Thank you, Friends and Instructor

I impressed this speech course, and this course became one of my favorite class ever. Through this course, I particularly recovered my confidence. Since I came America, I lost my confidence which express my idea to people. Before I took this course, I was a “yes-man” who keep saying "yes" without supporting any reasons because I thought people might not understand what I say. However, my friends and instructor gave me an encouragement to do well on the speech. This encouragement makes me that I can express my idea to forign people even though I am not good at English. Also, I recognized that many experiences are really helpful to speech, because when I compare to first and second speech, second speech is more comfortable and professional.
When I did my first speech which is a cultural object speech, I was worried it would be really hard to transmit my message to my friends, because English is not my first language. I did not even know how I can express my idea clearly. In addition to, I misunderstood the topic. I focused on the general information of Hanok instead of how Hanok affects to my life. When I watched my digital recordings for my cultural object speech, I could not even do eye-contact well, because I experienced speech anxiety. I try to do eye-contact with audience, but I was scared to do it. Friends, who did their speech before I do, were really good to express their thesis. I did not see they experienced stage fright. So, there was a tension that I should do this speech well. I put too much pressure on myself. That burden bothered me psychologically. After I finished my speech, I realized that I would not put pressure too much on myself, and I would focus on my own speech instead of focusing on how my friends do well on their speech.
After I fisnished my cultural object speech, I tried to do my best to fix the defects of my speech through my instructor’s and my friend’s feedback. One of my friends wrote on the feedback paper, I should understand the topic. I recognized that understanding topic is the most important process of the speech. If speaker misunderstands the topic, the audiences will confuse what speaker says. So, I made a meeting with my instructor to understand the topic completely. So, I thought this speech would be better than last time, because I learned how to reduce stage fright at the textbook. Also, the sources that I prepared were reliable sources, such as CNN, Bloomberg and many more, so it would not make confuse my audience because of the resources. However, when I watched the videoI realized that I kept shaking my body during I was doing a speech. It seemed that I was dancing during the speech. I recognized that this movement might interfere the understanding of audiences. Also, some audiences were hard to understand what I said, because my ability to deliver to audiences was not clear. Through this problem-solution speech, I learned that I would not do any behaviors which bother the attention of the audiences, and try to do my best to transmit my word clearly.

Thank You CAS

Before entering this class, when I heard the term “public speaking” it made me nervous. I knew that I was not the best at giving speeches and was not so comfortable about getting up and speaking in front of 25 strangers. After presenting my first two speeches, I felt a lot more confident about public speaking but I acknowledge that there are still some skills that I could improve. When I gave my first speech, I was not very nervous; however, when I actually got up to the podium my nerves really hit me hard. I noticed that I read off of my outline a lot, did not give a lot of eye contact, and was not very clear nor spoke at an appropriate pace. Although I believe that I practiced the speech to the best of my ability, I was not very satisfied with my performance on the first speech. During the second speech, I made sure that I practiced more and knew my speech better to avoid having to look down at my outline, so I can make more eye contact. I also spent more time researching my topic and on the outline which I believe helped me to do well. Although my second speech was far from perfect, I definitely improved on it. I still made some of the same mistakes that I did within my first speech; for example, not making full eye contact and sometimes speaking at a pace that was too quick. Besides the little errors, I was a lot more confident for my second speech as I began to know my classmates better which helped to ease a lot of my nerves. Overall, after presenting these first two speeches, I believe that I have gained very important public speaking skills and hopefully will be able to utilize these skills in my future experience whether its here at Penn State, at my future job, or within my community.

Adios CAS!

Over these past couple of weeks in CAS 100A, I have embraced many new methods in becoming a successful speaker. When I first entered this class, I didn't know what to expect. I thought I was a decent enough speaker, but with all of the things I have learned, I realized that I still had work to do. I learned numerous ways in preparation for a speech. I learned different types of outlines and speech components that I will benefit from as well.

Over the time period in CAS, and the two individual speeches I gave, I realized that I have improved. My first speech was not as organized as my second speech. With a more organized outline and setup for a speech, the speech will flow better. This helped me improve my second speech tremendously. Throughout my college years to come, and any speech that I will approach, I will take it on in more of an optimistic way and prepare myself by using the new methods and techniques I have learned. Thank you Mia for teaching me everything I have recently picked up in CAS!

Its Been Real

Before learning anything in this important class I was asked to post a blog about what came to my mind when I heard the term “public speaking”. The blog I posted was about a motivational speech because that was the only experience I have had with speaking in front of people. However, my understanding of public speaking has changed after taking this class.

I learned many different examples of public speaking such as, civic, special event, and academic. I learned many of the purposes of speaking and how important it is to be prepared whenever giving a speech. I learned many different ways of preparing for a speech and the different types of ways to present speeches. Learning all of these different aspects of public speaking opened up my mind to a lot more than just giving a speech in front of a class or talking to friends at school or at a sports event.

Because of all of this new knowledge I received about public speaking my perspective of the term has changed. I realize now how much public speaking is used in todays society and how important it is while making an impact on the world as a whole. Communication effects the lives of many people and it can change the way society thinks. One speech can change the way the world works and I never thought of it that way. This speech class has taught me the importance of being good at public speaking and the different ways of doing it. I enjoyed taking this class even though it was a challenge for me to speak out in front of my classmates. I think this class was an important part of my amazing first semester at Penn State and I am so honored to have such a wonderful teacher and classmates.

You Stay Classy CAS 100A

Over the time I have been in CAS 100A, my view of public speaking has not been changed too much, but I have become much better at it. My initial example is an excellent reflection of public speaking but I now know that it is only an example of a commemorative speech, when there is all different kinds of speechs, informative, persuasive, celebratory, and more. I also have an even greater appreciation of the way Lou Gehrig gives his speech because I was nervous in front of a class of 24 kids, 1 mentor, and a teacher, and he gave his speech in front of thousands of fans, as well as all of the people that were listening to it on the radio. I have a new found respect for any boring speech that I will ever have to sit through because I know that the person who is giving the speech is having a minor panic attack because he or she is so afraid to make an embarrassing mistake. I have not learned too much more about actually giving speeches in this class, because I was already taught much of the information in high school, but I value my new experience in giving speeches. Public speaking, for me at least, only gets easier the more I do it. I may never achieve the level of comfort that some people have in front of a crowd, but I have certainly improved greatly in that department. Farewell class

Reflection

Looking back, I had a much different idea of public speaking before then I do after taking CAS. In my first post, I said public speaking was usually thought of a a formal event where one person speaks to a large crowd. Now, I see that although this is public speaking, there are so many other types and opportunities where public speaking can take place. Some examples of these problem solving: either with a group of friends or in the work place, interpersonal: communication with family members or a spouse, and professional: which is the type of speaking I originally talked about.

The example of public speaking that I used was Sean Payton in the "Boys of Fall". I considered this type of speech motivational, which I now know is one of the four types of speeches. The purpose of the other three types are to inform, convince, and to celebrate. All four of these have a right time and place and all have a specific purpose.
My outlook on public speaking is still basically the same that I had before. However, with the knowledge that I have now, I understand what public speaking can be used for and now see how important it is. As I have said, I previously saw public speaking as a formal event and now know it can take place anywhere at anytime.

Farewell to CAS 100A

Over the course of the semester, CAS 100A has improved all of our public speaking abilities. I believe that we made a smart decision taking CAS as our first college course because it has prepared us for the rest of our college careers and beyond. The ability to speak well is an important skill, and we now possess the knowledge to master it.

I am proud of the progress I made from my first speech to the next. I used the flaws from my first performance to craft my second. In the process, I learned a few valuable lessons that I will keep in mind next time I speak publicly:

Before speaking, figure out what memory aid works best for you.

Once I began speaking the first time, I got caught up in what I was saying and forgot to flip my first note card. I learned that note cards are not an effective tool for me. For my next speech I used an outline instead, and it worked out a lot better.

Take a moment to pause and think.

In my first speech, I said “um” a lot. It came off as if I were very nervous. For the next speech, I stopped myself before saying “um.” I realized if I take a moment to pause and gather my thoughts while I am speaking, rather than use fillers, it would not be noticeable.

Be confident in what you are saying.

As the first speaking day approached, I did not realize how much speech anxiety I would experience! After hearing feedback on my speech, I realized that my anxiety does not appear to the audience as much as I feel it while speaking. I learned that as long as I am confident in what I am saying, I would come off as a confident speaker.