As I have mentioned in my previous Chatter, I have begun video-recording my own rehearsals.  Yes, it is painful to watch, still.  But I have to admit, I'm getting accustomed to my own ugliness.  Prior to delivering my last speech #6, titled "It takes Only a Little", I did record my own rehearsal twice, as promised.  The very first recording revealed numerous areas which required improvement. 

1. Pitch, volume and inflection.  I had actually mentioned this problem previously, when i used a sound recorder.  Even though i had practiced again and again,  I still wasn't able to eliminate many areas in my speech.   When I heard myself the first few times, I realized that my pitch is as high as a teenage girl.  I can't believe that I've been using that voice since puberty.   So, that's one change I'm consciously trying to implement, not only in my speech, by also my daily conversation.  I need to lower my pitch slightly, and sound like someone who has some balls. Second, there is a specific problem with my volume.  Sure, I speak loud enough to wake up the dead.  But in many instances, at the first syllable of the first word, and the last syllable of the last word in my sentences, my volume drops off considerably.  That's one reason why I always think my enuciation is poor.  These are 2 very minor hiccups, but has a big impact on the way I carry the rest of my speech.  As I try to correct this problem, I noticed that it takes a tremendous amount of concentration and effort to inject energy from my diaphram when I'm starting and ending a sentence.  In other words, I was a lazy talker--but that's not news to me anymore.  It will take some practice to make this into a habit.  But I think I have improved noticeably since then.   Finally...I haven't paid attention to the inflection at the end of my sentences.   For some sentences, I do not have enough of a downward inflection at the end to express conviction, or finality.  I wonder why I have this bad habit.  I know for a while, that this had been a big problem whenever I do a self introduction:  "My name is Hubert."  This sentence had always ended with a upward inflection, as if I was asking a question (Oh, I'm not sure that my name is Hubert.  Can you please confirm?) And continues with "And I am from Chicago".  Again, a question-like upward inflection, as if I have amnesia.  It just sounds so high-schoolish.  And this is a problem for many native speakers.  I have since corrected my self-introduction, but wasn't aware that the problem is prevalent in my everyday speech.    

2. Facial expression, body language and gestures.  I'm not going to say much, because they are quite obvious, it isn't even funny.  My gestures are too wild.  My head and body bobs all over the place.   My hands have this fast repetitive motion.  My facial expression tend to be a bit exaggerated--though that's not my intention--and in a way that's not fully congruent with the content.  Even though some people may mention that this is just 'my style'.  But I just don't like this style.  I need to change.  I need to repress the the crazy man inside.  I need to control the dramatic-actor that's trying to take over my body.  And this is just going to take continued practice, in front of the camera.   As I take the Toastmaster role this coming meeting, I won't have the luxury to practice.  I will have to supress it on the fly.  Which means that I will be multi-tasking all these improvements.  Unfortunately, I'm just like Windows95.  I'm bound to have memory leaks when I have so many programs running.  So, remember that when I make some mistakes.  

There are points 3, 4, and so on....but I really need to go back and finish my TM opening.   See you soon.