My presentation on narrative story is a mess with a nervous start and a blank out period in the middle. Thee conclusion part is not as bad as I imagined where I tried to be objective and neutral on intercultural communication.

I think the most challenging or exciting part of the presentation is the body part when I tried to explain my perspective on Chinatown and tried to convince my audience that what I said was true. I was worried about the confusion my speech might bring to my audience because it is a complicated issue mixing with national emotions and historical backgrounds. My expression may also confuse my audience as well because my logic and grammar. However, I felt much better when I saw Leticia’s comment under my post, in which she said that she had the same feeling in her trip to Seattle Chinatown. Then I noticed that I am not the only mandarin speaker noticing this problem and feeling alienated and offended in Chinatown. I felt surprised when the guy lingered from door to door for several times. However, thanks to his interruption, I performed in a much natural way because I stuck much to the structure and gave up the focus on details. Moreover, I am not sure wether I convey information to audience or not because it is a complicated issue based a lot on national emotion and cultural issues. There are a lot of conflicts because of cultural and social difference in China and people from other countries can hardly get the point without immersing in Chinese culture. Due to my blank out in the middle, I don’t think I am professional enough. I need more preparation on narrative story presentation in the future.

However, this is an interesting topic because it is a very cultural based issue. It is a real issue that people who are not Chinese may not think of it if I didn’t mention it in my presentation. My audience can also think of their experience in their ethnic towns in the U.S. I opened my presentation by asking questions to my audience to grab their attention. I hoped they could think of their experience in their ethnic towns in the U.S. My thesis was conveyed clearly but I think that I was thinking of it when I delivered the speech because I look confused. My presentation map is quite clear as well. I divided my body part of the presentation into three parts: how my Chinatown experience was; why people in San Francisco’s Chinatown react to me in an impolite attitude; why I felt alienated in San Francisco’s Chinatown based on my experience. Besides, I believed I have the credibility to share my opinion as well because I am a Chinese born and growing up in Beijing and I know the cultural background very well.

Generally speaking, the organization and structure of my narrative story presentation is vey clear. I think that I am good at structure and relatively weak at telling stories and conveying details. I always feel confused whenI talked about details. I have a relatively memorable conclusion and came back to the tolerance issue again. I think my audience can have better understanding on the tolerance issue after learning my experience in the San Francisco’s Chinatown, my research on San Francisco’s history, and my self-reflection combined with my cultural identity. Generally speaking, the transitions between paragraphs are clear. But I got lost after I said “China has developed a lot”.

I need to raise my volume in the future presentations and train myself with had gestures. Moreover, I need some pause i  my presentation. Fast speed, low volume, and  no pause made me sound soft and less convincing. My eyes stuck at one place in a period of time and then moved to another spot. I need to move my eyes constantly in a natural way. I stood in the front with less movement which is good and I didn’t use a lot of “um”. I was nervous at the beginning so that I repeated words several times. I think I used more time than I expected which should be controlled within 5 minutes and a half.

All in all, this presentation is messy but generally speaking it conveys the main idea in an appropriate way. It also arouse people’s thinking and got some agreement from other mandarin speaker. I need to work on narrative story and presentation on narrative story. Thanks for the supports from my professor and classmates. I got power and energy from your eyes when I made eye contacts with you in my presentation.