If I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not careful this will turn into a rant about people who are reading in church but who don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t rehearse.\u00c2\u00a0 It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not, of course, a problem limited to Bible-readers, but let me use one as an example… I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve just had to decode the following reading which, to be honest, reads more like a badly constructed Hyku! It has the wrong number of syllables but pretty much the same slightly surreal and disjointed feel that many of them have….<\/p>\n
I particularly wanted to laugh at the way the last \u00e2\u20ac\u0153sentence\u00e2\u20ac\u009d was emphasised, giving it the feel of an exclamation. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153That way!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d.\u00c2\u00a0 It really would have been better suited to part of a conversation about running away from a monster.<\/p>\n
“Quick! \u00c2\u00a0That way<\/strong>! \u00c2\u00a0He can’t follow us if we make over the bridge!”<\/p>\n Now, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s absolutely obvious to anyone with half an ounce of common sense what the reader was trying to say (although the Bible translation used doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make it any easier for people by having bad grammar, I know).\u00c2\u00a0 The point is though, that while-ever my mind is pre-occupied with \u00e2\u20ac\u02dctranslating\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 from what it sounds-like-was-meant to what I figure probably-is-meant, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m less able to concentrate on the meaning<\/strong>.<\/p>\n That in turn means that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m less likely to understand it and, ultimately, less likely to act upon what I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve heard.<\/p>\n And that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the best possible solution – it could get worse, because it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not out of the question that I might put such a set of \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcsentences\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 together in a way which isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t<\/strong> what was meant at all!<\/p>\n Surely the point of talking to people is to tell them something.\u00c2\u00a0 And in doing that, you want the world to be a slightly different place.\u00c2\u00a0 If the world isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t going to change (even a little bit), why are you telling them something at all?\u00c2\u00a0 If I tell you I drink tea with milk in it but no sugar but you still put sugar in it, what was the point of me telling you anything?<\/p>\n In most business situations the way in which you want the world to change is in the way someone behaves.\u00c2\u00a0 Perhaps you want them to invest in our company.\u00c2\u00a0 Perhaps you simply want them to understand why you can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t do what they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re asking for and that they should leave you alone to get on with what you can<\/strong> do.\u00c2\u00a0 Perhaps you want them to give you a promotion – or give you a job.\u00c2\u00a0 Perhaps you want to get them to use the technology you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve just invented!<\/p>\n So who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s responsibility is it to make sure what you say is understood by your audience?<\/p>\n No surprises for guessing what my answer is…<\/p>\n So then, here are some (very!) simple hints for making things easier for you if you want your audience to find it easier to get to grips with what you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re saying (and therefore more likely to understand you, remember you and act on what you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re saying!).<\/p>\n One – Practice.<\/strong> If you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going to read something to people, read it ahead of time.\u00c2\u00a0 Only real experts can read and speak at the same time.\u00c2\u00a0 And believe me, there are far fewer of these experts than think they are experts!\u00c2\u00a0 Just reading through the passage even once would have solved the problems in the example at the top of the page, as the reader would have known the point and flow of the passage.<\/p>\n Two – Translate.<\/strong> If your audience doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t speak Slovak, you wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t start talking to them in Slovak, would you?\u00c2\u00a0 No, not if you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got any choice.\u00c2\u00a0 So if your audience doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t speak Geek, why would you talk to them in Geek?!\u00c2\u00a0 If they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t speak Accounting Jargon, why would you?!\u00c2\u00a0 At the very least you need a translator.<\/p>\n Three – Breathe.<\/strong> You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll all have been told, when you were kids, by your teacher that you put a comma in your writing when you take a breath.\u00c2\u00a0 (Technically that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not quite accurate but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s close enough for teaching younger kids!)\u00c2\u00a0 The major downside is that people tend to assume the reverse is true and so whenever they hear a breath, they infer a comma. Get your breathing sorted out by learning to breathe with your diaphragm so that you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have to breathe in the middle of a sentence.\u00c2\u00a0 That way, when you breath, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be because you want<\/em> to, not because you need<\/em> to!<\/p>\n Simple.<\/p>\n Of course the last one in particular is easier said than done… but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s worth it! \u00c2\u00a0The example I gave at the top of the page was cause, in part, because the speaker was running out of breath as they tried to make themselves heard.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not careful this will turn into a rant about people who are reading in church but who don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t rehearse.\u00c2\u00a0 It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not, of course, a problem limited to Bible-readers, but let me use one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,9,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal-blog-related","category-presentation-tips","category-rant"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awareplus.co.uk\/presentation-skills-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awareplus.co.uk\/presentation-skills-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awareplus.co.uk\/presentation-skills-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awareplus.co.uk\/presentation-skills-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awareplus.co.uk\/presentation-skills-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.awareplus.co.uk\/presentation-skills-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awareplus.co.uk\/presentation-skills-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awareplus.co.uk\/presentation-skills-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awareplus.co.uk\/presentation-skills-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}