7 Tips for Presenting & Public Speaking

(upbeat music)

- Hello everyone, and welcome back to English with Lucy.

Today I have got seven tips for presenting in English.

These tips are really going to help you

improve your presentation skills.

Now the vast majority of us, at some point in our lives,

are going to have to give presentations.

We're going to have to speak in public.

And it was actually voted the scariest thing,

above death and spiders, in a recent study.

So it's quite obvious that it's something that

a lot of people hate.

I have to present a lot.

I hated it at first, but now I really enjoy it

because I've learnt how to do it properly,

and I'd like to help you guys out today.

Quickly, if you really want to kick-start your English,

I cannot recommend enough the Lingoda Language Marathon.

You can get a 90-day language course worth 567 euros,

completely refunded to you.

But you have to be quick, because A,

spaces are almost filled, and B,

if you want to do the English course,

you've only got until the 19th of April to sign up.

I've got a video explaining all of the details,

which you can see up here.

But basically, you sign up for the marathon,

you do 30 classes every month for three months,

and if you complete all of these classes,

Lingoda will give you a full refund; that's 567 euros.

There is also a half-marathon option,

which results in a 50% refund upon completion,

and that is just 15 classes per month.

There are options for English and German.

I feel so passionately about this campaign.

As a teacher myself, and somebody who's worked

independently teaching students for many years,

it's such a generous offer.

I mean, they're offering to refund it all back to you.

And to get the refund, all you have to do

is learn loads of English,

i.e., 90 classes with real, native, qualified teachers.

What's not to like?

And you know what?

Even if you don't complete it, at the very least,

you've done 90 days of English.

If you're interested

and you feel that you are dedicated enough

to do the Language Marathon properly,

all you have to do is click on the link

in the description box and use the code RUN5.

This will discount your five euro entry fee.

All you will pay is 50 cents, and that's just to make sure

they have your credit card details.

Good luck to everyone taking part.

I think you've done an amazing thing,

and I cannot wait to hear your feedback.

Right, let's talk about my first tip.

This is especially important for non-native speakers.

It is, don't agonise over your accent.

Forget your accent.

I always say, rather than working on reducing your accent,

work on improving your pronunciation.

Accents are part of our culture and our heritage.

Pronunciation is the way we say sounds and words.

And the best way to improve your pronunciation is

slow down.

I've given lots of presentations

and I have watched lots of presentations,

and I can tell you the best presentations

are the slower presentations.

It's especially important

at the beginning of your presentation

because everybody has an accent.

Natives have accents too.

But we need to give the audience time to get used to

and to adapt to our accents.

Another reason to embrace your accent is

covering up an accent or putting on this fake posh voice

might actually come across as insecure to a audience.

You might come across as fake.

They might not trust you as much.

Now when I'm talking to my friends and my family,

I don't always speak like this because I'm not presenting

but I definitely don't put on a fake accent.

I'm simply working on my pronunciation.

I want to make sure I pronounce every relevant

and necessary phoneme so that you guys can understand me.

When students come to me and they say,

"Lucy, help me get rid of my accent," I tell them, "No."

I'm not going to help you get rid of your accent.

I think that's very negative.

I will help you improve your pronunciation.

In my opinion, the only people that should be getting rid

of their accents are actors.

Otherwise, unless it's something you do for a hobby,

it's a little bit of a waste of time.

Number two, use pauses to your advantage.

Pauses are great for so many reasons.

As I've said in the previous point about slowing down,

they give the audience time

to understand what you're saying.

A very clear example of this is when I shout a question

to my boyfriend, who is normally downstairs.

He will immediately reply to that question with "What?"

I know, instead of repeating myself,

if I wait three or four seconds,

he will then answer my question

because he's had time to process what I've said.

It's the same for your audience.

It will sometimes take them a couple of seconds

to understand what you've said.

So use a pause to your advantage.

Pauses also give you time to think

and also time to have a break.

Our tongues can in a twist.

You guys only get to see the finished cut

of what I film here, but I have to repeat things

again and again and again because my tongue

doesn't always go where I want it to.

When I make a mistake, I pause, I have a break,

and then I try again.

And it normally comes out a lot better.

Take three or four seconds

to plan what you're going to say next

and then you can be confident in your delivery.

Now the best speakers that I've listened to

are people that make the audience feel

as if the pauses have been included for their advantage.

So the audience might think that the pause has been used

for emphasis, they've said something important,

they want them to consider how important this point is,

when actually, they just needed to think about

what they were going to say next.

The speaker may make the audience feel

as if they've left a pause to give them time to think

when actually, they're just skimming the audience,

making sure that everyone's understood

because they're not sure if they've said it quite right.

Number three, now this one is a controversial one,

and I'm not going to say absolutely don't say this,

but I will say reconsider saying this

at the beginning of your presentations.

If I go to another country,

and someone is giving a presentation in English,

which happens a lot,

and wow the people who are presenting in another language,

nine out of 10 times, they will start the presentation

by saying, "Sorry for my English."

Now I'm not sure that I really like this.

I feel like you can take more control over this situation.

Why not try saying something like,

"English isn't my first language,

"but I'm going to try my best here."

Instead of apologising and being all small

and seeming a bit unconfident, you're taking ownership.

English isn't my first language,

but I'm going to try my best.

It's unapologetic, it's confident,

and it makes you seem like you're totally in control,

and the audience is going to want to work with you.

So this is a opportunity to participate here.

In the comments below, I'd really like to know

if you have had any great alternatives

to "Sorry for my English."

Or, you can say if you think "Sorry for my English" is fine.

I look forward to seeing what you have to say.

Now number four.

You guys always knew I was going to mention this one.

It is practise.

But I want to say, practise, but don't learn.

You can tell when somebody has practised a presentation

or rehearsed a presentation, and you can also tell

when they've learnt a presentation.

The difference being that a practised presentation

is organic, it's genuine, it flows, and it's trustworthy.

You can trust what that person is saying.

A learnt presentation is memorised, it's stagnant,

and it's sterile.

It's not interesting,

which is why you need to use number five, cue cards,

to your advantage.

This really ties in with number four.

If you are allowed to use cue cards or speaker notes

in your presentation, for goodness sake, please use them.

Use them, they are so, so useful.

You never know when you're going to be caught off-guard,

so it is so essential to have something up there with you.

You don't have to have them in your hand

but have them up there.

I've seen a lot of people get stage fright.

Those who have speaker notes can quickly look back

and figure out where they are.

Those who don't stand up there like a lemon.

Cue cards should be tiny little bullet points

that keep you on track, that remind you where you are.

They should not be a whole written presentation.

I used to hate it at university.

We'd give presentations in class

and people would stand up there with two A4 papers

of their entire speech.

It doesn't look good, it doesn't look professional.

It looks like you've written it the night before.

You need to practise and rehearse multiple times

just using your cue cards.

So if you practise it loads, it will come out

a little bit differently each time, but that's good

because you're going to be preparing yourself

for a multitude of situations.

Number four, think about your body.

Everyone is different.

When I present, I like to have my feet apart.

I definitely don't walk around on stage.

I have them planted on the floor,

and I like to use my two hands and my waist to sort of pivot

and I'll kind of talk like this.

I've got loads of room to move,

but I'm not moving up and down.

That's a distraction and also you can trip over

which is not what you want.

So I like to stay in one place.

I like to look really, really confident.

Chest out, great posture, and I try not to do

my typical fidget things, which is touching my hair,

touching my nose, touching my neck.

So I really try not to do that.

Before you go on stage, you want to think,

am I going to walk up and down, which is fine,

but only if you're comfortable with the space.

What is my stance?

I like to call this like a Supergirl stance.

How are you going to stand?

Think about it so you go up there

and you know exactly what to do.

It's also a really good idea to identify the things

that you keep doing over and over again

like fluffing hair, touching your eyelash

because your hair is on your eyelash,

itching, fiddling, doing thumb things.

Think about them forehand, so you can quickly snap out of it

if you're doing it.

The last one, number seven, is dress to impress.

And this one can also be controversial,

especially in the influence industry,

because people like to look really casual.

I would say just go one notch

above the predicted dress code.

If it's smart-casual, lean towards the smart side.

If it's office wear, wear a suit.

It's always better to look overdressed

as opposed to underdressed.

It makes you look professional.

It makes you feel good about yourself.

And somebody who looks groomed is the kind of person

the audience is going to keep their eyes on.

There's nothing worse than having the audience drift off.

At the end of the day, you want to engage with your audience

and if you look scruffy and like you're not really

meant to be there, are you going to engage with them?

So have a think about that one.

Right, guys.

Those are my seven tips.

If you have any other recommendations,

please comment them down below.

Don't forget to check out the Lingoda Language Marathon.

There's additional information in the description box

along with the link and the code

which gives you a discounted entry fee.

And don't forget to connect with me

on all of my social media.

I've got my Facebook, I've got my Instagram,

and I've got my Twitter.

And I really recommend checking out my Instagram

because we've got another book giveaway happening

very soon.

And I will see you soon for another lesson.

Muah.

(upbeat music)