Some who might have gone to this sabbatical might claim that it was very boring as all we did there was to give speeches, listen to speeches, and give more speeches. Well, I do agree that that was all we did, but at the same time, useful tips as well as techniques were taught to us to be more confident, and most importantly, engaging when giving our speeches to a large group of audience on a certain topic. Furthermore, it is undeniable that from the practice we had from presenting speech was able to help many of the students overcome their stage fright as well as give a more persuasive as well as interesting speech.
On the first day of sabbatical, my thoughts were the same as many others; why did I get into this sabbatical of all? The title itself seemed so boring and I thought I was going to waste 5 days of my life listening to crap. However, I was proved wrong on the first day of sabbatical. There were in fact so much more to presenting speeches then what we knew; impacts, rhetorical question, repetition, there were just far too much method that we can use to give an interesting speech, so why are we giving speeches that would make the audience themselves fall asleep?
On the last day of the sabbatical, which is the assessment, I must say that it was a hilarious thing of me to prepare a PowerPoint presentation instead of a speech. Nevertheless, I could see the improvement in me presenting in front of a large group of audience as compared to the first lesson. I was able to be more aware of my audience as well as use some of the techniques which was taught, mainly rhetorical questioning.
I must say that among all the sabbaticals I've been through, this one would definitely be the most helpful to me in the near future. However, I also learnt a very important thing from this sabbatical; never to be complacent in giving speeches as well as to know your own script like the back of your hand.
I am speaking from the point of view of a person who has personally experienced the sabbatical. I do agree with Wei Kiat's view that the communication sabbatical can be quite boring at times as mostly, we just prepared different kinds of speeches and present them. Furthermore, we do not do anything much else and our whole morning would be spent on that single script.
ReplyDeleteHowever, this sabbatical had been useful to me in terms of developing my speech skills and my diction.
From your account, it seems that the sabbatical you were through was very fruitful. I applaud you for your ability to view things from a different perspective, as we were thought in our AAT lessons. I have to agree with the fact that the title simply put people off( I was one too). However I guess at the end of the day, no pain o gain. Now we all know where you got your presentation skills from!
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