Impromptu talk training for Hong Kong government job interviews

One-to-one impromptu speech skills development course with a foreigner

This impromptu speaking practice will prepare you to speak about any random word (if you know the word) or topic in an interesting, well-structured, meaningful way that engages your interviewers both intellectually, energetically and emotionally.

The skill you gain during this training will be useful for both in your (syndicated) group discussion and in the impromptu talk section of your Final Interview.

If you are applying for a government job or promotion like Immigration Officer, Police Inspector, Fireman (fire fighter), Station Officer, or Correctional Officer in the Correctional Services Department this training will increase the probability that you successfully pass the job interview.

And if you want to be a more interesting conversationalist in any social situation or meeting, mastering impromptu speaking skill 技巧 will be very useful for you.

Tell a story or explain a theory, concept, process or procedure

When you are talking about a word or topic there are two major approaches you can choose from. One is telling an interesting or educational story and the other is explaining or teaching something new, useful and important that your interviewers are glad to hear. Both of them have advantages and you are going to learn and practise both in the lessons.

Depending on your skills and the word itself, in the short preparation time you need to decide which method you choose for your presentation.

You are going to learn about various frameworks and contents. Frames are structures, the skeleton of your presentation. The content is the details of what you are talking about.

If you can master 15 frames and 4 self-contained, complete ideas about a word or topic, you can combined them into 60 different speeches. Of course, you need only one for the interview. With good training and practice, you will be able to pick quickly the best combination for your particular topic.

Besides the structure and content, you are also going to practise, refine and get feedback about your presentation style like your body language, voice, eye contact, English, etc.

Most of my students do the 3-minute impromptu talk poorly for the first few times when I give them a random word to speak about. They usually define and explain the word, give some well-known useless information and then run out of the topic - dead air, panic, stress.

Some candidates talk about their life experiences related to the word, which could be good, but their stories often do not have a meaningful ending and do not show thoughtful, theoretical, structured thinking. It is because they just think what to say next without any presentation strategy.

You need to learn how to speak about something useful, educational or interesting. You need to know how you are going to end your speaking before you start it. Don't just speak randomly about whatever comes to your mind without a clear presentation structure and strategy.

Preparation strategy at the interview for your impromptu talk

In the course you are going to learn and practice the following procedure from getting the word until you start your impromptu speech, which is just 20-30 seconds.

1, When you get the word decide within 5 seconds which meaning of the word you are choosing. For example, if your word is 'apple', you can think of these meanings and topics:

• the fruit,
• the computer and mobile device producing company or Steve Jobs,
• New York, which is called the 'Big Apple',
• Adam and Eve's story at the beginning of the Bible where she bites an apple from the forbidden tree,
• any movie, song, book, exhibition which title includes the word apple,
• any personal story you had with an apple.

2, Within the next 5 seconds decide the topic. For instance, if you choose the apple technology topic, you can talk about the company, their history, their products, a well-known related person, their stock price history, etc.

The topic will strongly influence the format of your presentation. You can choose a story line (sequential presentation) or a well-structured format that's built around a framework or more complex nested frameworks.

3, In the remaining short preparation time think over the outline of your talk and decide how you are going to finish it, what the conclusion will be.

Presentation style

If you understand the real purpose of the impromptu talk and shift your focus from giving boring information, definitions and facts, your performance will improve and you will be able to engage the interview board members.

You need to consider your audience, that is, the interviewers. They are sitting there listening to the candidates one after the other who make them bored and sleepy. If you want them to give you a good mark for your impromptu presentation, you need to give them something refreshing, something new and exciting.

We are going to practise how to make short presentations interesting, educational and entertaining that catches the interviewers' attention. And when you engage their minds with your speech they will not focus on your English mistakes so much.

We will practise how to use short stories, emotions, clever ideas, unusual views and perspectives, creativity, humour, energy, body language and so on to impress the interviewers.

Impromptu talk words

Here are some words that candidates reported that the impromptu word cards contained in past interviews:
submission, wide, Hong Kong, fish, sound, carnival, explosive, auditorium, palace, rifles, museum, deploy, delegate, inject, rebut, comfort, mastermind, toughen, image, soft, lower, deeper, split, proven, cohesive, pencil, athlete, reporter, professional, spotlight and apple.

You can get adjectives, tangible or intangible nouns. For some candidates talking about intangible things are more difficult than speaking about tangible ones. We will practice all categories.

Can you make a 3-minute speech about the words: concept, condemnation, irrational. You'd better practice and apply strategies to handle words like these.

You can find lots of useful, related information on several pages of our How to influence people with your communication  web site.