I had the honor of meeting Angela at NUS Alumni Toastmasters meeting last week. She was a feisty lady with a keen eye for language and a strong sense of humor. It was through her language evaluation that I realize a lot of us tend to neglect our grammar and sentence structures. Though it seems unimportant, poor use of language can distract the audience from the content of your speech and reduce the impact that you intended for. Worst, it creates a bad first impression that will take more than proper grooming and high qualifications to erase.

I took the liberty of inviting Angela (who is also a Distinguished Toastmasters, the highest qualification for a Toastmaster) to write her views on the use of the language. Hope that her article will instil some awareness in you when you prepare for your next speech! Enjoy!
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Whenever I do my Training on Public Speaking, some students will ask me ‘Does Grammar matter, when you are crafting speeches? The answer to that is ……‘YES’ it does matter. The mere mention of the word ‘Grammar’ normally sends some people into a spin. Speaking good English isn’t as frightening as we someimes imagine it to be.

With the spoken word, we have to be careful…… because sometimes we are guilty of speaking grammatically incorrectly. There are however, some points of Grammar that can make us appear uncouth if we get them wrong. For example, pronouncing ‘rendezvous’ as rend-dez-ves’ when it should be pronounced with the ’s’ as silent. Some people get a bit muddled up sometimes and wonder if they’ve got their pronouns right or have mixed up their tenses. At the same time, we tend to judge speakers by the way they handle their Grammar.

Very often, we hear mistakes like ‘him and me’, ‘I was laying down to rest’ and the famous one ‘The reason why is because…..’

It is important that we become aware of the part Grammar plays in our overall pattern of Speech. The more you increase your word power and understand the structure of your language the easier it will be to make a good impression.

Some people say that it doesn’t matter what words you use, as long as you are understood. This can perhaps apply to speaking only, because as all of you know, Singaporeans have this very distinct flavour in their speech, that of Singlish. This is the clue that will give us away when we travel overseas. But of course, I am not saying that speaking Singlish is correct as it is always better to speak standard English. When we get used to speaking Singlish, it may become automatic to us and we may utter it unconsciously during our speech. In speech, your mistakes appear more prominent and your rating as a speaker drops, if you use incorrect grammar.

Talking about words, I am reminded of this anecdote I read the other day. One day the Teacher asked a boy in class “Bobby, what is a synonymn?” Bobby looked very surprised and he answered: “A synonymn is a word you use in place of the orginal word you wanted to use….. but you didn’t know how to spell it!”

Not only do words matter in a speech, they matter also when you answer a question. The words that Bobby used to answer his teacher were appropriate and rather intelligent. So you see, words do matter in every facet and function of Life. Just a simple matter of inviting an appointment holder to your Club, entails that you pen the right words in your email. Of course, don’t use flattery to get him to come. As they say, “Flattery won’t get you anywhere”. Show that you are sincere and that your Club will be delighted by his presence……he will find it hard to refuse your invitation!

Speech is similar to music in many ways. Both Speech and music are international, regardless of language and tempo. Speech and music are based on emotions. The notes in music are similar to the range in our voices.

In Music, we have Fortissimo, Pianissimo,Allegretto & Crescendo. In Speech, we speak softly and loudly, communicate briskly, quickly and then build up power in our voices. In music, we have the blues, jazz, the sentimentals and then the disco or dance music.

In Speech, we can sound sad, when we relate an emotional personal story, have a lilt to our voice when we are happy or sound formal and structured when talking about something serious. When words are added to music, the bonds become stronger. The song becomes more meaningful, more poignant and more inspiring.

There is passion in the words of an Opera, joy and pain in the words of an unrequited lover, and solace and peace in hymns and spiritual songs.Whatever the emotion, we can find ways to express it, if we listen to the music and the words. No matter what the song, it can sound completely different when sung by different singers….the same goes for Speeches as well.

Since speeches do not contain music, we will need to incorporate the essence of music and rhythmn into our Speeches by the use of appropriate words. These words come in the form of Alliteration, onomatopeia, reptition, paradox, metaphors………..and the list goes on. Figures of speech add the music and rhythmn that is so mandatory for a good speech………That speech, when delivered will be like a song in your heart……

You can contact Angela at angel67@singnet.com.sg
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Any burning questions to ask? Send them to eric@ericfeng.com and I will get back to you asap. Meanwhile, enjoy the articles at Public Speaking for All!
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