Our Journey Part I

First Contact

From: jafi@mail.com

To: kafi@mail.com ;

Tuesday, October 29, 2013 18:54

Dear K.

How are you? What about English? Did you hear the teacher? We have to make a presentation in English. I am scared, I don't like speaking in Spanish, so you can imagine how I feel after listening to the teacher.

Today I have met with my group and we have started to think about the idea.

Cheers.

J.

Re: First Contact

From: kafi@mail.com

To: jafi@mail.com 

Tuesday, October 29, 2013 19:34

Dear J,

I'm fine. What about you? And English...Yes I heard about the presentation that we have to do. I'm super excited. It will be real fun doing a presentation in English in front of everyone. Ohh and as for you, don't be afraid. For me you are like a surprise package, every time you come with the new and original idea, so don't you worry at all.

And yeah! I've also been talking with my group and we have almost decided our presentation topic .

See you soon

K.

The Search for Topic

From: jafi@mail.com

To: kafi@mail.com ;

Thursday, November 14, 2013 16:04

Dear K,

What about your presentation?, have you thought about the topic?, do you have any ideas?, what subject are you going to base your presentation on?

Finally, we are going to try to speak as if we were professionals, and we had a company, and try to sell our idea. We have the idea, the hard work is done, now we are going to see how to carry it out.

I admit that I get excited, it is harder than I thought but I am sure that I am going to learn a lot of expressions and relevant vocabulary.

Cheers.

J.

Re: The Search for Topic

From: kafi@mail.com

To: jafi@mail.com

Thursday, November 14, 2013 18:25

Hi J,

Yes we have got the idea and we've started working on it. We are going to focus on non-verbal communication, something very usual but almost nobody notices it. And your idea is great! I really like it as it is directly related to our course. Good job mate! And yeah that's right...putting an idea later in words is not an easy task but we'll do our best and learn a lot of new things.

By the way today I was talking with some other groups about their presentation topics and they have quite different and interesting ideas!  For example one group will talk about "Apple" about it's business and marketing strategies so we will now know more about such a famous company and there was another group telling me that they will speak about some "non-profit organizations" which will be very interesting as we don't know much about these type of businesses.

Do you know anything about the other groups? What they are going to talk about?

Best wishes

K.

The Last Frontier

From: jafi@mail.com

To: kafi@mail.com ;

Tuesday, December 9, 2013 19:33

Hi K.

It looks like everyone was afraid but I feel eventually it will come together. I think that someone is going to talk about different kinds of companies and other mates are going to introduce us to an entertainment company, no doubt these are good ideas.

We have finished our draft, and today we have started reading it as a group. Uff, it is going to be a disaster, hahahaha, it is impossible to learn those paragraphs. I know that it is not the best idea but maybe I will read it in the presentation. What do you think? Have you talked to the rest of the class? Do you think they are in the same situation? Well, whatever, I will do my best.

How are you going to structure your presentation? Does  everyone talk at the same time? How did it go? Are you going to include any fun stuff?

Did you have any problems while working with your team?

Good luck next week, see you tomorrow. I do not want to do the PIAC's exam, he he.

J.

Re: The Last Frontier

From: kafi@mail.com

To: jafi@mail.com ;

Tuesday, December 9, 2013 22:47

Hi J,

Yes we've also finished the PowerPoint today and we were discussing how we are going to present it.

Hahaha don't worry it's not only you in this situation, almost all the class is saying that they are going to read almost everything as it's very difficult to learn it but I understand because the most difficult thing in English is the pronunciation. But what you can do is to write down on your paper how the difficult words are pronounced and I think it will help you.

I'm also a bit nervous as this is our first presentation in English but I'm also confident about the hard work we have put in it. Although all the process of working on it was really good, we had some little arguments on designing it because everyone had a different idea but that's a part of team work. Sweet and bitter moments!

You know in our last slide of presentation we have put one funny picture as well to cheer everyone up. Lol

At first I had thought about presenting in a way that everyone will talk on each slide but later after talking with my group we have concluded that it can be bit confusing so we have divided the slides between all of us.

We have only few days left to prepare it so now let's see how it comes out. Keeping my fingers crossed!

haha and by the way I feel the same about PIAC's exam. Good luck mate!

See you around.

K.

The Wrath of J

From: jafi@mail.com

To: kafi@mail.com ;

Thursday, December 14, 2013 18:22

Hi K, at last I have done my first presentation in English. I did not like the result, but I suppose that is a general feeling. I made a lot of mistakes, I forgot my lines, in fact at one point I went blank, did you see me? Hahahaha, I gazed at the projector's light and I felt as if  I crossed my eyes, hehe, I thought "please someone shoot me now!".

It doesn’t matter, it’s done now. I wish I could have seen myself from a desk and notice my mistakes, I am sure that I have not spoken loud enough during the presentation, also I think I may have moved around the platform a lot, and I hope I have maintained eye contact with classmates, as it is not correct when the speaker has their back to the audience.

And how about you? Congratulations, your speech was clear, specific, and you did not need to move because you caught the attention with the tone of your voice. I really like how you alter the tone of your voice in the different parts of the presentation, I also think it is a great how you made the structure of the presentation clear to the audience so they were able to follow it without confusion.

To sum up, my presentation is like something I stepped on once when I walked among the cows hahahahhaha, but honestly I’m happy, and I want (can’t wait- alternative) to start the next one. I think the subject is a free choice, I am sure it is going to be great.

See you tomorrow.

A hug.

J.

Re: The Wrath of J

From: kafi@mail.com

To: jafi@mail.com ;

Thursday, December 14, 2013 20:25

Hi J,

Yessss finally it's done! Our first presentation in English! I feel very relieved.

Thank you for your appreciation. I'm glad that you liked it although I think i could have done it better. Apart from altering my tone of voice, I could have used more gestures to capture the audience's attention or moved a bit on the stage which you did and I thought that was really good.

And your presentation was very good. The way of presenting the slides was very different from other ones and don't worry it was your first presentation in English you were nervous like everyone so it's normal that these things happen. I also forgot some lines so I made them up, so that no one could notice it otherwise I would have also gone blank and it would have been even worse hahahah....

Anyway you wanted to know about your mistakes, so from being in the audience I can tell you some points which will probably help you in your next project. I really liked how you were trying to maintain eye contact all the time with the audience and I think what you could add is some gestures, tell a joke or ask some questions during the presentation which can capture the attention of audience. I think it's a quite good idea and I'll also try to use it in our next presentation and yeah you are right having your back turned to the audience is not a good idea at all.

I also heard the teacher talking about the subject of next presentation. Apparently, it will be a free choice. That would be amazing! I'll tell my group so that we can start thinking about an interesting topic.

See you tomorrow

K.