From the life of famous orators

Translator and presentation

As a translator, you will be involved in presentation events. Translator has to stand up and face an audience from time to time. Sometimes you will have to give or translate a speech at a dinner. Sometimes it is a conference or a professor’s lecture where you make a consecutive or simultaneous translation to a big audience in a conference or assembly hall.

Being able to communicate the message through “presentation” has become a very important skill. Developing effective presentation skills is one of the best things you can do for yourself and certainly one of the most rewarding. If you take the time to prepare well and to present your talk effectively, you will no longer fear speaking in public, but will welcome the opportunity.

The main objective of this chapter is to help you to improve your presentation skills through planning, preparation, and performance. Reading and learning presentation techniques will turn you into a competent, confident speaker.

All the great speakers were bad speakers once. (Emerson, The Conduct of Life, 1993)

Many people, and students among them, have fears to talk before other people. But it is quite normal to be nervous before talking to large groups. Famous politicians have confessed to feeling literally sick with nerves before making a speech. Lloyd George (Prime Minister during the First World War), who is still considered by many to have been the best orator and debater in his country, was said to have been like a cat on hot bricks before he had to speak in the House of Commons.

Radio recordings of famous speakers reveal that the practice gained over the years perfected their art. Early recordings of Lloyd George have none of the power and oratory that he later developed. Similarly, videos spanning Margaret Thatcher’s career to Prime Minister reveal just how much coaching changed her appearance, her voice and her delivery. However, Tony Blair was as good when he was shadow spokesman for trade as he later was as Prime Minister.

‘But how can I get practice?’ you may say. Think over your life. There have been occasions when you asked someone else to say a few words to open a meeting, or thank a visiting speaker and you have hastily declined saying, ‘No! I’m really no good at that sort of thing. Ask so-and-so. They’ve got the gift of the gab.’ Have you sat through a public meeting and felt dying to put your point of view, but you couldn’t get to your feet? Well, from now on, take every opportunity to ‘say a few words.’

Lloyd George prepared his speeches very thoroughly with the help of Roget’s Thesaurus and often wrote them out before hand and learned them by heart. He was renowned as a brilliant phrase-maker. To that skill with the language he added a dramatic talent and the voice to demand attention. Many great speakers have the essential talent of making speeches sound informal. It seems as though they are thinking on their feet, but the work has been done long before they reach the platform.

There are two techniques of making a good presentation, which we can learn from experienced speakers – preparation and practice. Both are equally important.

Дата добавления: 2014-11-20