Hack Your Speaking Skills
acm.org
acm.org
1) Most importantly, practice it out loud. Do it about 20 times and you'll be comfortable enough to deliver it with only glances at note cards. 90% of being nervous comes from not knowing what you're going to do or say.
2) Second most important, make it relevant to your audience. Have you ever tried to carry on a conversation with someone you knew wasn't interested in what you had to say? It's the only thing that to this day still makes me nervous. I've given network neutrality speeches to college students in liberal arts programs, and the thing that works here is heavy use of metaphors. I had the single most attractive girl from class walk up to me at a bar later that week and she told me that she told all her friends how serious network neutrality is. I was baffled.
3) There are actually a set of rules you can follow, giving presentations can be seen as more of a science now (even the part about making your presentations entertaining is written in there). Take a class in school, or two. You really need to learn how to get up in front of large crowds and talk confidently about something. Don't let fear be your reason not to do it.
One hack. Go to a large public meeting and force yourself to ask a question at the microphone. That is a form of public speaking.
Apropos of nothing, I started doing competitive forensics in 8th grade to get over a speech impediment and generic social anxiety, and continued doing it through college. It worked like a charm.
I never considered using the same techniques for, e.g., chatting up young ladies until about this year. Works like a charm. Effity I wish I had realized that ten years ago. (Some of the techniques, anyhow. The whole play-to-crush ethos, not so much. Eye contact? Sounding confident of what you are saying? Intently listening and coming back to things you've both said later in the conversation for emphasis? They work great.)
Toastmasters is highly effective because most everyone there wants to help you improve your public speaking skills. It is an environment for learning and failing without consequences. You can't learn public speaking without an audience, and the Toastmasters club audience is probably the best audience for newbies starting out (e.g. the experienced speakers there emphathise and help you because they were in your position months or years ago)
If anything, you will learn to stop using fillers (umming/ahhing). Pauses ... can be so much more effective). Why? Because someone at each meeting sits there and counts everyone's verbal fidgeting. What can't be measured, can't be improved. Add in public shame and that goes a long, long way. To this day, I am shocked at people two/three levels above me who obviously never worked on their verbal or even non-verbal tics. If you practice, Toastmasters builds unconscious competence in eliminating certain things that may distract the audience (umming, arm swinging, clapsed hands).
The best part of Toastmasters is called Table Topics - where you have to give an impromptu answer to a question. 1-2 minutes. Like some public speaking opportunities are, off the cuff and unrehearsed.
After every speech you give, members will write encouraging comments and feeback on little slips of paper. I still have those little slips of paper in an album somewhere. They still make me feel good. Our club had a video camera - I had all my speeches videotaped. Wow, the camera does not lie - my posture sucked and I rocked my arms [all distractions from your speaking]. And, it is clearly visible to see the progress you make from speech #1 (your icebreaker) to #10.
I highly recommend finding a club that you like (not all clubs are alike) - especially one where no one from your workplace will be (a freer environment to learn public speaking).
I dove into the Toastmasters program. I put a lot into it (VP Membership, mentoring, contests) and got a lot from it. Lastly, I've made some friends (mostly entrepreneurial) through TM that I would not likely have encountered in my normal life. TM brings together some pro-active individuals.
Book recommendation (the best book I've found on public speaking - great because it has so many different viewpoints/perspectives) : http://www.amazon.com/Speaking-Secrets-Masters-Techniques-Pr...
Have you ever done a Table Topics dinner? Dinner at a restaurant and each person has to speak for 2-3 min. while the dinner is being served.
Other than that, Toastmasters is really good. Don't need it if your school gives classes, but it never hurts.
By the way, I can vouch for Owen's speaking abilities =)
Coincidentally I did joke of the day for the first time last week and mostly concur with your opinion.
Probably the best speaking experience I gained was when I stood up in front of 57 students twice a week for a full semester. With the power of life or death (aka A-F) comes responsiblity.
It should be pretty good, because I'm totally beyond the control of Digg PR. Though I will try to be fair and balanced about what actually was a great experience.
Also - thanks YC for the confirmation - I think I'll properly sign up next meeting.
For example, most Americans leave out the "a" in orange, so it sounds like we're saying "ornge." Another example would be that I tend to say the word hospital as "hos-pit-al" which sounds strange to a lot of other Midwesterners who are used to the "hos-pittle" pronunciation.
But having said that, it seems like stretch to say that it affects the speech patterns he's talking about.
World of difference from when I'm stoked about something.
That adrenaline surge burns off pretty fast though. Physiologically you just can't sustain it and (at worst) within about 15-20 minutes you relax. When you teach a class that may be several hours or days long, that means you're relaxed for the vast majority of the time. I think that experience conditioned me to be more relaxed for public speaking in general.
This is utter gibberish. Your vocal cords vibrate when you articulate voiced consonants and vowels. It doesn't matter what language or dialect you speak, it's a fundamental element of all human speech.
There are a lot of great ways to learn how to be a good public speaker and everyone should try to improve, however I have never heard of this throat vs mouth thing.
I am not saying it's not true, I've never tried it. All I am saying is, there is a plethora of resources on public speaking and this is just one of them. If it doesn't work for you, don't get discouraged.
Another possible explanation for British vs American speaking might be cultural.
I am not sure about British school but in a lot of European schools, oral exams are just as much part of the daily curriculum as pop quizzes are in American.
Add to that a difference is how positively or negative a culture views "aahs" and "uhhms", and that can explain a lot.
Only programmer who can express his idea properly can be considered as good programmer.
If you want to do what the article says, just listen to someone British for a while and then try reading some words aloud, enunciating carefully. Try to be as "accentless" as possible, whatever what may mean in your area. This becomes habit after a little while.