Coaching public speakers from overseas

I recently delivered a coaching session for an Argentinian lady called Iris who booked me after hearing me at one of my own speaking engagements.

It's always interesting coaching speakers for whom English is a second language (although in Iris's case, she speaks about half a dozen!) During the seven years when I taught evening classes in public speaking for Bournemouth Adult Learning and Bournemouth and Poole College of Further Education, I trained students from the UK, Ireland and the United States but also from Italy, Brazil, Spain, Venezuala, India, Germany, Sweden and a trio of great guys from South Korea. It takes courage to enrol in a public speaking class but even more to do so and deliver your presentations in a foreign language!

These students all enriched my classes with their fascinating insights, anecdotes and humour as well as being an inspiration for those from English-speaking countries.

During my session with Iris, I concentrated on her enthusiastic delivery of her well-prepared and humorous speech (she is very interested in creative writing and is already contributing to a local magazine). There was just the odd point where I corrected her pronunciation because I felt her audience might be distracted from some very good content. I also did some swift editing to avoid an unintentional innuendo!

I certainly wasn't going to nit-pick over every word or pronunciation and try and make her sound English. What matters is that she delivers her speech with passion and people can understand her.

One of the saddest training sessions I was ever booked for (and one which was never really going to work) happened several years ago when I got a call from a gentleman who asked, in very good English, if I could help him lose his slight foreign accent. I immediately explained that I am not a language school or elocution teacher but he said he was willing to try anything as he found it irritating when people asked where he came from when he knew his English was very good.

I reluctantly agreed to take the booking and set about devising some speaking and reading exercises for him. I turned up at his lovely home in a very nice location and he told me that he had moved to the UK many decades ago as a teenager and had built up a successful business, married and had children (now grown-up). The one thing that seemed to be spoiling his life was the fact that he had a slight accent on occasional words which led to some people asking what country he was born in.

(I thought to myself that, rather than trying to correct these long-established speech patterns, it might be more productive to reframe his outlook so that he viewed these enquiries as friendly interest; on the other hand, I did wonder, bearing in mind where he was from, whether they were asked with increasing frequency by paranoid people in the wake of 9/11).

We set to work with readings and conversation. I recorded him and we listened to the playback. But however much we practised, there would be a slight accent on occasional words of a certain type.

After a couple of these sessions had left me feeling that I wasn't helping him at all, I discussed the matter in general terms with an adult education colleague of mine, a language teacher who had made a study of the speech patterns in my student's part of the world and she explained how difficult it would be to 'correct' certain pronunciations.

After one more lesson, we agreed that this wasn't working and decided to call it a day. I hope he came to terms with his speech, especially as he spoke better English than millions of Brits!

A few nights ago, I was speaking to a guy from a Mediterranean country who is starting out as a magician. He told me he felt that comic timing in his part of the world is different and this makes it more tricky trying to use humour with UK audiences. A little while later, he told a topical joke to a table of about seven people. His delivery was perfect and he had everyone, including myself and at least two other professional entertainers, in fits of laughter. So much for 'different' timing!

Public Speaking Tip #309: If you are delivering a speech in a second language, you are doing something very courageous and bringing a welcome, different style to your audience. They will make allowances for you so don't fret too much over 'perfect' grammar or pronunciation - what matters is that your message gets across.