Strengths and Weaknesses of My Public Speaking

I am now taking a January term course called, "The Arts of Communications". This course is intended to teach how to communicate effectively for students who want to be leaders in politics or the public policy area. During this two-week course, each student will do 4 speeches, and the teacher and students will give feedback on those speeches.

I have already made 3 speeches in class. I have learned that the most important principle of effective communication is to be "listener-focused". You can achieve this by three of the most powerful tools to persuade the audience are logos (argument by logic), pathos (argument by emotion), and ethos (argument by character). Reflecting on my own experience, I feel that persuading people only by logic is difficult. For example, when I decided to work at my current organization, not only the logic, but also the passion of the recruiter in his job and his reliable, charismatic character convinced me. In my life, I have mainly trained my logos skills because I majored in engineering as an undergraduate and graduate student. But I have not trained much about how to appeal to the audience's emotions by making use of story and how to influence the audience by my own character. Through this eye-opening course, I am learning how to persuade people by expanding my use of pathos and ethos in addition to logos.

I have received a lot of feedback which overrides what I thought was good style. For example, I was told the following: your first draft should be your voice since writing language and speaking language are totally different things. You don't have to show the structure of the speech, such as "there are three reasons for this", since those phrases are boring for listeners. Also, you don't have to say the general introduction, such as "hello, my name is so and so and today I will talk about such and such." This feedback has made me realize that there is no clear-cut answer to what makes a great speech.

In speech sessions, students are divided into small groups of 4-5. Each student gives a 4-minute presentation, followed by Q&A session. After that, the audience gives detailed feedback on the speaker's voice, body language, eye-contact, introduction, body, conclusion, story, and persuasiveness. To my surprise, I was highly rated for my delivery of speech, including voice, body language, eye-contact, pace of the speech, and utilization of silence. On the other hand, my persuasiveness was not so highly rated. This was a new finding for me because it was the opposite result from what I recognized as my strengths and weaknesses. Whenever I speak, I make sure to project my voice and speak slowly and clearly because I can't speak fluently like native English speakers. I think this effort makes my presentation easy to listen to, and gives a good impression to the audience. Until I took this class, I thought that the fact I could not speak fluently would be my weakness, but now I think I can convert this weakness to a strength in my speeches. 

Reflecting on 2014 and My Goals for 2015

・Reflecting on 2014

When I look back at 2014, from January to March, I was very busy both mentally and physically because I had to travel abroad to attend different kinds of international conferences. In the middle of March, I got great news of being admitted to several American graduate schools, and this news made me happy despite the busyness. I talked with many people and contemplated for several weeks, and finally I decided to go to the Harvard Kennedy School. From then until the day that I departed from Japan, I completed my remaining work and taught my co-worker how to do business, as well as dealt with private issues such as family things. In August, I came to Cambridge and made my dream of studying abroad come true. After that, I felt that my time was progressing slowly as if I had gone back to my childhood, but when I look back now, it also seems that it has passed in a flash. I am now grateful for being able to study what I want to learn every day and have a break from my job. I am also grateful for my family, who supports me, for the people who wrote recommendation letters for me, and for my friends who gave me advice and encouragement.

・Leaders are natural

Among the books I read during the year-end and new year holidays, the book, "Leaders are natural", written by Yoshihiro Kanai, who is a famous leadership professor, and Yayoi Masuda, who served as a human resource head in the Asia Pacific region of Nike, was inspirational. It might be difficult to imagine from the title of the book, but this book has a lot of tips to think about how Japanese people can take leadership not only in Japan, but also in the world. I definitely recommend this book to the people who are now studying abroad.

One phrase was impressive for me, as I now struggle every day in the U.S. That was the phrase of Ms. Masuda, "The Japanese should contribute to the world with pride of being Japanese. They should be confident and 100% yourself."

I started my new life at the Kennedy School last August, and talked to many people from different countries. Through this experience, I have come to think that I, as a Japanese person who grew up in Japan, am different in my ways of thinking and communicating with people from other countries, especially Western people. For example, I think the good characteristics of Western people are that they are friendly and make friends quickly, as well as that they are able to assert their opinions clearly in front of many people. By contrast, I believe that Japanese people can be confident about their characteristics of being punctual and keeping their commitments once they promise to do something, as well as their compassion and humility. In fact, I was often given praise for doing tasks properly within the deadline when I and other classmates were doing group work.

I have a goal of being able to assert myself representing Japan in international conferences. At first, I felt that I had to change myself, discarding my Japanese characteristics and being more strongly assertive like Indian friends or greatly friendly like Western people. But after reading this book, I feel that I don't have to go out of my way to change myself or to tailor my personality to the styles of other countries, and there will be a way to contribute to the world by being confident in who I am and where I'm from.


・My goals for 2015

In 2015, I would like to spend my life at the Kennedy School, keeping in mind the phrase "The Japanese should contribute to the world with pride of being Japanese. They should be confident and 100% yourself." More concretely, I would like to create value in the diverse, international environment through group work, extracurricular activities, and internship. Last year, when I was unaccustomed to life in the U.S., I spent a lot of time talking with familiar Japanese people. In fact, I made a lot of Japanese friends, and it was a great experience for me to be invited to their house parties and be inspired by their activities, which are totally different from mine. This year, however, I would like to spend less time hanging out with Japanese people and dive into more international communities. One thing I want to do this year is working at an international workplace during my 3-month summer vacation from June to August. In particular, I would like to do a summer internship at international organizations, such as the IAEA, the OECD, or the IEA.