Business Presentation Skills for Nonnative English Speakers

American author Mark Twain once commented: “There are two kinds of speakers: those that are nervous and those that are liars.”

In other words, no matter how experienced you are when it comes to making presentations, there is going to be some particular audience, topic, or timing that is going to give you some sleepless nights and an upset stomach in the morning.

But for a growing subset of global business professionals—those who need to present in English when English isn’t their native language—the anxiety related to speaking in public is even more pronounced.

Considering the language barriers to overcome, the cultural norms to learn, and the general challenges associated with public speaking, nonnative English speakers have it harder than most.

This course makes it easier.

Dozens of courses provide instruction in how to improve your presentation skills. But Business Presentation Skills for Nonnative English Speakers is a practical, tactical, and supportive how-to course aimed at addressing the unique problems that nonnative English speakers like you experience when they attempt to deliver a presentation in public.

This isn’t an English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) course, nor is it an accent-modification class. It’s a tool kit to help you develop your confidence, competence, and cultural comfort when you have to make business presentations in English -- and English isn’t your first language.

My name is Deborah Grayson Riegel, and I’ve taught presentation and communication skills all over the world – from the Beijing International MBA program at Peking University in China to Wharton Business School in the United States, and with global clients -- all with company names you definitely know and with products and services you probably use every day.

This course captures the tips, tools, and techniques I’ve shared with my clients from every continent (except for Antarctica – so far!), and have written about in my book, “Tips of the Tongue: The Nonnative English Speaker’s Guide to Mastering Public Speaking”.

This course is for you if:

• English is your second (or third or fourth) language.

• Your job requires you to make presentations frequently.

• You work for a global company.

• You experience anxiety when speaking in public, and your worries are worsened by the extra burden of having to speak in English.

• You feel like your English is pretty good—until you have to make a presentation in front of an audience.

• You are afraid that you’ll say the wrong thing, gesture inappropriately, or bore the audience.

• You worry that your struggle to present in English will undermine the message you are trying to get across.

• You are self-conscious about your accent.

• Presenting in virtual or hybrid environments creates additional challenges for you.

• You want improve FAST! (If you do the work in this course, you should get better quickly!)

  
  

This course will help you to:

1. Develop your Confidence

2. Increase your Competence

3. Improve your Cultural Comfort

...when making business presentations in English.

And what if your first language is English? Keep watching. If you could use a refresher on how to structure your presentation, engage your audience, manage the questions and answers (Q&A), and more, then you’ll find a lot in here that’s useful for you, too.

I hope you join me on this learning journey. I have so much to share with you.

Let's get started, shall we?

Warmly,

Deborah Grayson Riegel