I have previously posted about the need to practice speaking. The question is, where do you find places to practice? There is the old standing-by’s, practicing in front of a mirror or a video camera. However, it’s not the same as speaking to a group. There’s nothing like speaking to a live audience for perfecting your speakings skills.
Here are four places to practice in front of an audience:
Join a Toastmasters Club. Through club activities and conferences, Toastmasters helps its members improve their communication and leadership skills while fostering self-confidence and personal growth. Attend and take part regularly. Toastmasters groups provide members an opportunity to become excellent speakers. There are leadership clubs for the advanced speaker and opportunities to present at conferences.
Speak to Service Clubs. Groups such Rotary, Kiwanis, Lions and Optimists have weekly meetings with speakers. They generally do not pay their speakers, so therefore are often easy speaking engagements obtain. These organizations are usually lower threat audiences for new speakers. They have many speakers and audiences tend not t0 expect a polished speech from everyone. They typically want to learn something they did not already know. They are there for the meeting and an interesting presentaion is a plus. Service organizations are excellent places to hone and improve your skills. Another advantages that most club audiences often include influential leaders from the community, thereby extending your exposure.
Present a workshop at association conferences or conventions. Most organizations and associations have conferences and conventions at local, regional and national levels. Most of these have calls for experts to present workshops at these events. Often, being a member of the sponsoring organization will give you an advantage in being selected. This is a great learning experience and one way to become known as a presenter.
Volunteer with a Speakers Bureau. I’m not talking about professional Speakers Bureaus that place speakers for a fee but the speakers bureaus that serve a community cause. For example: mental health, colleges and schools, religious groups, etc. It is the perfect opportunity to enhance your public speaking experience.
译文:
四个练习演讲的场所
我以前也提到过练习演讲的必要性,但是问题是,哪来地方可以练习呢?人们通常是在镜子或摄像机前练习,但这毕竟不同于对公众演讲。没有任何方法会像对真正的观众演讲那样能完善一个人的演讲能力。
这里有四个场所可以供你面对观众练习演讲：
加入演讲俱乐部。通过俱乐部的活动和会议，演讲俱乐部帮助其成员提高他们的交流和领导能力，同时培养他们的自信，促进他们自我发展。加入到其中，并且要经常参与他们的活动，演讲俱乐部为成员们提供成为杰出演讲者的机会。对于高等的演讲者，可以加入领导俱乐部，他们还有机会在各种会议上发言。
对服务性俱乐部作演讲。扶轮社，基瓦尼斯俱乐部，狮子会，乐观会等团体每周都会与演讲者开会。他们一般不支付演讲的费用，因此得到这类演讲的活动是很轻而易举的。这些组织的观众对于新的演讲者也是比较宽容的，由于他们有很多演讲者，因此观众们也不指望每个都能作出完美的演讲。他们通常只是想学到一些他们所不知道的东西。他们仅仅是为了参加会议，当然如果有一个有趣的发言那就再好不过了。服务性组织是磨练和提高演讲技巧最好的场所。另一个有利条件是，大多数俱乐部的成员会包括一些社团的有影响力的领导，因此就增加了你的曝光率。
在协会会议上开展专题研讨会。大多数组织和协会都有地区级或全国性的会议，大多数都会邀请专家开展专题研讨会。通常，作为赞助方组织的一员会更有利于你被入选。这是一个极佳的学习经验，也是你成为一名演讲者的一种方法。
成为演讲局的志愿者。我并不是说专业的支付佣金的演讲局，而是服务于社会事业的演讲组织。例如，服务于精神疾病，学校，宗教组织，等等。这些都是丰富你演讲经历的绝佳机会。