20 Mar 2008 No Comments
The Gov Speaks at HPU—and Speaks Well
Governor Linda Lingle spoke at Hawai‘i Pacific University today, after being invited by the school’s Toastmasters club. Apparently, she was a Toastermaster member and attributes her membership to her success in public speaking. And boy, can she speak. I detected few, if any, crutch words (e.g., “um,” “uh,” “like,” “you know”) during her speech, which was not on paper, by the way. I was very impressed with how she was able to field all kinds of questions, especially difficult, touchy questions on Hawaiian sovereignty and racism. Although I disagreed with some of her political stances, I appreciated her tact in presenting her views. Plus, it’s always nice when the governor namedrops your high school’s media program.
I’ve always been uncomfortable with public speaking, especially in high school, where I would shiver like crazy whenever I presented in front of my classmates. It got much better after I took courses in acting and public speaking at HPU; I took both intentionally last spring so I could improve on my speaking skills. After all, I’m a communication student.
I still have a problem with those crutch words, though, and I really need to hone in on minimizing that for our advertising team’s presentation at the National Student Advertising Competition next month in San Francisco. If I had known about Toastmasters earlier in my college career and had shown initiative earlier to improving my public speaking skills, perhaps I would have joined the club. I’m thinking the intense practice our team will go through during the couple of weeks after spring break should be of significant help, though. And it turns out Wai‘anae has a Toastmasters chapter that meets at the Wai‘anae Coast Comprehensive Health Center twice a month, so I could join that club, since it’s closer to home. I wonder if I know anyone in that club.