Speech Critique

After watching my video of my speech I can appropriately make a couple of critiques of myself.  I thought after watching the video that I could have made more eye contact with the audience.  Since, I was using note cards I had none to little hand gestures used.  There were a couple of awkward pauses that were made because I had lost my spot reading off of the note cards and the individual recording was making hand gestures indicating to me how many minutes had gone by.  I believe that I had good vocal clarity and volume throughout the speech.  During the research of my speech I had used good reputable sources and did cite those sources throughout the speech.  The information was organized well but I do believe that I should have made more lengthy pauses during the transition points to make it clear to the listener that there was a shift in topics being covered.  I felt prior to my speech that I was adequately prepared but it seemed no matter how many times I had rehearsed my speech to myself, the nervousness kicked in and all the practice for my speech went out the window.  I feel overall that the speech went well.

Nelson Mandela

The reason I chose Nelson Mandela for my speech topic is because I personally beleive that a man that is willing to spend the vast majority of his life fighting for something that he beleives in should receive recongnition.  Mr. Mandela has spent close to 27 years in prison for a fight against civil injustices that I beleive every white person takes for granted.  I myself have never been segregated upon or have lived in a country that has had strict policies on segregation unlike Mr. Mandela.  The actions that he has taken to free South Africa from apatheid is honorable and just.  i have nothing but the upmost respect for the man and his sacrifices.

Thesis:

Nelson Mandela has and will be known as a hero in the war of segregation and racism throughout the ages, and his story will most definitely be told time and time again.

Generation Y

I belong to the generation that is known as Generation Y.  Some characteristics, beliefs and values of my generation whether they are considered admirable or not are increased narcissism,  a strong sense of community both global and local, sense of entitlement, and rejections of social conventions.  Of all the stigmas that are associated with my generation I would have to agree that I would fall under the rejection of social norms.  From a very young age I would do what pleased me at the time and would not follow what most peers before me were doing in the forms of fashion, fads and entertainment.  It never made sense to me to do what others thought was popular at the time if I wasn't comfortable with it.  One morning during my final year of high school I watched the planes fly into the WTC.  At the moment of impact I remember thinking to myself..."I'm going to war."  It was as simple as that.  I pictured every military aged male lining up at the recruiters office itching to get behind a trigger in some far off land like had happened after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.  There were three people including me from my graduating class of 250 students that had signed up for military service.  Personally, I felt betrayed by my generation.  You would often hear conversation saying,"If they don't force me into service I'm not going because they have other people to do that job for us."  That's when it hit me,  I was no longer part of Generation Y but rather part of Generation entitlement.  I believe that my current generation is much more lazier than previous generations and that we are expected to receive what is coming to us without putting forth an actual effort to achieve our goals or dreams.  I'm not sure if it was the accelerated rate of technology at the time that had decreased the actual amount of physical work demanded to get the job done or the liberal policies of the government but I will be the first to point out that the effort put forth on the path to achievement has decreased considerably.

Skills

Adaptive:  I can easily adapt to any kind of work environment whether it is in person or through multimedia.

Vocal:  Not afraid to speak ones opinion tactfully.  Benefits group work by enabling neutral control spread across all members equally.

Determination: Possess great self determination to achieve group goals and deadlines in a timely manner.

Creative:  Able to suggest out of the box ideas to help brainstorm topics and scenarios to work through.

Conflict

When asked to recall a time in your life when you suppressed or censored feelings in you life a period in my life comes to mind.  I can remember early on in my relationship with my wife prior to being married.  There would be many of times when I would let her win an argument because I was worried that if I continued to argue things might get said by either party which could result in the ending of our relationship.  This would usually result in an apology toward me after the conflict which I would assume because I appeared to be the pacifist.  I never would look the gift horse in the mouth when it came to the apologies though.  After our relationship grew and we were later married I knew that we would never separate based solely on a verbal argument.  I became less passive and more direct with my arguments.  In most cases the argument would end in a stalemate with a reconciliation afterwards when cooler heads prevailed.  Both sides would see there wrongs and a peaceful adult conversation could take place with a mutual consensus occurring afterwards.  I'd like to believe that a relationship that lacks a little chaos now and again is susceptible to fracture because of a lack of communication.  The truth should never be left out of an argument however hurtful things should be.

Listening

After watching the TED talk video on listening I was rather amazed at what little I may be listening to others around me.  The main message that the author of the video is trying to get across is that we have lost the ability to properly listen to sounds or other people around us.  Since the development of writing, audio and visual recording devices the importance of listening and properly retaining what is said has declined.  I completely agree with what the author is saying.  The amount of everyday noise, constant distractions around us, prove for it to be hard at times to clearly listen to what  is being said.  Personally, I find it hard to listen to my wife when the kids are running around, the dog is barking and the phone is ringing.  The listening exercises that I preformed where the silence technique out on my deck while having coffee and trying to pick out individual sounds in a noisy setting.  Sitting in silence or lack of noises also combined with picking out individual sounds.  Being outside where it is generally quiet provides a great venue for picking out individual sounds.  I must have heard six different birds, trucks in the distance, chainsaws, horns, squirrels etc.  I think just by taking a second or two to step outside when there is excessive noise around really helps to clear your head and make listening a lot easier to follow.

Hip Hop Nation

After reading the article "Hip Hop Nation" it became clear to me where many of the "urbanized" words that you hear today came from.  I find it interesting that many of the words created by African Americans were words that were created to help explain the troubles that they were currently feeling at the time.  This is interesting to me because in the present the only new words that I can think of that have been created are Black language words.  The black hip hop culture seems to me very eloquent in the introduction of these new words through their music that they create.  After reading the article something that I learned that I had not known before was that in the slave days, most slaves where not allowed to play drums because the drums where used as a way of communication or a way to excite other slaves just like the college bands do at football games.  Some information that I would find intriguing is whats is the process in developing new words or phrases.  How do you put a certain emphasis on a word if it has never been heard before and get it to become frequently used and popular.  In the future when I hear new words coming from the "urban" language I will actually give it some thought as to what were the circumstances that called for the new creation of the word and what is the context that it is being used in.  Instead of just thinking that the word was made up because it rhymed with other words I will take into account why it was created.