Storytelling

From Public Speaking books, I arrived to Storytelling, as I realise more and more the importance of telling a story, usually personal story (but it can be someone else's too) in a good Speech.

More I go, more the books move me.

More they bring back memories, explain me things about myself. As I prepare my speech "Persuasive one" for the Toastmasters, that will have a story about a part of my life, and one that became then important to me that my father told me 30 years before.

Of course, for the moment, the big problem is: should I listen to the "rule" which tells to make the story go from old towards new, or may I, as in a book or novel, insert my father story when the moment I did remember it at the time I am speaking, which is when I was 44 years old and before my first public speech in France.

Not that I have given many before!

Reading the book on Story as Persuasive method, I remembered why I did not give any more speech from age 12.

My second language is not English but Romanian. I was taught a few days (or were they weeks?) by a Romanian Student whom my mother offered a place to sleep to prepare me for the Romanian School they decided I have to go.

Until then, I spoke only Hungarian.

Thinking, I knew enough to begin, they send me to this Girls School. The first day, unexpectedly, the teacher told to all in the class:

"we have a new between us, Julie Kertesz, stand up! do you speak Romanian?"
Instead of replying in proper language, once I understood what she wanted from me, I translated word by word from Hungarian, and answered something like:

"a bit" - or "one small" - which was not really nice and had double meaning too. For the next two years, all my classmates mocked me, called me ABIT instead of my name. I never learned well Romanian and hated that school.

After two years "passing through" I obtained from my parents to put me back in a Hungarian class and school, and even though I did not think any more of that first same that lasted two years even in the Hungarian School, I just told one girl what to say to the group but never stood up to try to speak for myself, for the class.

I will not speak about this incident this time, but a day, I'll find an occasion...

Stories like this, true and sad, take a lot of energy from me, and I'll have to put them in a more positive context to see them with smiling face.