.

 전 세계의 한국인들이, 이명박 대통령이 영어로 프레젠테이션을 얼마나 잘 할지 무척 궁금해 했을 것이라 확신합니다. 이 궁금증과 호기심은 대한민국의 국민소녀 김연아 선수에 대해서도 마찬가지였을 것입니다. 김연아 선수가 이렇게 길게 영어로 이야기 하는 것을 들어 보는 게 대부분 처음이다 보니, 모두들 잔뜩 기대하고 흥분되어 있었습니다.

어쨌든, 칼은 저희에게 훌륭한 식견도 보여주고 프레젠테이션 팁들도 알려주었습니다. 그의 인터뷰 동영상이 여러분들께 유익하고 흥미로울 것이라 장담합니다….. 심지어 재미도 있을 수 있습니다. Liam과 제가 이 세 가지를 모두 느꼈던 것처럼 말입니다. 재미있게 보시고 여러분의 생각은 어떠하신지 알려주시기 바랍니다. 질문이 있으시다면, 문의해 주시기 바랍니다.