In this column, Bizkids, we will feature interviews with successful entrepreneurs and various professionals and share their advice to aspiring kids with entrepreneurial spirits. To send in your questions or advice, email cindy-jenkins@beijing-kids.com.

Schools are increasingly placing greater importance on improving the public speaking skills of their students, and parents are also taking note of just how critical of a skill it can be in developing the social and academic growth of their children. With that in mind, Bizkids interviewed three experts in the field of public speaking to share their ideas and opinions about the importance of public speaking for children, and what it takes to become a more effective public speaker.

This week, we have invited Tania Boicova to share her ideas. Tania Boicova is an educator focused on helping young learners (age 4-12) to develop leadership skills by using drama and public speaking. She’s been working with thousands of students across Beijing and has more than eight years of experience in teaching, facilitating, and consulting. Being a part of the largest European student union (AEGEE-Europe), she has worked with diverse youth groups back in Europe, and this led her to continue her work in China in 2012 when she joined a UNESCO World Heritage Volunteers project in Beijing, Shandong, and Jiangxi organized by the Chinese Society of Education (CSE). She has represented CSE at an international conference on volunteering & intercultural dialogue in Saudi Arabia in 2013.

Beijingkids (BJK): What would you say are the most critical elements that someone should learn to become more skilled in this area?
Tania Boicova (TB): I believe that’s regular practice speaking in front of an audience. In fact, especially at the beginning, it doesn’t really matter where and when, and how many people you are presenting to. I remember myself as a kid performing my favorite poem anywhere I went, even at bus stops, on the train, and while visiting my family or friends. I often took part in public speaking contests at school. Despite the fear (that was there every single time), my skills got better and better through time.

BJK: Do you believe that there is a growing tendency (among adults and kids) to communicate through social media or other digital platforms and that this has damaged our ability to communicate publicly?
TB: I believe social media has a huge impact on kids. There was no social media or even mobile phones when I was a child, so we had no choice but to communicate with each other face to face. Therefore, we grew up and developed our ability to communicate publicly quite naturally. Most kids now have their own mobile phone, and they often spend hours playing games or talking through social media. It definitely has an impact on their interpersonal communication skills since they can’t hide their true appearance and identity behind a “profile photo” and nickname.

BJK: What are some simple things parents can do to help their kids build foundational skills in public speaking outside of school?
TB: There are many things parents can actually do. They can help them practice public speaking at home or anywhere they go together. It can be done by way of a game or competition among family friends (just for fun). I remember that we used to act out different stories or just different characters during my mom’s or dad’s birthday parties. They actually asked me to do all the preparation, but we would act and do the drama part altogether. That was so much fun! When you’re a child and see adults performing “silly things” or making mistakes, you get so much more courage to do things better! What’s more important, you get more courage to be “yourself”, be silly, be crazy, be different, no matter what others think of you. I think this is one of the most important things parents can actually share and help their kids with.

BJK: Finally, what do you feel are the most essential elements towards crafting a good speech and communicating clearly to an audience?
TB: In my opinion, one of the most important elements is to have a clear idea. What do you want to share with the audience? What’s the core message? When it’s clear, it’s not difficult to write down a good speech. When you share an idea that people can relate themselves to (in a very meaningful aspect), you’ll be able to win their hearts. Another very important element is THE WAY you present your speech. How do you transfer that meaningful idea to your audience? Our voice can be very powerful, but so is silence: the pauses in the right places that let your audience think and connect with your words and FEELINGS (emotions). I believe that the most memorable speeches in history were all quite emotional: the ones that can touch people deeply and have an impact on their lives.

KEEP READING: BIBA Students Navigate Resilience and Independence Through Duke of Edinburgh Awards Program

Photo: courtesy of Tania Boicova, unsplash.com

In this column, Bizkids, we will feature interviews with successful entrepreneurs and various professionals and share their advice to aspiring kids with entrepreneurial spirits. To send in your questions or advice, email cindyjenkins@beijing-kids.com.

Public speaking is an invaluable skill that can be applied to a multitude of fields ranging from academia, business, and the arts, to everyday life. Therefore, improving one’s public speaking skills should not be put off until a later age, and should be emphasized as early as possible. With that in mind, beijingkids interviewed three experts in the field of public speaking to share their ideas and opinions about the importance of public speaking for children, and what it takes to become a more effective public speaker.

This week, we have asked Martin Barnes to share his ideas. Martin Barnes is a London-trained graphic designer with 18 years of creative experience in advertising, graphic design, branding, events, pitching, and presentations: four years in London and 14 years in Beijing. In 2010 he was invited to give a TEDx Beijing talk. He now runs a creative studio, Mountains of Imagination (MoI), which specializes in presentation consultancy.

beijingkids: What would you say are the most critical first steps that someone should take to become more skilled in this area?
Martin Barnes (MB):  Have fun. The results are so much better, as your audience will enjoy your performance, and you will make an excellent impression. Then, tell a story that relates to people, and let the people you are talking to see themselves in the solution so they can receive a really clear insight. Remember to prepare and warm-up. This is massively underrated; the best way to do this is with breathing and stretching.

Do you believe that there is a growing tendency (among adults and kids) to communicate through social media or other digital platforms, and that this has damaged our ability to communicate publicly?
MB: In some sense we communicate more now than ever — writing messages, sending photos like postcards, and it is emotional. The exciting thing with public speaking is it is an evergreen skill, it will always be essential to generate awareness. Social media is a channel of engagement and communication that we are using now; it will change, but our desire to communicate will keep as it is.

What are some simple things parents can be doing to help their kids build foundational skills in public speaking outside of school?
MB: Ask them fun, interesting questions and ask them to explain why they made their choice. Let them know it is not a right or wrong answer question, but about sharing ideas. It is not about facts but storytelling and connecting.

What do you feel are the most essential elements of crafting a good speech and communicating clearly to an audience?
MB: The best thing you can do to improve your presentation skills is to spend five minutes and really think about your audience and ask these six questions: What story do you want them to tell about you afterward? What key insight do you want them to connect with? How long are you presenting for? How will they describe you to other people? What insight will swim around their head for a week? How long is the presentation? Don’t over pitch. Moreover, pitch yourself to your phone, and listen back to your performance and think about one thing you want to improve.

Photos: courtesy of Martin Barnes

Becoming a confident and adept public speaker is something that many people strive for, but often do not know the first step towards reaching their goal. With that in mind, beijingkids interviewed experts in the field of public speaking, to explore their ideas and opinions about the importance of confident speaking for young people, and some practical steps to take towards acquiring these skills.

This week, we invited Mark Regan to share his ideas. Mark Regan is a dynamic and high-performing business leader with a unique background in advice, business development, sales consulting, training, and broadcasting. With a background in Linguistics and having worked in fields that extensively rely on the need for strong communication abilities, he has developed valuable experience in the skill sets needed for public speaking, negotiation, media presentation, and promotion. Less well known is that Mark is a prominent voice actor; having applied his skills over the last 10 years in a wide range of international commercials, television programs, cartoons, movies, documentaries, and video games.

Beijingkids: What would you say are the most critical elements (or first steps) that someone should learn to become more skilled in this area?

Mark Regan (MR): One critical element to public speaking is confidence. Take in a deep breath, relax, and be yourself when you’re presenting any type of material, in a calm and confident manner; this allows a person to stop focusing on the ‘fear’ of standing in front of an audience, but instead to focus on what they want to say, how they want to say it, and really start to engage an audience.

Confidence takes time to develop, especially when starting out. For people who feel they may lack the confidence to stand up on the stage and present, the advice I offer is simply “pretend you have confidence!”  It sounds a bit silly, but the idea is that you imagine what a confident person would look and sound like, and attempt to emulate that image. Surprisingly, it works very well – and over time, that person can develop their own speaking personality for their public speaking needs.

Many schools are beginning to shift their classroom learning environment from being teacher-led to more student-led, with teachers acting as facilitators. Is this shift helping students to become more confident speakers?

MR: From my perspective and understanding; absolutely!  A teacher-led classroom certainly does have its merits, but more often than not, it’s about following a curriculum designed to prepare students for test-taking.  Some students may engage with the material more than others, while others can simply ‘memorize’ what they need to know and leave it at that.

Transitioning into a more student-led classroom gives both students and the teachers room to expand beyond the curriculum, which in my opinion, is more of a guideline of what important aspects of the class the students should learn about. However, in the student-led model, my view is that the teachers are actively getting the students to engage, expand upon the material, bring new interesting perspectives to the table, and have the opportunity to spin off new classroom and life lessons that, while difficult to strictly measure, build an environment that cultivates personal growth on top of the learning material.

To answer the question: if students are in an environment where they are expected to engage, lead, and perform critical thinking tasks – they naturally will need to speak up more! This helps build confidence in speakers, which is a life skill necessary to tackle most aspects of our daily life and builds a solid foundation for a strong future.  We remember confident speakers, and we tend to forget those who say nothing…

What are some simple things parents can be doing to help their kids build foundational skills in public speaking outside of school?

MR: Encouragement is the single most important thing a parent can do to help their kids build their foundational skills. When we encourage our children, we are telling them it’s OK to explore, it’s OK to try new things, it’s OK to speak up, and it’s OK to be yourself!

The environment we put ourselves within also tends to dictate our responses to the situations we come across. If someone’s daughter has an amazing talent for singing, it’s likely best that we’ll want to put her in an environment that allows that talent to thrive.  If someone’s son is interested in drawing, we should encourage that behavior, because it’s a talent that has drawn (no pun intended) their interest.

Obviously, school and study are important – however, there is much more that makes up a person beyond their technical knowledge and talents. One overlooked aspect is the importance of “soft skills” which are about applying knowledge of various kinds into situations that are more open-ended, such as confidence, inspiration, trustworthiness, effective body language, persuasion, and more. These are character-driven building blocks; which all start with encouragement.

Listen to your kids – they have ideas, thoughts, dreams, and aspirations; and find ways to encourage them to pursue them! Challenge them to think critically about the thoughts they share and above all, help them to believe in themselves – that level of support is of the utmost importance as they are growing up, and will carry them further in school, skill, and life than any amount of homework ever could.

Finally, what do you feel are the most essential elements towards crafting a good speech and communicating clearly to an audience?

MR: Great speeches actively engage their audience; which can be accomplished through a couple of ways and does depend on the ‘mode’ or context of the speech that is being presented. Having a couple of witty jokes or interesting ‘attention-grabbers’ is one way to start off strongly in any presentation, as it will captivate your audience to ‘zero-in’ on what you are saying. Rhetorical questions are another tool often used to put the audience in a position of reflection – to consider what you are saying and why it is important.

When we are communicating to any audience, the first questions we ask ourselves are “what do I want to say” and “why is this important”. Once we can break down those thoughts into answers, our job is to craft the delivery of the information in a manner that any audience would like to listen to. We can do this in several different ways – no single style of public speaking is “correct”, but rather it’s about the “HOW” we say something, and usually that’s what an audience will remember most.

A comedy show must have laughs; a diplomatic discussion needs to be civil; a debate between two opponents should have critical thinking, persuasion, and reflection; a leader should be inspirational…each format will be different, but the same foundational abilities apply throughout every type of speech.

Find your personality, your strength, your style, and character. Be confident, speak clearly, show some emotion, and engage the audience. Remember that what you want to say is important, should be shared, and can make a difference – and to not let all the fear, doubts, and worries hold you back.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

MR: Public speaking is easy to do, difficult to master. It’s one of those life skills that we’ll continually use and practice using throughout our entire lives, whether it’s on a big stage or just speaking up in an office meeting.

For those who are worried about what other people may think, my advice is simply “don’t”. Most people are so concerned with their own lives that they’ll seldom think about your actions. Once you realize this, it’s easier to just focus on being the best version of yourself you can be – and in the environment of public speaking, showcase that confidence and personality to your audience.

In fact, you may just end up inspiring others to follow in your footsteps!  When we share our ideas, thoughts, and self with an audience, remember they are all there to see and hear you speak… so give them something to remember!

KEEP READING: Managing the Stress of School WeChat Groups

Photo: courtesy of Mark Regan; Unsplash.com

According to this China Daily info-graphic made for Disability Prevention Davy, over 85 million Chinese are currently living with a disability. And what most of us, across cultures, consider to be life milestones (education, friendships, a love life, and a career, for example) can be demonstratively more challenging to achieve for these facing these challenges. There is still often a stigma in China and beyond in terms of addressing these issues for both young and old. While resources for addressing these development issues are still limited, there seems to be a growing number of platforms out there to help young people.

This is one of the reasons why we were so elated to check out the range of services being offered at The Learning Frontier. The fairly new educational company based out of BCIS in Shuangjiing is dedicated to providing bilingual, personalized guidance, and support services for children and families residing in Beijing.

They have on their team a variety of specialists focusing on mental health, education and learning, applied behavior analysis, and speech and language and occupational therapy to assist children and families to better understand their development and to help each child live up to their full potential in school and life.

With extensive facilities designed with both learning and play in mind, they have created a very conducive environment to help children and families work on improving critical thinking, improving motor skills, developing literacy, and more.

Check out this cute animation that they recently made explaining some of the services they offer to develop social skills. If you want to learn more or have a consultation about some more of the specific programs they have, email The Learning Frontier or give them a call to arrange a consultation.

The Learning Frontier
4th Floor, No. 11 Dongbai Lu, Chaoyang District
朝阳区东柏街11号四层
(6775 3268)

Photos: Kipp Whittaker