best and worst speaker - chapter 9 post 2

The best speaker that I have ever heard is actually one of my dance teachers. I'm not sure if it's because he discusses topics that interest me, but for some reason his words really effected me. Last year I had to take a dance history class and he was the teacher. While he discussed each different important person, it was interesting because he had his own personal story about the person. Since he danced with many of the important figures that we were required to learn about, it made the class respect him more. He had a sense of power and credibility in the dance world, so we understood that what he told us was very important information.

Since he was also very passionate about the topic, it caused us to be more inspired. He often went into discussions about how poorly the arts are funded in California and how we have the power to change that. He also made all of us aware that we are responsible for the history of our art. If we don't care enough to learn about where it came from, then the history of our art would gradually be lost over the years. Basically he made us realize that if the dancers of our generation don't care about our art, then no one else will either.

While speaking he really began to expose his true colors. Since he was very passionate about the topic, we all began to hear the emotion and frustration in his voice. Through this process we also were able to identify with him and see him as more than just a teacher. It was crazy because I actually looked forward to history class. I hope one day to be able to inspire my students the same way that he has inspired me.

One of the worst speakers that I have ever heard was a person in one of my classes last summer. English was her second language, which was a problem in itself, but she also was scared to death to talk in front of people. All that we had to do was stand up and say 3 things that we learned from the class and 1 thing that we hated about the class. She made a huge deal about speaking and people literally had to push her to stand up.

The whole time she covered her face and giggled. At first we all felt sort of bad and wanted to encourage her, but eventually it got really annoying. She would say one word and then start laughing and covering her face again. I feel like if she would have just said what she needed to say quickly, then she wouldn't have had to spend as much time in front of the class. When she finished, I realized that I had no idea what she even said cause I was so focused on her presentation. It made me realize that regardless of how nervous I may be to speak infront of a large audience, it makes it worse to freak out in front of the audience.