Monday, April 29, 2013

USING LANGUAGE TO COMMUNICATE

USING LANGUAGE TO COMMUNICATE
The race is on. We are confronted on all sides by people willing to communicate with us and elicit promises from us. So I thought it would be a good idea to explore the effectiveness of word choices. Communicating with precision is not easy. There are a number of essentials to adhere to - the virtues of 1- Accuracy. 2-. Simplicity. 3.- Coherence. 4- Appropriateness. These are the primary essentials of effective word choices.

Choose words that are the exact shade of meaning you wish to communicate. Abraham Lincoln once said “speak so that the lowliest can understand you, and the rest will have no difficulty. Simplicity does not mean that your language must be simplistic, or that you should talk down to your audience. Use short easily understandable words that convey precise concrete meanings. Audiences do not have the luxury of going back over your points as they do in reading, hence the need for coherence.

Besides being accurate, clear, and properly intense, your language should be appropriate to the topic and to the situation. Solemn occasions call for diction that is restrained and dignified. Joyful occasions for word choices that are informal and lively. Suit your language to the tone of the occasion. These suggestions will help you in the construction of your future speeches. Good luck with them.

Speak Easy Toastmasters meet on alternate Thursdays at 8pm at the Hibernian Hotel Mallow. Next meeting Thurs May2nd.
Non members are most welcome and never asked to speak.

Contact Jerry 0863752895,or Noel 0872427485.

"Follow us on Facebook "Speak Easy Toastmasters", on Twitter "@speakeasytm" and our blog"http://speakeasytm.blogspot.

www.speakeasytoastmasters.com

Sunday, April 21, 2013

Come Swim With Me

An attentive audience enjoyed a lively meeting at Speakeasy Toastmasters this week. Toastmaster Liam Flynn joined President Jerry Mulcahy and Topicsmaster Michael Cronin at the top table. Liam was in sparkling form, introducing the speakers and explaining the running of the meeting for the benefit of guests and keeping order in a most humorous manner.

There were four very interesting speeches in the first half of the meeting, and four excellent evaluations of said speeches after the tea break.
First to the lectern was Anne Walsh. In a speech entitled " the Average Consumer",Anne proved herself to be anything but, highlighting the misleading advertising of goods she observed in a supermarket and showing her knowledge of the 2007 Consumer Act. Anne's excellent speech certainly gave us food for thought and also made us aware of the usefulness of the National Consumer Agency. Mary Buckley evaluated Anne's speech.

Kieran Butler gave a wonderful absorbing speech about oratory, using the great example of Abraham Lincoln. The tips Kieran passed on courtesy of President Lincoln, were:- keep it short, use imagery, end strong and revise, revise, revise. Kieran however besides passing on these useful tips, also entertained us greatly with quotes from the great man, not just the famous ones, but amusing ones also such as "marriage is neither heaven nor hell, its just purgatory". Claire O' Connell evaluated Kieran's speech.

Brid Broderick, a most welcome guest from the Nice and Easy Club gave a beautiful uplifting, entertaining speech called "Come swim with me". In it Brid described her quick progression once she started to learn swimming to become part of the Mallow Marlins Team and to take part in the Special Olympics. Brid 's humour and talent for engaging the audience was complimented by her evaluator, Margaret O'Regan.
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Angela Sheehan 's speech was an exercise in "accepting an award", and Angela cleverly used the acceptance of a plaque as one of the 20 Club Presidents, which she received on the 20th Anniversary Celebration Night to produce this hugely entertaining speech, which gave the audience a lovely insight into Angela's warm connection with Speakeasy Toastmasters. Tony O'Regan evaluated Angela's speech.
Interspersed, with the speeches and before the evaluations session, Topicsmaster Michael gave out a varied list of topics. Members only are asked topics and have 2 minutes to respond before the bell rings. If anyone wants to add on they can do so and have 1 minute. The topics ranged from tattoos to telepathy and drew a great response from the audience. Michael was warmly congratulated by Toastmaster Liam for his role as MC at the 20th Anniversary Celebration Night.

Rona Coughlan was General Evaluator on the night and ably managed this job of evaluating the evaluators and the meeting as a whole.
Anne O'Donovan performed the timekeeping duties. Pat Sexton was grammarian and chose" insipid" as his word for the night, and all present were delighted the meeting was the opposite as usual.
All were warmly welcomed to the meeting by guest greeters, Marie Lynes, Mary Moynihan and Ronan Condon.
Speak Easy Toastmasters meet on alternate Thursdays at 8pm at the Hibernian Hotel Mallow. Next meeting Thurs May 2nd.
Non members are most welcome and never asked to speak.
Contact Jerry 0863752895,or Noel 0872427485.
"Follow us on Facebook "Speak Easy Toastmasters", on Twitter "@speakeasytm" and our blog"http://speakeasytm.blogspot.

www.speakeasytoastmasters.com

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Nerves Are Natural

Nervousness is natural before making presentations but there is help at hand in toastmaster clubs.

Regardless of your preparation beforehand, nervousness, to varying degrees is inevitable…and natural. Even the most experienced of speakers are nervous before a speech or presentation but they know how to control that nervousness and indeed turn in into positive energy that adds to their presentation.

If your palms sweat and your knees shake, let them. Focus on your material, you have it prepared and rehearsed and very soon into your delivery you will find that your nervousness will dissipate.

When you are being introduced or just before you start, take a deep breath and slowly exhale. This will make your voice sound resonant and natural.
While speaking, make eye contact with as many members of the audience as possible so no one feels left out of your talk.

There are of course many more skills to be learned in making a presentation such as, how to use hand gestures, when to use humour, body movement, voice projection etc and these are learned and practiced at every Toastmasters meeting.

Remember that Toastmasters is about people developing their public speaking and leadership skills by practicing in a comfortable sociable environment with other learners.

Why don’t you come along to any one of our meetings and see for yourself?
You will be delighted that you did and we would be delighted to meet you.

Speak Easy Toastmasters meet on alternate Thursdays at 8pm at the Hibernian Hotel Mallow. Next meeting Thurs 18th April.
Non members are most welcome and never asked to speak.
Contact Jerry 0863752895,or Noel 0872427485.
"Follow us on Facebook "Speak Easy Toastmasters", on Twitter "@speakeasytm" and our blog"http://speakeasytm.blogspot.

www.speakeasytoastmasters.com

Tuesday, April 09, 2013

Contest Results; "Born to Run" and other great speeches

On Thursday, 4th April Mallow Speakeasy Club hosted the Toastmasters Area Final for speech and evaluation contestants. Maire Corbett, from the Galtee Club , conducted a most enjoyable meeting with ease.

Geraldine Conway from the Failte Club created a warm , relaxed atmosphere with her mainly humorous topics.
There were five contestants in the Speech category. Eilish Ui Bhriain from the Fermoy club delivered the first speech ‘ Deoch an Dorais’ . She gave a humorous, evocative speech based on her rural upbringing. It concerned the visit of an official and the improvising skills of her mother to make one bottle of stout go further!

Pat Sexton from Mallow was next to speak with ‘Born to Run’ . In this inspirational speech we learnt about Fauja Singh who distinguished himself at the age of one hundred, in Toronto, by becoming the oldest man to complete a marathon . In his very descriptive talk he reinforced his message that age is merely a number.

‘ The Subconscious Mind, Friend or Foe?’ was the intriguing title of Mallow’s Claire O’Connell’s speech. Claire gave us an insight into the powerful effect of conditioning on people’s self image. She gave a humorous account of how it is possible to achieve your goals through positive thinking before bedtime. She even encouraged us to imagine ourselves out of the Recession!

Ann Lyons from the Galtee Club followed with an uplifting speech entitled ‘Courage’. She described how she was literally lifted out of the doom and gloom by the determination and amazing courage of the athletes in the Olympics and particularly, the Paralympics. She went on to reflect on the courage of everyday heroes. She concluded that ‘courage doesn’t always roar, sometimes it is that little voice that says ‘I will try again tomorrow’.

Kevin Walsh from Fermoy was the final contestant with a speech called ‘Lightening Lines’. In this vividly descriptive speech Kevin gave us an insight into his personal experiences of threatened hearing and sight loss. His great sense of appreciation was infectious. He impressed on us that every moment is precious. Like Louis Armstrong he urged us to realize that it is truly ‘a wonderful world’. Kevin Walsh was chosen to represent the area in the Division final in Oriel House on April 21st.

Bill Doyle from Newcastlewest gave a very humorous, entertaining speech , ‘Bear with Me’ for the Evaluation contestants. Will Finn from the Failte Club was first to evaluate. He was, followed by Kieran Connolly and Kevin Walsh, both from Fermoy, Ann Lyons from the Galtee Club was next. The final two contestants Pat Sexton and Marie Fitzpatrick represented Mallow. Pat Sexton was chosen to represent the area in the Division Final in Oriel House, Ballincollig on 21st April.
Michael Sheehan ,the Area Governor addressed the meeting. He stressed that all the contestants were winners on the night. He expressed the appreciation of all present on the high standard displayed by all those who competed on the night.
Frank ODriscoll from Fermoy acted as Chief Judge on the night and Pat Duggan did the timekeeping.
Speakeasy Toastmasters meets every 2nd Thursday in the Hi-B, next meeting at 8pm Hibernian Mallow April 18th. Non members are most welcome and are never asked to speak. Contact Jerry 086 3752895,or Noel 087 2427485.
"Follow us on Facebook "Speak Easy Toastmasters", on Twitter "@speakeasytm" and our blog"http://speakeasytm.blogspot.

www.speakeasytoastmasters.com