📘 Part 3: Communication skills

This episode's vocabulary

Salient (adj.) - the salient facts about something or qualities of something are the most important things about them.

To portray (verb) - to represent or describe someone or something in a book, movie, etc.

Delivery (noun) - the way in which someone speaks in public.

Message (noun) - the main idea that an artist, writer, speaker, or group is trying to communicate.

Crucial (adj.) - extremely important or necessary.

Exposed (adj.) - able to be easily harmed, influenced, or attacked.

Before (preposition) - in front of.

Isolated (adj.) - happening alone, separately, or only once.

Trial by fire (idiom) - a situation in which one is placed under extreme pressure or stress and expected as a means of testing one's ability to learn or perform.

Attention span (noun) - the length of time that someone can keep their thoughts and interest fixed on something.

Attention-grabbing (adj.) - demanding notice, especially by being important.

En masse (adverb) - all together and at the same time, in large numbers.

Skill set (noun) - the range of things that someone is good at, especially things that are useful in a particular job.

Literate (adj.) - able to read and write.

Numerate (adj.) - able to add, multiply, etc.

To broaden (verb) - to become wider, or to cause something to become wider.

Interestingly (adverb) - used to introduce a piece of information that the speaker thinks is strange or interesting.

Instantaneous (adj.) - happening immediately, without any delay.

Cyber (adj.) - involving, using, or relating to computers, especially the internet.

Stalking (noun) - the crime of illegally following and watching someone over a period of time.

Bullying (noun) - the behaviour of a person who hurts or frightens someone smaller or less powerful, often forcing that person to do something they do not want to do.

Questions and Answers

M: Which one is better, being a good speaker or a listener?

R: Well, if God gave you two ears and one mouth for a reason, right? That aside, people definitely benefit from listening more than speaking since listening gives you a chance to take information in and process. Of course, in order to do that someone has to be speaking but ideally, no one would do that unless they had something interesting or useful to say and share. Which is not often but it's nice when it does happen.

M: What qualities does a person need to have to be a good speaker?

R: Oh, there was a great talk about this on YouTube the other day, and it went into great detail about it. And I've forgotten everything. But I think one of the most salient points was being able to speak clearly and being pleasant to listen to, and of course, have something engaging to say. That's actually three separate points, isn't it? Or at least be able to portray yourself as if all of those things are true. So the right delivery and message are crucial.

M: Why do people get nervous when they speak in public?

R: Well, you're up there exposed before a mass of people. On the face of it it should be terrifying, since there are many of them, and only one of you. So you're isolated and under the microscope, as it were, if you don't deliver, they might laugh at you or you could lose face. With all of that in mind, though, it's easy to forget that the people there probably want to listen and want you to succeed.

M: How can people improve their public speaking skills?

R: I think there is sadly, only one way. And that's just informed practice. By that, I mean, you don't just mindlessly practice all the time. But you're doing it with an awareness of what went well, and what needs to improve and trying to work on that for the next time. That could be by studying a certain feature of talking or the manner of presentation. But that's basically it. It's what makes it all so hard to do. It's like a constant trial by fire.

M: Why do many people find it hard to give a talk to young children?

R: Well, kids have a very limited attention span, don't they? So they aren't going to pay attention for longer than a few minutes without some sort of attention-grabbing technique. The sad fact is that most adults don't know how to do that. Even teachers struggle a lot, mostly because they never learned how to overcome this issue themselves. The other thing is that children often think in simple terms, and it's hard for adults to break down the complex ideas of their world for them en masse.

M: Is it good for children to learn to speak in public?

R: I'm not sure it should be about possessing this one specific skill set, but they should be encouraged to try and overcome their fears and not be controlled by them. That learning to talk in public is one way to do this, but isn't the only way, they could try doing something else that scares them or that seems scary.

M: Do people in your country usually learn how to make a speech?

R: As far as I'm aware, it's not a widespread thing, since there are wider issues at stake, like learning how to be literate and numerate, so it simply just isn't a priority.

M: Oh, why not?

R: Well, like I said, there's other things that we need to focus on as a country. So this particular skill is not well developed.

M: Do you think it will be developed in the future?

R: Probably not, to be honest with you. Because being able to make a good speech depends on a lot of skills, including, like having a strong personality. And I think most countries do not want to develop that in their citizens for reasons connected to keeping everything stable.

M: What benefit does the internet have for communication?

R: It seems to broaden the potential audience to communicate with and allows for an opportunity to think about what you're going to say before you say or write it, since you need to make a connection and find the audience to begin with. Interestingly, the feedback you get is relatively instantaneous and easy to refer back to.

M: Does technology have a negative impact on communication among people?

R: Well, you could argue that both ways, couldn't you? I mean, on one hand, you have greater opportunities to communicate with different people which potentially broadens your perspective. But on the other hand, the greater number of people also contains the potential for a greater number of opinions and behaviours you might not want, like cyber stalking or bullying. While the media might like us to think it's always bad, I'm not sure what the best way to determine that is.

M: Thank you, Rory, for your answers!

R: Hopefully I communicated clearly.