will b.
- New York, NY 10027 ( 15.6 mi )
- Speaking Tutor
- Male
- Member Since: 12/2011
- Will travel up to 40 miles
- Rates from $40.00 to $80.00 /hr
-
On-line
In-Home
My comments on tutoring Speaking : When one teaches speaking, the great problem is volume. Our teachers often get the student to memorize the lines, which is good but exhausting. I try rather to teach the student the old Roman ideal: hold on to the idea, and the words will follow.
I also teach the student to focus on the members of the audience, one by one, thus avoiding panic.
I also believe that it is vital that a student be taught how to modify his talk as he goes along. Sometimes new ideas come up, sometimes new questions modify what you wanted to say... As one Roman said, you have to be like a gladiator -- you change your tactics, if necessary, right in the arena.
I hate to see students stuffed with words and ideas, as if they were thanksgiving turkeys.
I love to help a student understand that much of the truth is inside his own mind. We must teach her, or him, to explore his own instincts, and develop his own style, and philosophy.
My experiences are perhaps too wide for this enclosure. I have 5 degrees, in American history and world history and French and Spanish, plus experience in writing and publishing.
But my best experience involves my being able to take an overworked, frazzled student under deadline and teaching him or her how to pause, focus, and then get caught up and then get ahead. As Ben Franklin would say, we have to learn how to "make haste slowly." I teach a student to be calm, take a breath, and then go forward on his requirements -- in exactly the order that the situation requires.
