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18 April 2007

Pronounciation Problem

I just had a presentation today. Man I would say my performance for the presentation is terrible even though I've done lots of presentation in my college days. Not to mention that I've successfully graduated from a public speaking course some more..
Dang, what a disgrace.
But it was all good. At least I made everyone in the class laughed.

Here goes:
Even before its my turn to speak, I was trembling. My legs were shaking. That is one of the worst trembling I've experience in a presentation. If my hands are shaking, thats normal to me...But today, both my legs were trembling. It was very obvious till the point where my pants is going through a shockwave or something like that.
When I began speaking, everything was good at the beginning. I was calm, slow and speaking at an acceptable volume. But I was getting more and more nervous as I spoke longer. I figured that out when I was getting louder and my pace is picking up speed. I was like a machine gun there. Hopefully my audience is accustomed to listening to fast paced rap music.

There was a point when I'm suppose to mention the unmber $420,000.
And how do you pronouce $420,000?? Four hundred and twenty thousand dollars...right??
(Dang, I'm a genius!!)

That figure was on my presentation slides. Just when I reached that part of the speech, I realised I that I had difficulty in pronoucing the amount $420,000.
I was like: "4hundred2hundred.....no sorry, 2hundred...sorry, 4thousand20hundred...." and at that time, I was dumbfounded for a moment as I look like an those typical asian idoit who couldn't speak proper english. Yea, everyone was looking at me with an impatient face and their expression was like "Dude, even though I've never give a speech before, I'll bet a million dollars that I can present a 1000times better than you!!!"

So, there I was looking like a total idoit. But thanks to my quick wit thinking and fast reflects, I turned my body towards the powerpoint slide and pointed at the number. And with a loud voice, I said: "4hundred2thou.....arg....THAT AMOUNT".
Man, I thought that was embarassing, but then this embarassing feeling turned into a feeling of greatness when my audience started laughing and clapping. They clapped for me!!!! Imagine that!!! They must be impressed by how I handled the situation with a quick wit.
Yea, I wonder how I amaze myself all the time...

Oh yea, and not long after that, I have to mention another amount: $480,000.
But you know what I did??
I just pointed at the number and said: "That AMOUNT!!!".
Yup, I'm 'experienced' enough not to mention the exact figure anymore.
And people start laughing again!!
Man, that felt good!!!

I admit my performance was terrible. I guess the audience would have an impression that I one fo those asian kid who couldn't even form a proper english sentence.
But hey, at least I made them laugh when a presenter is talking. No other presenters managed to do that. I mean, the audience do clap at the end of their presentation but not DURING the presentation... Dang, I would say that was quite an achievement.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

WELL DONE!

3POINT8 said...

Thanks...