Questions

What do we fear when we get up in front of large or even small groups of people? Is it that they will throw rotten fruits and vegetables at us, tie us to a stake and roast us over a hot fire or simply think less of us? Since the first two are fairly rare, I am assuming for most of us the answer is the latter. I have spent too many hours in my lifetime worrying about what people think of me, but if I remind myself what I am doing when I present it simplifies things.
"What are you doing?" you may ask yourself.
"I'm exchanging information." I respond.
"But you are the only one talking?" you query.
Ah, I may be the only one talking out loud, but every single person listening is having a thought as I speak and hopefully I am responding to those thoughts.

I recently worked with a presenter who wanted to become more comfortable with his material. We found that whenever he turned his material into a question and answer all of the technical elements fell into place. When he verbalized, "What are our objectives for today's session?" he began to breathe and add vocal variety and relax his body and connect visually with his listeners.

"So you actually want me to try this?" you ask incredulously.
"Why not? What do you have to lose? At least use it as a practice technique to see whether or not it changes your relationship to your material or the listener. I've found it even helps answer questions people have around structuring their content." I respond confidently.

Go on-- give it a try!

Santa

Last week, with my one-year old daughter strapped on my back and my four–year old son in tow, we spontaneously made our way into Santa’s workshop on Granville Island. After a rousing rendition of Jingle Bells, accompanied by maracas and bells jangled in a most rhythmically challenged way, my son had the opportunity of a life-time: to sit on Santa’s lap for a full ten minutes. Despite the fact that he has been writing his Christmas wish-list since April 28th, the day after his birthday, he was stunned into silence by the gigantic realness of this mythical being. When Santa came to that perfect of all questions, “What would you like for Christmas?” my son said nothing!!! Santa suggested board games to which Griffin blithely nodded his head in a euphoric stupor, despite the fact that he already has Candy Land and Snakes and Ladders, the two board games Santa proposed bringing.

Now, I don’t know about you, but in the event that I, too, lose my brain the next time I see Santa; I thought I should get down in writing what I would really like. Last year, he brought me the perfect present, a DVD collection of Playing Shakespeare (John Barton’s master class with Royal Shakespeare Company actors bringing life to the Bard’s sonnets, scenes and monologues).
This year I am dying for Patsy Rodenburg’s latest book, The Second Circle. I haven’t read it yet, but take a look at this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ub27yeXKUTY

For those of you confused by the concept of “presentation/performance energy” this is the book for you. I’ll fill you in further in the New Year, if Santa is good to me. I know that what my son really wants is the Playmobil Red Dragon. Think I might have to track Santa down myself and fill him in.

The Pacific Voice Clinic

Dr. Linda Rammage, a speech-language pathologist, wrote a wonderful little book on vocal health called "Vocalizing with Ease." Here is a link to more information about the book, as well as some important “Do’s and Don’ts” for getting the most from your voice.

If you ever fear that you may have a vocal health issue in need of consultation, use this site as a reference.

http://pvcrp.com/about_pvcrp.php

The Voice and Speech Trainers' Association (VASTA)

The Voice and Speech Trainers' Association (VASTA) is a worldwide organization designed to link voice and speech trainers and to provide a space where lay people can access a trainer. Part of their mandate is to spread the message of vocal health, and this site provides a thorough list of online resources that cover basic anatomy, vocal disorders, and much more.

http://www.vasta.org/

VoiceGuy

Eric Armstrong, a professor with the Department of Theatre at York University, has created an outstanding web-based resource. His website is easy to read with podcasts that take you from relaxing the body, breathing and simple sound, into more intermediate voice practices.

Download all of them onto your iPod and you can have a voice workout wherever you go.

http://voiceguy.ca/

Fillers and Mosquitos

With the heat each summer arrives a bevy of insidious mosquitoes that buzz in our ears and leave big welts on our skin. So each night, my husband has a whole routine that he follows to the letter: all windows and doors are shut at dusk, citronella essential oil is positioned near all drains and then the fly swatter comes out and any remaining mosquitoes are "taken care of". It works beautifully, but only if he performs his nightly routine.

I have had a few requests to discuss the idea of fillers; those "likes", "ers", "ummms" that creep unknowingly and sometimes all too frequently into our lectures, casual conversations and other important interchanges. Linguists disagree as to whether this is a negative or positive aspect of speech but most listeners would agree that by the tenth "ummm" in a two minute time period, we are paying more attention to the "ummm" than the content.

So what can we do to reduce these fillers if we find that they are running amok in our speech?

1. Assess what fillers you use. We each have our own and a good friend, partner or respected student will usually be able to help you out with this (in a respectful manner). Another choice is to record yourself speaking spontaneously on a set topic.

2. Don't be afraid to pause when you sense a filler approach. Sometimes verbalizing the "ummm" is our way to buy time as we develop the perfect wording for our communication.

3. Practice in manageable chunks. Concentrating on fillers all the time may become overwhelming. Choose a brief interchange, a five minute section in your lecture or short presentation where your focus for that moment can be on reducing fillers.

4. Expand your vocabulary. Learn a new word each day and soon the joy of finding just the right word will allow you to resist the general "umm" as you toss "penultimate" at your now intrigued listener.

5. Take time to practice a little bit each day and ask for feedback from others regarding your use of fillers.

Now, we still get a few mosquitoes from time to time, despite my husband's efforts and you will probably find that the fillers will appear occasionally even after all this work. What matters most is that you feel more confident and less held back and restricted in your communication.

Go ahead-- get out that fly swatter and reduce those fillers!

Excerpt from "The Memoirs of Speedy Gonzales"

I love working with scholars who value language and the process of learning as much as the subject matter itself. Dorritta Fong, from the English Department, is a prime example of the thoughtfulness I see so often. I first met Dorritta when she attended a Clear Speech workshop I gave in April and since then I have the opportunity to lead her through several thirty minute private sessions. One of the reasons she had enrolled in the class was because several students and colleagues had commented that her speech was too quick for them to follow. In our first few sessions, I encouraged her to experiment with diaphragmatic breathing to support her speech instead of the upper thoracic or chest breathing she was accustomed to. She reported the next week that her discoveries were both "startling and humbling". The more she concentrated on breathing the easier it became-- until she went back in the classroom and found that she fell right back into her habitual way of communicating. Here's how she described the process:

"Since these modes of speaking are habitual, though, and comfortable, I am learning that I simply need to learn new practices. The work to undertake new habits is, at times, frustrating, and frequently difficult. I am needing to concentrate on my breathing, and trying to listen to my body. Doing such normal and natural things is astoundingly difficult. Breathing is both involuntary, in that we must do so, impelled by the body, but also voluntary, in that we can choose and control how to breathe. However, learning to over-ride what I normally do, with what I need to do, is a struggle. And I am stopping to tell myself to “Breathe!” many times a day. As well, my own sense of myself is that I think in complex, long, complete thoughts, as if I had a ticker tape unspooling iin my head. Thus, I find that trying to be conscious about what I am saying, considering what to emphasise, where to pause, when to breathe, how to place stress, whose reaction to note, and why I am speaking, is very odd. I feel, sometimes, as if my head contains a set of gerbils who have been running along, in tandem, on little wheels, complacently for years, without direction. Now, suddenly, as the über gerbil, or the rodent queen, I am trying to step in, with my little sceptre, and assert, in my squeaky (but eventually majestic) voice—“Okay, you. Breathing gerbil—fill the diaphragm. And you, pitch gerbil—vary things. You, speed gerbil, give it a rest. Emphasis gerbil—make yourself heard.” Trying to co-ordinate all these rodents and keep all the wheels churning along smoothly is exhausting, and I am finding that, to my friends, and to myself, I sometimes sound strange, and stilted. But this is temporary and will pass.

I am proceeding slowly, and am noticing small, but real changes. I am realising that Ms. Turner is helping me to allow myself time and capacity to speak in a considered and effective way. I am finding that I feel less anxious about speaking. I feel less pressure to rush on to the next idea. I am choosing my words more deliberately. I am reacting more thoughtfully to my audience, and registering their comprehension, or lack of it. Most importantly, since I want to speak to be understood, focusing on how I speak will eventually allow me to communicate in a mode other than English as an Accelerated and Incomprehensible Language."

Go Dorritta!