Public speaking

[khiemtran]

At some point over the last three years, I seem to have lost my public speaking voice.

I'm not sure where I put it. It's not like it was very big in the first place, but I'm still pretty sure if it was in the house I would have found it by now.

Getting it back is going to be especially important because I've been finding I've been having trouble lately being properly heard in meetings. This is a big change from when I used to be confident that I could be heard and understood across a loud room in full debate. It's also a problem because most of the meetings I'm going to involve people who are not native English-speakers and my accent was never easy to follow to begin with.

Comments

[dsgood.livejournal.com]

Toastmasters might be useful to you: http://toastmasters.org.

What is your accent?

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

Thanks. Actually, I've already been a Toastmaster, although I left before making CTM.

My accent is roughly Sough Australian, although its been affected by various other places I've lived, and I probably overuse the head voice a bit.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

Perhaps you haven't had to really project for a while and you've got out of the habit?

Do you have a suitable location in which to practice? I'm sure you know how to project the voice, but somehow you've forgotten that you need to do it. It does take more energy, so perhaps a few sessions declaiming to an empty room might give you the knack again?