June 8 reflection

    Throughout doing a quick speech practice during class the last two weeks, I’ve learnt many things, not only through presenting myself but also by being a part of the audience.

The first point I learnt about being an audience and watching other people present, is that it’s hard to control the breathing points when speaking. Just like singing, I find that breathing points are important to keep everything on a nice tempo or rhythm. For example, it’s a nice time to breathe in and take maybe 2-3 seconds to do so, when changing a topic. However, when you are talking about something that requires you to talk in a continuous manner, it could break the tempo. I also find that taking moments to breathe also allows people to calm down. After seeing some people take deep breaths, I could tell their shoulders sat lower and not so stiff, giving off the impression that they were confident—one of the most important elements to a presentation. However, one thing that I noticed in advance was that many people would often start their sentences with “um” right after taking deep breaths, which is probably because we try to avoid silence. Another thing I noticed was that people would often look up when breathing in. This may be fine to do in some situations, but looking up gives the impression that the presenter is thinking or anxious, which can also be viewed as a lack of self confidence.

   The second point I realized was that good presenters would often use their eyebrows. Especially at a time when it’s hard to read facial expressions because of face masks, it’s important we use our features that aren’t covered by masks (for instance eyes or eyebrows), to express emotions. Specifically, using eyebrows include raising them when talking about something happy or exciting, and lowering them when relaxed, and squinting(?) between the brows when talking about something sad. Although it is important to use your eyebrows, we should also be careful of not using them too much, as it might distract the audience.

   Next, moving onto what I learnt from presenting myself, the first point is about making it look like you are walking slowly and as fluently as possible. Looking back at my gestures during the presentation, I realized I was moving with my knees stiff most of the time. This doesn’t allow you to walk as fluently and again gives off the impression of the lack of self confidence. In addition to walking with my knees stiff, I sometimes also walked sideways, which Mr. Paterson called it “the ninja walk”. This is one of the habits I have on a daily basis, and am trying to get rid of. 

   Instead of doing the ninja walk, when presenting, focusing your weight on one leg will help distribute the weight through the two, and make you look way more relaxed.