You will need to read/view the following speeches:
a) George Bush's speech after 9/11: http://www.historyplace.com/speeches/gw-bush-9-11.htm
b) Nelson Mandela's "I am prepared to die": http://www.historyplace.com/speeches/mandela.htm
c) Steve Jobs "Stay Hungry Stay Foolish" http://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/Americas/stay-hungry-stay-foolish-steve-jobs-speech-at-stanford/Article1-754153.aspx
In 350 words, explain WHICH speech you think is the BEST speech. You'll need to explain which criteria you are using when assessing the three speeches.
What do you think the speaker was trying to accomplish?
For me the best speech is the speech made by Steve Jobs. This speech just has something that caught my attention and made me to read from the very beginning to the very end. For me speech has just to get my attention and has something that just interests me.
ReplyDeleteMy main criterion is that speech cannot be too long, not too short either. It has to have the perfect length. If it is too short you keep waiting for the main point and then the speech doesn’t have enough space to do it. If the speech is too long, no matter how interesting it is at some point you will just wait for the end.
My second and very important criterion is that speech has to be somehow life related. It has to talk about life or current situation, if something important is happening. The speech just has to be appropriate for everyone, for instance president shouldn’t talk about physics and astronomy but about country, what is happening in the country and what are his future plans about the country. For me speech is very interesting when someone just talks about his or her life. Everyone has some troubles in life and when the famous person is sharing their troubles we feel that we are not alone in the world. We just feel that someone had big difficulties in life and this person achieved so much. We all just need the hope, and when I see the hope in the article then I really enjoy it.
I have to say that all speeches had hope and had something that was bringing the attention. The speech made by G. Bush was interesting and said that country has some hope, even if something horrible has happened. However, this speech didn’t really bring my attention that much. The speech by Nelson Mandela is interesting but I would say that not very specific, it talks about everything and it is why it is less interesting to me. Steve Jobs’s speech is just very life related and interesting.
In the speech by Bush I think he wanted to show people that USA still has a lot of hope and one day everything will be the way it should be. Mandela wanted to show his history and give hope too. And I think S. Jobs wanted to do actually the same thing. However, sometimes it is just one thing that convinces you and I think speech by Steve Jobs just has it.
I think that the best speech that I’ve heard was Steve Jobs’ one. I found it the most interesting because it really addresses each one of us. The criterions that I had decided to use are “how we do we identify with the speaker?”,“how relevant the issue to us” and “how does the author manage to get us interested”. So I think the first one is the most important one. Steve Jobs a founder of Apple and one of most popular figures of the XXI century presents himself just like a normal guy. He admits that he was poor, he had a tough life and he never finished college. Doesn’t it make us feel sympathetic of him? I also think that people want to identify with him, because he basically began with nothing, he met obstacles on his way but eventually he achieved what most of people only dream of. On the top of that he reminded a normal and really modest person. We all want to be as successful as he was. Considering the second criterion I think that this is pretty relevant to all people because problems of death, failure and obstacles simply address all of us. We all face difficulties and we all try our best to overcome them. His story makes us realize that each one of us is capable of great things even if we have a tough life. The third criterion is about the form and how he manages to catch our attention. I think that simplicity is a major one. Steve did not come up with any fancy stories he simply said what really happened to him. The fact that these were his life stories also helps the reader to identify with the speaker. Simple ideas are not necessary the best ideas but at least masses of people can understand them. The more people can understand something the more popular it is. I think that Jobs was trying to tell young people to never regret anything and to ever give up, he also wanted them to accept the way things are. He shared his life experience in order to prove that “you should live each day like this was your last one”.
ReplyDeleteThe criteria by which I was selecting the best speech depends on the how simple but very deep the speaker was talking in the video. I think that it is really important, because when the speech is common everyone could understand it it their own way. Basically, all the audience understands the main point that speaker tried to show. However, as it was simple, without superfluous words, it becomes easier for each person fully understand the main idea of the author, cause all of us as has different perception, which can understand the same situation from different sides.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, the best speech of these three is “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish: Steve Jobs' speech at Stanford”. Steve jobs is not only one of the best electronic devices creator of all the times, but also one of the best orators ever lived. He had many different presentations that usually were discussed after, for the long time.
In this presentation, he was talking about life, growth, love and death. He told students three stories that were really important in his life and that played a big role in developing him as a person. These stories were set in three pivotal moments of his life. The first one was about his firing from the Apple company.
"I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life."
Second one was about love and loss. "You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers … Keep looking. Don't settle."
And last one was about death. He told that even some strange actions can finally be right.
"Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything -- all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure -- these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart."
All in all, I think that his presentations are really inspiring. And each of them is worth seeing.
In my opinion the speech by Steve Jobs "Stay Hungry Stay Foolish" is not only the best out of three speeches I've listened to but also is the best speech I've ever heard. My opinion might be affected by my personal feelings to Steve Jobs as he is one of my idols, though it matches the criteria I use when assessing any speech.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all the speech is personalized. I think that people get bored when they listen to the speech about general things, but when they listen to the speech that describes the situations from real, and even better, personal life, they immediately get interested. Why is that the case? The answer is simple: people are curious by the nature, they like to listen to details of the personal life. In this speech Steve Jobs told three stories from his life and even more, those stories were the breaking time of his life.
Secondly, the way he talks. Steve Jobs didn't use formal language, he was just standing there and talking to the people. He was looking down at the paper, but he didn't read out. He was making the eye contact with the audience. Every time he looked up felt like he was covering all the audience with his look. He didn't have long pauses, he definitely knew what he was talking about. Why? Probably, because he was talking about his life. The speaker should do everything described above to grab and hold the audience's attention through out entire speech.
In conclusion, the third very important point is that he brought out and showed the lesson from every situation he talked about. He didn't just tell the stories from his life, he was concluding how and what those stories taught him. He presented all the conclusions he have made as what he wants the graduates to be able to achieve in their lives. Every speaker shares his opinion or experience, but not every speaker can make people think about how and why the audience should not only listen but also personalize it. Steve Jobs could do it.
Steve Jobs was not only a great speaker , but also a great man. Rest In Peace, Mr Jobs.
I my opinion the most successful speech is the third one, where Steve Jobs is talking about his life. It is really easy to understanding, because he is using informal language and was able to get the attention of the audience.
ReplyDeleteI guess, the best criteria to compare those speeches would be finding out answers for the next questions: How fair the author is being while talking, his personal perception on the audience, view on his life or situation he is presenting, the point of doing it.
In case of the CEO of the Apple company, he is quite fair with students of the Stanford university. I consider that it is because stories he told are related to him, so there is no point to lie about his life, even education. Moreover, he is fine with it. Things turn better for him after he left university.
On the other side, Steve is not trying to persuade us to leave the collage of university, or be hired. The thing he wants each of to understand is that we shouldn't be afraid of taking new challenges.
This hidden message is quite hard in understanding if you would start thinking about it on your own or listening to any other person.
However Steve is feeling so comfortable talking about his own life, without any shy, because of his unfinished education, that you even start thinking about the reason for studying. But then he continues explaining that to become successful you should think out of the box and set up new goals. He show it on his personal life experience: "I woke up each day and ask myself-if that would be the last day of your life, what would you do?"
I guess that it is the one of the most important things we should be thinking on for the rest of our life. He changed the world. He is worth of our respect. Steve Jobs show all of us how we should live and what we should do- find yourself and things you like to do and than fight for it. Of course, fate will give you lots of obstacles, but you should face them with dignity. Even if you felt, stand up and try again and again.
It seems to me that Steve Jobs’ speech is the best one, because it just impressed me the most. I don’t like long speeches, but he made me listen, listen carefully and muse, muse so deep and think about life, love and death.
ReplyDeleteJobs made his speech at the graduation of one of the best universities in the world – Stanford. His aim was to cheer up students about their future life, to make them understand what is important in life and what they and others have value. He told what is the most significant and what makes every person unique, happy and successful.
The most interesting thing is that he actually didn’t say any word wishing them something, he just told three different stories from his own life. Steve Jobs didn’t say how they have to understand them; the idea was to make people think and to take something useful what is significant only for them. I’m sure that everyone who was sitting there or watching his speech on the Internet, made something special and useful for themselves in different ways.
I consider Steve to be such person who survived so much and has such a big experience, that he doesn’t need to use too smart words or whatever. For me it was enough his thoughtful voice and feeling that everything he says goes from his heart and soul and he knows what he is talking about. I just believed him and I was sure in every word he said.
As I said before he didn’t actually wish something, he gave very valuable advices: ‘Stay hungry, stay foolish’. For me it means that you always have to live the life to the fullest, that every minute and everything you do matters. Maybe it doesn’t help you now, but in the future you will be grateful to everyone, who taught you something and everything you got. ‘All what is done - is done for the better’. You have to remember that nothing happens for no reason. Thus if even you think that you failed, don’t give up and keep fighting and then, once this failure will bring you to the highest stair of you happiness and success.
After listening to all three speeches, I came to a decision that Steve Jobs’ speech was the most fascinating and interesting for me.
ReplyDeleteI didn’t compare the issues which have been discussed in the speeches, since they were completely different and each of them was equally significant, rather than it was more important for me what I have learnt from it.
Thus, when I was thinking about the criteria I should use in order to define the best speech, I thought that it doesn’t matter what has been argued in the speech. It is more crucial what readers get out of the speech. And the first thing that came up to my mind was “saying so much by saying so little”.
Steve Jobs in his speech was able to tell three different stories, which taught him three different lessons in life, and he decided to share his experiences with others. For the person, who is going to graduate next year and who is going to move on to a new stage in life. This speech was very motivating and the main goal of it was to encourage younger people to live at fullest, to try different things and to never regret decisions you make because in the end it will turn out the way it has to be.
Steve Job said: “You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.” Personally, I can see the truth in his words and I fully agree with a fact that when we look at things separately they don’t make any sense but when we take them all together, they create a bigger picture where you can find many answers to your questions. Thus, we just need to have strength and courage to try different things and not be afraid to make mistakes, because you never know, it might turn out to be the best thing in your life.
The point of this speech was to calm the public, and to lay a path to the future. It also must not be biased.
ReplyDeleteIt’s the best speech because it does not succumb to biases and makes sure to equally address all people, both foreign and native and reassures the public of the present. It also sets a path to the future.
This is a good speech because its one that has a point and seems to do it spectacularly.
It reassures the public that the nation will stand even after such a huge bombing and brings a feeling of closeness by telling everybody of the unity of the United States. It talks about its allies (Britian). It simply reassures the public and does so well.
The second thing is does is pave a road to the future. A road that not many like to take. A road of war.
I think it’s the best because it’s the best at what its supposed to do. Its comforting and inspiring.