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Through You VIP – POV

Hello this is AJ and welcome VIP to the point-of-view stories. Let’s get started. Now, in the normal mini story I played around and switched around some of the verb tenses a little bit. So I was mostly using the present, but then I mixed in the past at a few points.

That is fine. It’s normal. It’s okay.

So when people are speaking naturally and conversationally that’s going to happen and it happens a lot. There are not these very tough strict rules about it. So people might be telling a story in the present then they might ask a question in the past and then they might go back to the present again. Then they might a question in the present tense. It’s perfectly normal and natural. The rules of strict academic writing do not apply to natural speech.

So just relax about all that stuff and just listen to the stories. That’s all you need to do is get used to all these different verb tenses and the vocabulary and the pronunciation.

Just let it go into your mind and don’t analyze it. Don’t think about it too much, just hear it again and again and again each day. Okay, let’s get started. Now, we will tell this one going back as if it happened a long time ago in the past.

A long time ago there was a guy. His name was Stu and he was the most boring speaker in the world. When he spoke he always stood stiffly behind a podium and he always just read his notes. His voice was flat with no emotion. The audience always fell asleep within three minutes of him starting his speech. Well, one time he spoke to 200 people at an engineering conference and within 10 minutes the entire audience was snoring [snoring] because he was so boring.

Well, Stu’s boss didn’t like this and his boss finally said “You must take a speaking class.” And so Stu joined the Dale Carnegie Speech Course. At the course they taught him several surprising things. They taught him to never read notes. They taught him to never stand behind a podium. Instead, Stu learned to speak conversationally, to move energetically and to speak enthusiastically with emotion.

He practiced and practiced and practiced and at his next conference the audience was enthralled. They listened eagerly to everything he said. They watched him intently and at the end they cheered for him loudly.

And that’s the end of our first version. Version number two… * * * * *

Ever since he started his career Stu has been extremely boring. In fact, he has been the most boring speaker in the world. Since beginning his career he has always bored audiences. Every time he has spoken he has stood stiffly behind a podium and just read his notes. During that entire time, since he started his career, his voice has been flat with no emotion every time he spoke.

Since he started his career the audience has always fallen asleep within three minutes of the beginning of his speeches. In fact, one time he spoke to 200 people at an engineering conference and within 10 minutes everyone was snoring [snoring]. Well, one day his boss finally said to him “You must take a speaking class. You must learn to be a better speaker.” And so he enrolled in – he joined – the Dale Carnegie Speech Course.

They told him to never read notes to the audience and they told him to never stand behind a podium. Instead, Stu learned to speak conversationally, move energetically and speak enthusiastically. He practiced and he practiced and he practiced and he practiced and at his next conference the audience was enthralled. They listened to him eagerly. They watched him intently and at the end they cheered him loudly.

And that’s the end of our second version. Let’s to go the third version, which is from a future timeframe. Here we go.

In the future, some day, there will be a man named Stu. He’s going to be the most boring speaker in the world. In fact, whenever he speaks he’ll just stand stiffly behind a podium and he’ll always just read his notes. His voice is gonna be flat with no emotion.

Of course, “gonna” means going to; future.

The audience will always fall asleep within three minutes of him starting his speech. In fact, one time in the future he’s gonna speak to 200 people at an engineering conference, in the future, and within 10 minutes the entire audience will be snoring [snoring].

Well, his boss is finally gonna say “Stu, you must take a speaking class.” And so Stu will enroll in the Dale Carnegie Speech Course and they’ll tell him some surprising things.

They’ll tell him to never read notes to an audience. They’ll tell him to never stand behind a podium. Instead, he’ll learn to speak conversationally, to move energetically and to speak enthusiastically.

He’ll become a much better speaker. In fact, at his next conference the audience is gonna be enthralled. They’ll listen to him eagerly. They’ll watch him intently and at the end they’ll cheer him loudly.

And that is the end of our point-of-view stories.

So, again just listen to these stories and, please, become comfortable with the idea of moving between different timeframes. You see, what tense you choose, what timeframe you choose when you speak or when another speaker is speaking to you, there’s no solid rule about it.

As you can see, I can tell this story as if we’re looking at it in the past. It’s in the past and we’re looking back at it or as if it started kind of in the past and it’s continued up to a more recent time or as if we’re imagining it happening in the future or as if we’re there right at the same time it’s happening. We can choose any of those timeframes and others to tell the story.

In fact, it doesn’t matter when the story actually happened. I mean maybe the story did actually happen in the past, but we can still use the present to tell the story because it gives a feeling of immediacy. It gives a more spontaneous feeling, as if we’re there as it’s happening now. So it’s okay.

Just listen to the stories and get comfortable with these different points of view. These are the most common ones, the stories I always tell month after month after month. I’m repeating a lot of the same ones because they’re the most common, the ones you’re going to hear constantly every day and therefore the most useful.

All right, enjoy them. Listen to them every day. See you again, bye-bye.