Any one have any Ideas on dealing with nervousness in public speaking...

[Shadowdh]

Hi there all, well its a few hours to go before I have to make a speech and I have to do some of it in Chinese and some of it in English, the english is not much of a problem but the Chinese could be... I can talk with the best of them but it seems when I am to do a public speech I start to get nervous... not sure why... this is a first really.. I find that this affects my speech in that it becomes halted and stuttering... anyone have any ideas how to deal with this??

[skylee]

smile.

whatever mistakes you make won't matter any more 100 years later. nobody would remember them 100 years from now. so relax and smile.

[Shadowdh]

Thanks Skylee... I will...

[eeraser]

Deep breaths, focus, center yourself. See yourself giving a good speech. Dont focus on what can go wrong, see how it can go right. As long as you don't wet your pants, it will be considered a sucess. Dont forgot to post the video on YouTube!

[Lu]

Pretend not to be nervous. Practice beforehand (and after this one, continue to do as many speeches in Chinese as there is opportunity for, gradually you'll be less nervous). And, don't sweat it: if you feel you're going wrong, if you say something stupid, if the audience doesn't seem to get it, just smile, say 'o wait, that was wrong' or something else fitting, and start over, or explain again. Don't worry too much about small mistakes, just get the message across.

All this assuming it's about the message, not the speech itself. If it's for a speech contest, write out the entire speech, memorise every word in it, practice until you can dream the whole thing, and have a Chinese teacher help you at every step.

Too late as you already made the speech by now, but perhaps it's useful for someone else later.

[The Elf Piper]

I hope it went well for you!!!!

[Shadowdh]

Hi all, well I did it... I smiled and breathed and didnt wet myself... It went ok in the end and I didnt make too much of a fool of myself. Luckily I had the support of a very good friend (who infrequently visits here) and he was a rock (thanks "Dad" ) thank you for all the good advice here. I had a couple of people come up afterwards and make good comments, so that was good... cheers all.

Lu it was a message type of speech and not the competition kind, although I can foresee that coming soon... I practiced alot today and yesterday so that probably helped then...

[eeraser]

So no highlights for YouTube?

Good Job and Congratulations!

[Radial]

Toastmasters... the reason that we are nervous about public speaking is that we do not practice enough... Toastmasters provides a save environment to practice...

This will not help you for this speech... but provides a long term solution.

There are clubs in China... in both English and Chinese... you can get details at www.toastmasters.org

[zozzen]

i've been using a small unproved trick: rub and massage the muscle between thumb and index finger. When i feel nervous i do it and i can feel a little bit "relieved". It's possibly a psycological thing to redirect the nervousness by doing something. If you believe that's useful then it'd be useful.

[Shadowdh]

Eeraser... no sorry, but there was video being taken and loads of photos... so you never know, one thing about life is you can never say never... well except for then... and thanks for the encouragement.

Radial, thanks for the advice, I am in the UK now so will look into it from this side.

Zozzen, that I will keep in mind... cheers

[HashiriKata]

Shadowdh, have you ever thought of pre-record your speech and just miming to it on the occasion? We never know, you may enjoy watching the audience watching your brilliant delivery of the speech.

[dpotter]

Shadowdh, (for future reference) as someone who has done a fair amount of speaking in front of people (I'm a pastor), I can say that simply knowing your material well is one of the surest ways to avoid unnecessary nervousness. Also, practicing beforehand helps.

That said, there is a big difference between 'just getting it out there' and communicating. Many people can deliver a speech, but few can actually communicate...so perhaps the next thing you could look into is how to deliver effectively. Toastmasters, as someone else suggested, would be helpful. I think a little fear is alright, it keeps you on your toes, but too much can make you, rather than your material, the focus.

Keep practicing, you may want to skim a book about public speaking in your local bookstore, or watch videos on Youtube, listen to great speakers, etc, but keep learning. Oh, and the number one thing to avoid in public speaking...canned jokes...people will laugh, but it will rarely be genuine unless you are dealing with an unsophisticated audience, and they tend to lower your credibility (how many great speakers do you hear using canned jokes?)...instead, stick to illustrations from your own life...they pack much more 'punch' and help you own the material to a greater extent. Best wishes...

[xuechengfeng]

The only way to get over a fear of public speaking is to do it often. For some reason, people treat public speaking differently than any other activity in life -- most people don't assume they can pick up a baseball bat and be a great player after one or two tries. Also, you can't be so self-conscious. This isn't advice because you can't just tell someone that and expect them to do so, but in reality. . . you're probably the only one focusing or noticing your red face and stuttering speech. To be honest, most people are rarely very attentive when someone makes a speech, unless you're at somewhere like a conference or an important person, like a president, is speaking.

[bhchao]

I used to get nervous too when speaking in front of a large audience. My way of overcoming it is to focus on the message and content of the speech, and not worry about what the audience thinks of you as a person during the speech. Being prepared and doing the homework/research in advance makes you feel more confident and less concerned about your audience's reaction.