Operating a business in Quebec means sometimes having to write documents in both English and French.  Since most people are usually native speakers in only one language (in my case, English), writing in their second language can sometimes be problematic.  I usually have friends double check my French documents (e.g. emails) before sending them out.  However, this whole review process can be time consuming.

Enter a new feature from Google Docs.  At the click of a button, you can translate your text into your choice of 42 languages.  All have to do is select the text in your Google document, click ‘Translate Document’ and then select your language.

I haven’t tried all 42 languages, but I can definitely vouch for the English to French and French to English translators. I remember how not too long ago, the quality of online translators was extremely poor, sometimes even comical.  Since then, however, there has been some major improvements.

I still wouldn’t rely on this tool as my sole translator.  In other words, it is still necessary for a native speaker to proofread the translation.  However, it is much better than starting a translation from scratch. From my experience, It also reduces the time needed for proofreading by at least 50%.

A thumbs up once again to Google for thinking of another cool way to make our lives easier.

As a follow-up to my previous post on mind mapping, I am going to bring to light one of its great applications:  writing and delivering a speech.  Before going further, I should mention that I have some prior experience in public speaking.  In many of our business courses in university, presenting was a normal part of the curriculum.  In addition, I spent some time as a member of a local toastmasters club, a great organization for improving one’s public speaking skills.  However, I wish I had learned how to use mind mapping a few years back since I feel this simple technique greatly improves every part of a speech from writing / editing to memorization and delivery.  It also cuts preparation time by at least 50%.

The traditional approach to speech writing is exactly as its name suggests:  writing out the whole speech by hand and then proceeding to memorize as much of it as possible.  There are few problems with this approach:

1. Writing out a full speech followed by editing takes a great deal of time.  By editing, I mean anything from correcting spelling mistakes and grammar to adding and removing text.
2. Once the speech is finalized, the next step is memorization.  This a critical step in delivering an effective speech since the speaker needs to be fluid and avoid looking at his / her speech or cue cards every few seconds.  Otherwise, the speech becomes too robotic and rehearsed.  The audience also loses connection with the speaker and may begin to doubt his or her expertise.   I find memorization to be the most difficult and time consuming part of the whole process.  Although I had no problems in the past writing a great speech, I always ran out of time when it came to memorization, which naturally affected my delivery.  The lack of preparation time also meant that I often exceeded my time limit, sometimes by several minutes.

Replacing the traditional approach with mind mapping solves all of these problems.  Now, when I write a speech, I never actually have to ‘write’ out the full speech.  I use the following steps:

1. I create an overall mind map of the speech containing all of the different areas I have to cover.
2. Next, I create the speech in my head and add keywords to the mind map as triggers to the actual sentences.
3. Editing or making changes to the mind map is very easy.  I am replacing one trigger word with another (instead of deleting and writing new sentences / paragraphs).  With mind mapping software like Mind Manager or Free Mind, it’s  also very easy to move and re-order key points or subtopics.
4. Memorization.  This is the best part.  Because the speech was never actually written out, it only exists in the mind of the speaker with keywords acting as triggers to the actual sentences.  Furthermore, every time I look over the mind map, I am in fact memorizing and rehearsing my speech.  This is a tremendous relief since there is almost no chance of forgetting anything upon finalizing the mind map.  If  I forget a sentence, I’ll know the very first time I go over that part of the speech.  I simply have to pick a stronger key word that better represents the content of the sentence.

Compared to the other methods I learned in the past on speech writing, I find mind mapping to be far more superior and less time consuming.  When we deliver a speech, rather than repeating memorized words, we should aim to tell a great story to our audience.  The subject and speaker become one.  That’s what differentiates a good speech from a great one.  Mind mapping is powerful tool that can make this possible.

As an example, I attached a few of the cue cards I used to deliver a 10 minute presentation seeking seed funding for my business.  The whole speech took me approximately 3 hours to write and memorize.  The presentation was well received

View cue cards