Publicly Speaking

• We are very honoured to have two guesses here tonight.


• Please join Toastmaster!


• It's important to build rappor with your audience

We hear these phrases a LOT at Toastmasters meetings. Like any trade or profession, Toastmasters has its own technical language. Words and expressions peculiar to public speaking shoud be part of every Toastmaster’s vocabulary – and every Toastmaster should master them.

The trouble is, so few do!

I am not suggesting that all Toastmasters should be able to speak perfect English, but these words and phrases are heard with such high frequency and everytime I hear them spoken incorrectly, I tear out another few hairs in exasperation.

So, I will, for the sake of my hairdo, clear this up right here and now.

Guests
Not a difficult word to understand but difficult to pronounce. Often, it sounds like ‘guesses’. It's a consonant cluster and difficult for Chinese speakers (and Americans!). Just try saying 'Grasp crisps for guests' three times. 'Grasp' usually comes out as 'grabs' and 'crisps' sounds like 'crips'. There's really no need to use the words 'grasp' and 'crisps' as there are so many alternatives. 'Guests', however, is worth practising.

Toastmasters
The only difficulty here is the choice between the singular and the plural. One Toastmaster, but many Toastmasters. The organisation name is always plural. It's probably often a pronunciation problem. I can't count how many times I've seen it written wrongly, though, on signs, websites and agendas.

Rapport
From the French language (meaning ‘relationship’), ‘rapport’ has a silent ‘t’ at the end. Usually, I hear it with a hard 't' sound at the end. It's hard to avoid this word in Toastmasters but easy to pronounce it correctly.

Ladies and gentlemen, I appeal to you to avoid these blunders forever more (and save me from baldness) in anticipation of Part 2.