Presentation Training Skills

Presentations Skills Training Seminars

Presentations training seminars are provided across the country via public open enrollment presentation training seminars in major metropolitan areas and can also be delivered on-site via private training sessions. Our presentations training seminars can be provided as off-the-shelf sessions, ready to be delivered to a diverse audience or can be specifically customized to provide a tailored and personalized approach based on client needs. All presentations training seminars are limited to a maximum of twelve participants so as to increase seminar effectiveness and provide the individual level of coaching and interaction that is associated with the Presentations Training Seminar Center.

For more information on our presentations skills training seminars please contact us.

Presentation Training Seminar - Presenting Through a Translator

On several occasions, I have given lectures that were translated as I spoke in other languages, including German, Norwegian and Japanese. While junkets abroad promoting wellness concepts of reason, exuberant living, athleticism and expanding personal liberties is attractive, one thing makes me nervous: will my message come out to the audience to mean something a bit or a lot different from what I intended in English. It's daunting enough to prepare and deliver a speech that will inform, entertain, inspire and energize an audience under any circumstance. When being translated, it gets more so. In such cases, a speaker can only hope the translator expresses the message intended. This essay describes an amazing experience I had delivering a keynote speech in Japan.

I should mention right away that there are subtleties in the way the English language is spoken in varied English-speaking countries that any lecturer traveling abroad should recognize. I have made a dozen trips to Australia as well as England, Canada, Guam and other places where English differences go deeper than how words are pronounced. Of course, it's always easier than when translators are involved because the languages are NOT remotely the same.

Which brings me to the point where I can discuss an experience in Kyoto in 2005. I spoke to the Japan Wellness Society, a prestigious, enthusiastic and friendly group of industry leaders. I had worked extensively on my keynote for months prior to arrival in Japan. My prepared remarks were fortified and juiced up on steroids - dazzling PowerPoint slides, music, fireworks and a dance ensemble of geisha girls. (OK - I'm exaggerating a little.) The talk was going to be spectacular. It might, I thought, someday rank with history's best. Perhaps it would be mentioned with reverence, in the same breath as Lincoln's Gettysburg Address of 1865, JFK's stirring "Ich bin ein Berliner" of June 26,1963, the "Plumed Knight" oration by Robert Green Ingersoll at the Republican National Convention in Chicago in 1876 when he nominated James Blaine for president, the "I Have A Dream" speech Martin Luther King delivered at the Lincoln Memorial in the summer of 1963, Winston Churchill's 1940 "We Shall Fight On The Beaches" rallying address and, of course, the "Ask Not What Your Country Can Do For You" zinger - JFK's Inaugural from 1961. (The latter I heard in person, on a freezing day in Washington, DC. I was a freshman at George Washington University - just a mile from the capitol steps where Kennedy stood.)

The night before my address in Kyoto, my host and guide, Dr. Toshi Tsutsumi, advised that my translator, Mr. Keiichirou Kita, wanted to meet me in order to review my planned remarks. I thought this was a fine idea. It was already kind of late, as the welcoming party dinner and entertainment had lasted well into the night. I was ready to retire for the evening. I naturally assumed Mr. Kita's review session would not take much time. Not so. Mr. Kita listened for a while, then advised that people would find it difficult to understand my lecture. As far as I can recall, he said something like "I can empathize with you how joyful it feels to play with words, but please keep in mind that your language is not our language. There will not be time for me or for audience members to look up your words, expressions and figures of speech in a dictionary."

Well, maybe not those exact words, but wise counsel and guidance along those lines. We worked on the talk for over an hour. The finished product made sense. The oration had been cut in half - and made as simple as possible. Many of my amazingly witty observations and clever puns, jokes and historical references to Pearl Harbor were gone, but I suspected the speech was better than before. It now seemed to be just the right level of literary sophistication. I could hardly wait for the morning. I also changed the slides and modified the music, the amount of fireworks and the routine of the geisha girls. I rose early and applied final touches on what I hoped would be seen as a magnum opus of a speech.

Surprisingly, I was awakened even sooner than I planned on getting up - by Mr. Kita. He knocked on my door at a very early hour. He wanted one more meeting. We had a pre-breakfast session that lasted another hour. Once again, I was fine with the result, even though the speech was now only half what it had been the night before - or 25 percent what I originally planned. And yes, I had to make last-minute cuts in the slides, the music, the fireworks and the geisha dances and songs. But, I was now ready, at last. Besides, there was no time for further changes. I was on in a few minutes. After being introduced by the chairman of the Japanese Wellness Society, Michio Katsuki, M.D, Ph.D., (in Japanese of course), I heard my name (which sounds about the same in Japanese as English) as Dr. Katsuki motioned me to the lectern. What followed was clearly my most unusual experience in half a century of public speaking.

I began slowly: "Good morning" and took a deep breath. Before I could continue with an acknowledgment of the chairman and the Wellness Society, Mr. Kita translated. I can't, of course, replicate his remarks as delivered in Japanese, but I remember being surprised that it took about a minute to translate "Good morning." I remember thinking, "Geez, it sure takes a lot of words to say 'Good morning' in Japanese." (I later learned that what he said essentially amounted to this: "Good morning. It is a fine day. The sun is shining. This will be a wonderful occasion, of that I am sure. Let us listen to Dr. Ardell. He seems to be a fine fellow. He is quite tall, isn't he?"

I continued: "It's a pleasure to be here." He translated. Whatever he said, it took twice as long. Again, from my friend Toshi, I learned that he said something like, "Dr. Ardell say that it is pleasure to be here. He thinks Kyoto is very beautiful. He went to sleep late last night, being excited to be here. He did not have to get up many times to go to the bathroom, as far as I know. He would have liked to sleep more, but he wanted to work plenty on his wonderful speech. Would you like to hear his speech? It is very good I turn the microphone now back to Dr. Ardell."

Well, as you can imagine, I did not get through my carefully prepared remarks. Every time I spoke five to ten words, Mr. Kita doubled down. I had no idea how my words were being translated - I could only hope for the best and observe the audience response. Everyone seemed attentive at first, then heads were nodding and soon, smiles and laughter. Toward the end, it was clear from the uproar that I was cracking them up.

What did I say that was so funny? I couldn't tell you. I estimate I managed to speak about 100 to 150 words over the course of 40 minutes. However, these few words were, evidently, rich in meaning and brilliant in concept, poetic in expression and hilarious in double entendres and witticisms. No wonder it took my translator so long to communicate such profound sentences into Japanese.

When I finished, the audience was in stitches, meaning I "killed," that is, I was wildly entertaining. I wondered if perhaps I might have a future in stand-up comedy, at least in Japan. However, that feeling did not last long. Instead, I wondered which of two conclusions about the speech were most probable: 1) the Japanese were very polite, kind and hospitable people - and simply gave me the benefit of all manner of doubt; or 2) the speaker knew more wellness than I - and had extemporaneously delivered a brilliant speech on my behalf. Either way, everything turned out well.

I wonder if Mr. Kita speaks other languages? If so, I will hire him if I should I find myself with speaking engagements in Russia, Turkey or other non-English speaking country! I guess the lesson from my experience is to keep it simple and prepare written translations to distribute to insure that what you communicate in English is eventually understood in the local language.

Source: Donald Ardell link

Related: Presentation Training Seminar