That damn goat

I must say, I have started to kind of enjoy updating this place so often. It keeps me in the game. Keeps the pressure up. Makes sure I keep using English that might not sound simple for several people. This way I can keep remembering.

Smooth subject change.

Making speeches is surprisingly difficult. Well, technically ‘making’ a speech is easy. Especially if it is supposed to be in English. Holding the speech is the difficult part. One has to nail the accent, spot the appropriate pauses, play with the tone, keep equal eye contact with all four quadrants of the audience, use convincing body language and after all that, one has to actually say the right words. And hope that the speech is somehow special, made exquisite by something one did. Hope that it was a good one.

And worst of all, there aren’t really that many places where to learn the art of speech holding. One doesn’t simply copy Obama. After all, I find Obama’s pauses too irregular and long. Naturally he needs longer pauses that the common man, he has someone applauding at his ‘words of wisdom’ in the middle of his speeches. Bush was even worse. Both of them. One can’t even look at Steve Jobs for guidance as his speeches were never the type one is supposed to hold one’s own. I use ‘one’ for an unknown person a lot because I am used to German (they use ‘man’ if the acting person is unknown).

To this end I firmly believe that improvisation is the best route to take when one holds a speech. Not a complete improv, as that may very likely lead to disaster. One needs to know what the speech is to be about.