June 27, 2012 Post
Tonight I gave a
presentation on one of my favorite writer Amy Tan; but I did not feel well even
though I spent many times to prepare for it. Basically I read my outline most
of time rather than say it; and I did not have some sort of visual
accompaniment such as power point. I know my broken English is a hurdle for me to
do well in this presentation but I still do not feel well. I felt like I lost
something that I have never gotten back until today. What I don’t speak well
English today still haunt me and become a root cause that I always have a low self-esteem
and lack of confident. Once one of my classmates in speech one in City College
of San Francisco made a comment on my presentation, in which he directly told that
he didn’t get what I was saying. I really appreciated he gave me a true
feedback but I am human being so I definitely felt embarrassed.
Many facts and evidence
convince me that I still have a long way to improve my English. After reading
the short essay “How to Date a Brown girl….”, I could not understand some part
of essay. For example, “clear the government cheese from the refrigerator,” and
“run a hand through your hair like the white boys do even though the only thing
that runs easily through your hair is Africa.” I absolutely didn’t get its points
initially. In addition, I am definitely unable to write well this kind of essay
because I have limitation on writing skill and do not have enough knowledge on
Americanized culture.
One word I can say regarding
to the sample essay is excellent.
Some parts of your presentation were difficult to understand, but I believe you have improved based on what your classmate said at Community College. I was definely able to understand more than half of your presentation because you spoke smoothly and slow. I think everyone has their "issue" with giving speeches and talking in front of a class. My biggest problem is not opening my mouth enough which causes mumbling which I don't even realize I am doing. I speak the next word before I finish the word I was saying and it gets cut off. But I think I have improved over the years, having more than a week to prepare will help as well. We only had a week or less for this project, but it was small and easy to study and present on and I enjoyed it. Keep it up, you are definitely improving. Overall I thought you did a good job and most people would agree.
ReplyDeletethank you
DeleteI think you are being too hard on yourself. We all experienced nervousness when come to public speaking. I think you should give yourself a pat on the back for completing it. As for the essay "how to date a brown girl", I didn't get the part about the cheese either. I didn't understand what it means to government the cheese either. So you are not alone on this.
ReplyDeletethank you
DeleteDon't sweat it, you did great on your presentation. You didn't look nervous up there and, in fact, you spoke slowly and clearly. Most of the time when people are nervous they talk so fast that nobody really understands them. I think we all get nervous when speaking in front of a group. I've never read any of Amy Tan's books, but I did watch The Joy Luck Club. Have you heard of the author, Adeline Yen Mah? I've read one of her books called Falling Leaves and it's pretty good.
ReplyDeleteI was touched by your presentation on Amy Tan. You made your point clear and related a lot of things back to your personal life. You did a great job!
ReplyDelete