The Charm of Speaking - Communication Skills You Can't Afford to Miss

Author: Liu Yong
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-11-01
Features: About ten years ago, I heard an absolutely fantastic debate competition. After the preliminary and semi-final rounds, the two university teams that advanced to the final were truly the cream of the crop—sharp-witted, incredibly quick on their feet, and speaking at lightning speed. The entire competition was non-stop, leaving the audience breathless. When it ended, I predicted Team A would win by a narrow margin. However, the results came out, and Team B actually won. Not only was Team A in disbelief, but Team B was overjoyed too. Later, the students from Team B told me they had thought they were doomed to lose because, logically, they knew they were inferior to Team A. They never expected to win—it was quite a surprise. I was puzzled too, so I called one of the judges. As soon as I asked him, he sighed and said, "You actually came to ask me too! So many people have been complaining and cursing us judges! But you need to know, after several rounds of judging, it was already 4:30 PM in the afternoon, and we old folks were exhausted. The more tired we were, the slower our reactions became—who could keep up with their lightning-fast speaking? By the time we understood the previous sentence, the next one was already missed. So, to be honest, it was because we couldn’t clearly follow their arguments that we didn’t score them fairly."
The speed of speech depends on the audience
After hearing my story, I ask you: Was it right or wrong for those debaters to speak so fast?
Absolutely right! For the two teams involved, they were young, quick on their feet, and full of energy, so they clearly understood their opponents’ points and knew who was doing better in the debate. But the judges were different—several of them were over sixty and had been working all day. The students’ rapid speech was too fast for them to "grasp the meaning" in time. As a result, the team that should have won lost, while the team that should have lost ended up winning. So, was there a mistake on the part of the losing debate team?
The speed of speech must be weighed against gains and losses
Let’s set this question aside for now and tell you another story about myself. The year I graduated from university, the "National Self-Reliance Gala" was handed over to the "National Salvation Corps" to organize. They decided to abandon the previous format of two hosts each from the "Three Stations" and assigned the entire show to me. The gala was held at the "China Gymnasium" in Taipei. The National Salvation Corps had inspected the venue beforehand and rehearsed, only to find that it was too large and the sound system was poor, with echo issues. So, they repeatedly warned me to speak slowly, word by word, or the 20,000 audience members in the venue wouldn’t be able to hear clearly.
But on the day of the show, I completely ignored their advice anded the entire event at my usual speaking pace. I believed, as they said, that the audience in the venue couldn’t hear very well.
However, after the show aired, I unexpectedly became a household name and was immediately invited by a TV station to host a quiz show. Then I moved on to the news department. I can confidently say that if I had listened to the National Salvation Corps’ friends that day, I wouldn’t be where I am today. Why? Because it was a joint broadcast by the "Three Stations." If I had spoken slowly, word by word, the 20,000 audience members in the venue might have understood, but the hundreds of thousands watching on TV would have found it awkward and might have wondered why I was speaking so slowly—