splendidspeaking Re Posted: Using an Anecdote to Make Your Talk Memorable Lyrics

Transcript
Introduction
Welcome to the Splendid Speaking podcast. My name's Pete Travis and this week we're
listening to Victoria who comes from Belarus and is currently living in Poland. A
reminder that transcripts for all podcasts including this one are available to subscribers of
Victoria was sent the following question shortly before the interview:

Talk about the importance of learning another language. Here are some ideas which
Victoria was told she could include if she wished.
? Travel
? Culture
? Business
Victoria was sent a number of suggestions for making her talk memorable. As you listen
for the first time decide how well Victoria uses a personal anecdote to achieve this. If you
have access to the transcript, listen a second time and answer the comprehension
questions. Finally, make a note of Victoria's use of English, which we'll look at in the
feedback section.
Let's listen to Victoria. I should apologise for the quality of the recording in places.

VICTORIA:
So, ... you have asked me: 'Why should we learn a foreign language?' First
of all I think that learning a foreign language is a very important thing for
everyone who wants to travel around the world and to get to know
different cultures better and to enrich your knowledge about them ... I ...
can say from my personal experience how important learning a foreign
language is because when I met my husband I didn't know that he speaks
Russian so we started to spoke ... English and that helped us a lot. We
first talked only in the ... Internet and neither knowing each other nor
knowing about the other abilities to communicate in any other language
so English helped us a lot. And ... well ... generally speaking ... we all
know that English is an international language which unites so many
nations. You can speak English to native speakers but ... well ... to native
speakers ... but not only to native speakers but also to people from all
over the world ... and ... actually that was the main reason for me to
study this language because knowing English a__ures me to be able to
communicate all over the world. I know that ... whenever I go I know that
I will be understood and I will have no problems at all. But actually ...
knowing a foreign language provides us with ... several ... several
advantages like cultural, economic, political and ... also first of all
personal ... personal advantages. When you know the foreign language
you ... you broaden your horizons first of all when you learn a foreign
language you broaden your horizons and in that way you reinforce your
personality and self confidence of course because you can be very proud
of yourself when you know the foreign language and in that way I think
that a foreign language can contribute to a stronger personality.

Feedback
First of all, thanks to Victoria for taking part in this Skype interview. If you go to the
Splendid Speaking website you can leave your own comments on her talk. Now for some
feedback. Victoria dealt with the topic very well indeed and made some interesting points.
There are several ways we can make a short presentation like this memorable and
Victoria's talk became immediately more interesting for us through her use of a personal
anecdote. Being able to draw on personal experiences can also make the talk more
significant for the speaker and therefore easier to contribute ideas. Of course, the
anecdote shouldn't take up too much of the allotted time and Victoria kept hers quite
short. In general, she managed to signal changes in the direction of her talk well:
"...First of all I think that learning a foreign language is a very important thing for
everyone..."
"...I ... can say from my personal experience..."
"...well ... generally speaking ... we all know that English is an international
language..."
"...But actually ... knowing a foreign language provides us with ... several ... several
advantages..."
Victoria speaks very fluently, with clear p___unciation and she used some excellent
vocabulary to express herself including expressions such as:
'to enrich your knowledge'
'from personal experience'
'broaden your horizons'
Finally, listen to the following extracts from Victoria's talk. Can you spot the mistakes in
each one?
"...so we started to spoke ... English..."
"...We first talked only in the ... Internet..."
"...knowing English a__ures me to be able to communicate all over the world..."
"...When you know the foreign language..."

So, did you spot the mistakes?
"...so we started to spoke ... English..."
This was probably a slip of the tongue on Victoria's part. It should of course be 'we
started to speak English'.
"...We first talked only in the ... Internet..."
This is the wrong preposition. We say 'on the Internet'.
"...knowing English a__ures me to be able to communicate all over the world..."
'a__ure' has two meanings: 'to promise' and 'to make certain'.When it's used to mean
'promise' it takes an object and so you can say 'a__ures me'. However, here Victoria
means 'to make sure' so she should say: 'knowing English a__ures that I can/will be able
to communicate all over the world'.
"...When you know the foreign language..."
This is probably another slip by Victoria as she used the correct article at another time
during the talk. In this context it should be 'a foreign language'.
OK. That's the end of this podcast. Once again, many thanks to Victoria. Until next week
it's 'bye' from me Pete Travis. Bye!