I have been working as a brand ambassador in an experiential marketing firm for almost 3 years now. Public speech and communication skills are the two most important elements required in this job field. A great brand ambassador has to complete in the following three tasks: to provide the public with information on a product or service, to involve as many people as possible in an experiential campaign, and to staff and manage events as a Team Leader.

In order to accomplish these tasks, one must possess excellent public speaking skills to attract potential customers and promote a particular product, meaning one needs to be talkative, energetic and entertaining. For example, I was promoting the Japanese-inspired lifestyle brand, Tokidoki, at the New York Comic Con 2012. Although we had ideas of what we would talk about, we did not just memorize word for word from the guidelines provided by our sponsors. We needed to make things interesting and “extemporaneous” to catch people’s attentions. I was able to engage conversations with many interested customers with descriptive body language and dramatic choices of words.

One also must have great communication with his or her colleagues to organize different events and handle different situations. At the very same event, it became chaotic when we started to distribute free samples to the crowd. Fortunately, my team and I were able to communicate with each other to control the crowd by making them form a waiting line.

I admit that I did not start working as a brand ambassador with amazing public speaking skills. Going up to strangers and engaging in conversations with them about different products require a huge amount of confidence and the right approach. It takes time and practice to pick up the right tone and gesture to promote products in front of a potential customer or a huge group of people at an event. As you work at more events, you will gain more experience and confidence to be able to master the communication style of a brand ambassador.

Although I rarely watch speeches, I realize that oral communication is not only a necessary skill in our everyday life, but also a really powerful way to express one’s opinions and influence the others. For an instance, Jon Stewart, an American political satirist and television host, is a powerful speaker who is excellent at influencing the political views of TV audience with his humorous words. As the television host of the show The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Stewart frequently satirizes news, events and those people who are involved in these news and events. His objective is to express his political views and make the audience understand the way he interprets these political occurrences.

Stewart uses several techniques in making his speeches. First, he uses a humorous tone and satiric words to depict the political news or event that occur. His humorous way of speaking makes the audience feel that politics is not really a serious thing. Hence, Stewart successfully engages his audience. In fact, this unique way of making speeches makes Stewart one of the most popular television host in the United States. In addition, as the picture shows, Stewart frequently makes exaggerated and funny facial expressions and hand gestures. These actions call the attention of the audience to the points he makes in his show. Furthermore, Stewart organizes his speech in a very informative way. He always use pictures and sections of video and records to support his argument. This way of organizing speeches makes the audiences feel like they have discovered truths as they watch the show, and this is exactly what Stewart intends. Despite the fact that I cannot imagine myself to be a public speaker like Jon Stewart, I really appreciate the way Stewart approaches politics and how he expresses his view through his powerful words.

This is a short speech by a man called Graham HIll that I really enjoyed watching. It’s titled “Why I’m a weekday vegetarian” and he talks about the circumstances of becoming a vegetarian and how it’s not so easy to transition to a meat-free diet when we live in a carnivorous culture. So he came up with a plan called Week Day Veg. Instead of being a vegetarian seven days a week, he’s one for five days. He explains it as “Nothing with a face Monday to Friday and on the weekend, your choice.” As a speaker, you have to keep the attention of the entire audience and especially with a topic concerning vegetarianism, a speaker has to be delicate in the way he delivers the speech. Some people immediately shy away from the thought of giving up meat once the conversation has started. But in this case, Graham Hill isn’t an extreme animal rights activist that tried to get the audience to turn full vegetarian. Instead, he gave the audience options that still worked in helping the cause. He didn’t discourage or scare the audience into making them feel bad about eating meat. He made them laugh and most importantly made them think. He kept their attention by explaining the benefits of reducing meat in your diet, benefits not just for the individual but for the animals and the environment as well. I liked how he kept his speech to the point and it could have been longer but it didn’t have to be.  I think he did a great job at creating an impact because he proposed a balance. I personally don’t eat meat but I think in today’s society for everyone to become a vegetarian is unrealistic but to balance your meat intake is possible and Hill took advantage of this point and delivered it well in this video.

Video: http://www.ted.com/talks/graham_hill_weekday_vegetarian.html

‘Most of you don’t want success as much as you sleep.’

One speech that left me captivated and inspired was a motivational one about how bad you really want it when it comes to being successful in life. Often do you hear students around you always saying how badly they want to be successful, but how bad do they really want it? Most people say how bad they really want it, but they don’t act like it and actions speak louder than word. Eric Thomas, who was once a professional football player, is now a professional speaker who tries to motivates students to really put in the effort into what you are passionate about and truly strive for the so called success you yearn for. Eric is able to capture and hold the audience’s attention with his confident, passionate, and charismatic stature. By using examples and personal experiences , the audience can really get a grasp of his views and be able to relate to it in their own personal struggles. One of Eric’s qualities that make him an exceptional speaker is his emotion and delivery of his speech.

-Wilson Ma

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-cg0WDB8uI

Charlie Chaplin’s Great Dictator Speech

Charlie Chaplin set the bar during the silent film era. In his film, the Great Dictator, Chaplin creates a parody of Nazi Germany and he himself becomes the fuhrer in the movie. For someone that adores the silent era, Charlie Chaplin delivers a riveting speech in his FIRST speaking role. Coming to a realization of the wrongdoing that is about to ensue, he gives this speech to bring forth a change in the mindset of the soldiers under his control and to put an end to their ways. Chaplin is able to compel the soldiers by expressing the changes in society and appealing to the human nature of being able to be happy, free and coexist with others. Charlie Chaplin, like Hitler, starts his speech in a voice that is soft/typical. He slowly builds on top of that as the speech progresses and this is able to help rally his men behind his want to change to freedom. He varies the volume along the way (more towards the end) and is able to place emphasis on certain parts because Chaplin jumps from a low volume to a high one along the way. There isn’t much to go in terms of the audience but they do end with a cheer. I’m taking that as a sign that the speech was effective and that the soldiers were able to relate to Chaplin’s point of happiness and freedom.

Kijung Park

Developing good communication skills are important in everyday life. When you are teaching students of what you are proficient in, powerful communication skills can enhance your ability further. I worked as private tutor, teaching elementary and middle school students in math and English for many years since High school. Starting last year, I teach a first grade student with autism, helping her to learn English. While teaching her, I always think that I need to improve my communication skills in many ways. Due to her disability, she can only focus for few minutes. Therefore, I need to try my best to keep her attention during class by having loud and clear voice and by complimenting her frequently. When reading books to her, I change my voice when different characters come out in the story to interest her. Since she can only say few words, I need to develop good communication skills to correctly guess how she is feeling and need to have patience while teaching her.

To improve my communication skills, I observe her nonverbal expressions very carefully in order to understand her better. In addition, when teaching her, it is crucial to build trust therefore I try to think in her perspective and give respect to her as well. Furthermore, I want to have some sense of humor during class so I can capture her attention longer. Some of the obstacles happen when she refuses to work when I open a workbook to start a lesson. Sometimes, she crawls under the desk and does not want to come out.  In that situation, I need to figure out a good way to convince her to continue studying even though she might not want to. Although she does not answer my questions most of the time, I should control my emotion and always stay positive and happy during class.

By taking communication class, I want to feel more confident in front of large audience and learn how to deliver a speech clearly by organizing my ideas. I also want to be a better speaker as well as a better listener.

This past August, Ashton Kutcher accepted Nickelodeon’s 2013 Teen Choice Ultimate Choice Award. I didn’t watch the actual award show, but the following day I saw Kutcher’s speech spread all over social media. So of course, I had to watch to see why everyone was posting his speech.

He started off saying his actual name is Chris, and his name was only switched to Ashton, his middle name, when he became an actor. He mentions three things he learned as Chris that got him where he is today. The first thing is about opportunity, the second thing is about being sexy and the third thing is about living life. Kutcher goes on to relate opportunity to hard work, being sexy to being really smart, and living life to building a life.

Ashton Kutcher is a celebrity. Some people look up to him. And at this particular show, he was addressing his speech to the young crowd. But I think that this speech gave a positive impact not only on these young kids and teenagers, but also all adults who watched it. Sometimes, celebrities have a bigger impact on us than anyone else. They have power We idolize them. Sometimes we idolize the wrong celebrities. It is good to have someone as famous as Ashton Kutcher to remind us what really is important in life and that it is not fame. We have to focus on being ourselves, being smart, working hard, and building a life for ourselves.

Watch the speech here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuBSRC1zpHw

When it comes to public speaking the person that comes to my mind first is Nelson Mandela. His speeches inspires me so much that at times I feel that how can a person be such a great in the field where most people fear the most in their life. When speaking about Nelson Mandela, I can say that no one in this world can come close when it comes to public speaking. Sometimes I wonder how can a person be so calm but then it all falls again back to his morals and values that he has learnt from the world. As his quote says that courage was not the absence of fear but triumph over it that clearly states that how he has overcome fear in his life by conquering it. The amount of confidence he had was enormous and still he is considered as the father of the nation and the founding father of democracy. His true beliefs towards the country make me feel that helping out each and everyone around me would make me happy and that in turn would make them happy. Happiness is earned always by sharing and not by enjoying your life by yourself. Being passed away at the age of 95 and being awarded with more than 250 honors all around the world he still remains as one of the most powerful person in the world. He was a great person when it came to contacting with in person with each and every people as if he knew the feelings of each and everyone by being in the same situation. One thing I learned from him was when you speak in front of public make sure that you are knowledgeable enough that whom are u speaking in front of. Being good at public speaking one thing I found in various speeches was he was never proud of himself, he always believed in giving the world in each and every way he can through his speeches.The picture above clearly states that the amount of confidence he has created in the people of Africa with his great work.

I chose Russell Peters as a good communicator since he is very good at it. Russell is a stand up comedian and he is known for his edgy material. The reason I think he has a powerful impact on his audience since he is always able to keep them entertained. One of the things he does is that he usually picks some audience members and makes some jokes about them. The kind of jokes he makes would usually be offensive if you said it to someone on the street but he uses a very joking attitude so that people still laugh regardless of how offensive the comment is. I think this takes very good communication skills to do since to be able to make jokes like that and not have the audience members get mad shows that he knows how to communicate with his audience and knows what kind of jokes the audience will like and the ones they won’t.

His public speaking is to entertain so he always has a very laid back and relaxed nature. One thing he does I think is very important is that he is not afraid to make a mistake since not all of his jokes always hit the mark but he just move on and doesn’t let a bad joke slow him down.

As for the image I just chose a picture that showed Russell and his audience laughing since it shows that he is clearly able to communicate with his audience and is able to understand the type of humor that they enjoy. Overall Russell has good communication skills and is good example of how good communication skills can help you in life.

Ka Wing Chan

During the winter break, I began with my work study program as a BCTC staff. The picture below is the place where I spent most of my winter holidays. Working as a BSTC staff not only requires the technical knowledge but also requires some communication skills. As a BCTC staff, I need to first patiently listen to the students’ questions, then inform them the solutions clearly and simply after fully understanding their situations. Basically, this job involves a informative communication style since my major mission is to constantly provide proper information to the students. I think having a good communication skill is important in this job. Since the students are not familiar with the machines, it is my job to teach them step by step clearly. Otherwise, I will be blamed by my boss and those students will be miserable.

Throughout this semester, I want to improve my communication skills by enhancing the clarity and fluency of my speaking. Even though these two elements are very simple, they are the fundamentals in the art of speaking. Mastering these two elements is helpful to be successful in job. In my case, having a clear speech definitely helps because students will be able to follow directions more easily. I think the major obstacle that I have to overcome is my accent. Because I am a nonnative speaker, it is hard to eliminate my accent. Sometimes my accent reduces the clarity of my speaking and I will need to repeat my sentence again.

In this communication class, I look forward to make progresses and become a better speaker.