📙 Part 2: Describe something you did in your studies or work that has made you feel confident

You should say: when and where it happened, what you did, why it made you feel confident, and explain how you felt about this.

This episode's vocabulary

Memorable (adj.) - likely to be remembered or worth remembering.

To reflect (verb) - think deeply or carefully about.

Soft start (noun) - small talk.

To catch up (phrasal verb) - to do something you did not have time to do earlier.

Misconception (noun) - a view or opinion that is incorrect because based on faulty thinking or understanding.

Disjointed (adj.) - (especially of words or ideas) not well connected or well ordered.

Chaos (noun) - a state of total confusion with no order.

Chaotic (adj.) - in a state of chaos.

Questions and Answers

M: Rory, hello! Give us your story.

R: I really find making sure everything flows in a logical order for the time given when I'm teaching or giving presentations has been really handy for organizing and presenting information to people. That way, everything is more efficiently done and looks quite professional, as well as being more memorable. I'm not sure there's a specific time and place when this happened. It's more something I've developed over time and using different experiences I've had over the years. And I suppose reflecting on them as well has been quite important. So generally speaking, I have specific things I make sure I'm good, like soft starts to presentation, so people who are late have a chance to catch up. And then reflections at the end to check for any misconceptions and just the things, the main things that people took away from a lesson or a presentation. Between that I try and put everything in a way that allows people to understand what's being spoken about and why it's important and how it works before allowing them to try out what we are focusing on for themselves, so they get a little bit of experience with it too, rather than just talking about it. I wouldn't say it's particularly difficult to do. And I think that's why it makes me feel better about doing things like that in this way, because it's so clear to me I know what to do, and it should be clear to others too. And so if it's clear in my head, I'm not messing around trying to explain things that I already know about very well. If I hadn't come up with this way of doing things, I don't think I'd be quite as good at what I do as I am. I feel like things would be a bit more disjointed, chaotic and unclear. So it's super helpful that I'm able to do this, and hopefully others can as well.

M: Hey! Thank you, Rory, for your story!

R: Thank you!

Discussion

M: So, dear listener, something you did in your studies of work that has made you feel confident. So you can choose studies or work, and kind of what you did and you felt confident. So what, what else, what can we talk about here?

R: I was thinking about that just as I was organizing the answer, and I was like, just being organized helps. But what are other things people could talk about? It might be developing public speaking skills, or it could be looking at designing effective slides. What about for studies? You organize your time well. You take notes effectively. That's quite good, being able to use notes. Or lots of people are using AI now. I don't use AI so much for my work, so that's not something I could talk about, but other people are learning how to use AI. So this could be something that you talk about as well.

M: Yeah. Setting up a routine for your studies. Like you study every day for like two hours, for example. Getting more organized, or, for example, learning how to use this program, reading this book. So you learned something, and then you felt more confident. The same for your work. Ooh, like, after I learned how to use this or that program, I felt more confident. Yeah, dear listener, so you should choose something that you can talk about, something like easy. Yeah, or lie. Again, steal Rory's story. Okay?

R: Not that it's particularly exciting. It's just putting things in a logical order.

M: Yeah, a very good topic to talk about here would be public speaking.

R: Yeah, well, maybe if you're a public speaker. So there might be a specific program that you use for your work, for example.

M: Yeah. Or presentations, just talk about presentations, slides. I learned how to make beautiful presentations, slides, so yeah, and then I felt more confident. And Rory here told us about giving presentations.

R Or organizing them in a logical way. So everything like goes from one thing to the next in a logical manner. You would think that this would be something that everybody could do fairly easily, but I've seen some presentations that are not organized at all, and I just wonder, what's the point on being there?

M: Yeah. So you can actually steal this idea and speak about it. So I've learned to organize everything in a logical order. And this has been really handy. So useful. This has been really useful. Like I've learned how to organize and present information in a logical way. So this way everything looks professional and memorable. So people remember it, and it's professional.

R: And we talk about the positive results too. It's more efficiently done.

M: And it's something that I've developed over time. So you just don't learn it like, you know, in one day, like, bam, okay, I'm organized, bam, I'm super professional. No, kind of you develop it over time. These are skills I've developed over time. And I use different experiences I've had over the years. So I've used my experience at work, delivering different presentations, working with people I have had over the years. And then, like more technical stuff. So if you talk about presentations, so Rory makes slides, and then he delivers a presentation. He delivers a talk, right? So technically, what has he done? So I have specific things I make sure I include. Soft starts. So I include soft starts. So some small talk. Then I include reflections at the end of the presentation. So people can remember what Rory has told them, so they reflect. It's like, you know, like you deliver a talk and then you say, now, like, what are two important things that you will remember for the rest of your life? So reflections.

R: That's one kind of reflection, yes. I've not used that, but I might actually, that's quite a good idea.

M: No, this is a very good idea. Yeah. Because, like, even if it was like a useless presentation, people will still find something interesting. So instead of asking like, oh, was my presentation useful? Like, remember two important things that you will remember for the rest of your life. And then I organize my information logically to allow people to understand what is going on.

R: And make sure that they have a chance to do these things as well. So if you give someone a chance, you give them an opportunity.

M: Yeah. So pretty much like soft skills, dear listener, here. You know, how to start, how to finish, including reflections, but this is about like making a presentation for people delivering a talk. And you can say that it makes me feel better now, so it makes me feel more confident.

R: So it can make you feel better about doing something. You could say, feel better about and then what the task is. But I said, feel better about doing things like that.

M: Now I feel that I'm good at making presentations. I'm good at delivering a talk. And without it, things would be more disjointed, chaotic and unclear. So disjointed?

R: They just are not connected well together.

M: Yeah, like not well connected, not well ordered. So the speech was disjointed, was not connected. Chaotic? Well, chaos. And disorder and unclear. So you can say that I've learned to become clear, logical and to organize the information in a logical way. There you go, dear listener. Okay? Like I think everybody could learn how to do it. At work, in studies. Like in studies, you deliver a talk, right? So you kind of like you talk to people, you answer questions, so kind of deliver your speech in a logical way. At work, also, you have meetings, perhaps. If you don't have meetings you can lie. So, yeah, like a universal topic to talk about it. Rory, what helped you organize your answer?

R: I just followed the prompt again, really. There wasn't really much of a chance to explain why or give any background. I just started talking about what it was immediately. It also asks when and where it happened. But again, I didn't spend much time on talking about a specific time and place. I even said, I'm not sure there was a specific time and place when this happened. This is a result of years of work and thinking about things. I spent much more time giving details on what the thing actually was, and then explaining how it makes me feel and why it makes me feel that way. So it doesn't have to be perfectly balanced, but all of the points that we needed to be covered have been covered.

M: Yay! Thank you very much for listening! And we'll come back to you in our next part, speaking part three, about confidence in general. Bye!

R: Bye!

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