In today’s podcast you’ll learn how to effectively begin a talk or presentation in English.

Voice message from Jesús from Valencia about flags and the legend of the Valencian flag (Senyera)
The flag of Northern Ireland episode 34

X‘The middle age‘X – The middle ages
X‘I am Jesús from Valencia‘X – This is Jesús
to drag – dragged
X‘We need a symbol for continue fighting‘X – We need a symbol to continue fighting.

Four red stripes on a yellow background – the blood of the king’s hand on the yellow silk of the shirt.

If your flag has a history that you’d like to tell us about, record your voice on Speakpipe and send it to us. https://www.speakpipe.com/inglespodcast

Voice message from Maite from Xativa (one of our sponsors – Maite Palacín Pérez)
‘As long as I can’ – do you mean ‘whenever I can’?
As long as = siempre y cuando
Whenever = cuando sea
‘Cross my fingers’ – ‘fingers crossed’
Listen ‘to’ your podcast
Maite is a hardened AIRCoholic (with an excellent accent!)

Email from Mercedes from Madrid

Hi teachers! It’s Mercedes from Madrid. Since I discovered these podcast some months ago, I try to listen to them all the every weeks (every week).
Really useful to improve my level. I’m just wondering if you could talk about how start a talk in English.
I’m working as a telecom operator and sometimes I have to talk for small audiences.
Happy to know how (what) is the best way to start a talk with something to capture the attention of the public: maybe an anecdote or a question?.. many thanks in advance. Best, Mercedes.

We talked a little bit about very general advice about Presentations in episode 12

Beginning a Presentation 

The first few minutes are the most important.
Body language and tone or voice and intonation is MORE IMPORTANT than what you you actually say. How you say something can be more important than what you say.

Before you start your talk, you should introduce yourself, thank people for coming, and maybe make a very short comment that the audience can relate to. For example,
“Good afternoon! I’m Craig. Thank you for coming to this talk. I hope the lovely lunch we’ve just had won’t put you to sleep!

Start with a question or a problem that needs to be solved:
“Has anyone here ever had someone swear at them or verbally abuse them on the phone?” What would you do in this situation.”

Or you could start with some shocking fact:
“Every year, telecom operators receive on average 147 personal complaints about their service. 147 complaints! How can we reduce this number?”

Asking your audience to do something really helps them to engage with your talk:
“Put up your hand if you’ve been insulted on the phone at least once this year?”
“Now turn to the person next to you and explain how you dealt with it and how you felt?”

State the purpose of your talk/presentation:
1. Today I’ll be talking to you about the importance of a balanced diet in the 21st century.
2. This morning I’m going to tell you about the latest developments in our new project.
3. This afternoon I’ll be taking a look at the rise in pop-up shops.
4. I’ve come here today to report on the results of the questionnaire we sent to clients.

Outline the structure/format of your talk/presentation:
1. I’ll start by identifying the key components of a balanced diet, and then I’ll go on to discuss the most effective ways of obtaining those components.
2. First of all, we’ll look at what has been happening up to now before going on to discuss possible future ideas for the project and then answering any questions you might have.
3. We’ll begin by outlining the origins of pop-ups, then discuss their future viability before comparing your own experience with them.
4. After briefly filling you in on how we devised the questionnaire, I’ll move on to highlighting the key points of the results, and finally examine where we can improve. There’ll be time at the end to ask questions.

We mentioned a useful book on giving presentations in episode 87 about Academic English:
Presenting in English: how to give successful presentations, by Mark Powell

Talk Like Ted – Carmine Gallo: http://www.carminegallo.com/books/talk-like-ted/

Why is it so difficult to give a presentation?
– nerves – Know your subject!
– length – Keep it short!

How can you improve?
– Practice! Practice! Practice!
– use cue cards/bullet points
– Record yourself on audio and video

Do you enjoy giving presentations?

…and now it’s your turn to practise your English. Do you have a question for us or an idea for a future episode?
Send us a voice message and tell us what you think. https://www.speakpipe.com/inglespodcast

Send us an email with a comment or question to [email protected] or [email protected].

If you would like more detailed show notes, go to https://www.patreon.com/inglespodcast
Our lovely sponsors are:

Nikolay Dimitrov
Ana Cherta
Pedro Martinez
Manuel García Betegón
Maite Palacín Pérez
Lara Arlem
Maria Gervatti
Sara Jarabo
Carlos Garrido
Zara Heath Picazo
Mamen
Juan Leyva Galera
Corey Fineran
Mariel Riedemann
Jorge Jiménez
Raul Lopez
Rafael
Manuel Tarazona
Agus Paolucci
Manuel Velázquez
Néstor García Mañes http://nestorgm.com/ Luces Extrañas
Juan Carlos
Rafa Bancells
Beatriz Sanchez

We want to thank Arminda from Madrid, Alberto from Granada and Angélica Bello from Madrid for continuing to transcribe full transcriptions.
We now have full transcriptions for episodes 131 to 142, and episodes 1 and 2 thanks to Angélica.

On next week’s episode: Josep’s True English Story

The music in this podcast is by Pitx. The track is called ‘See You Later’