Wednesday, April 14, 2010

stepping out

Gave a talk for the Asia Society here last night. About 100 ppl turned up for the talk--but wait! I was just the supporting speaker. An established documentary filmmaker had a presentation on her work for the Museum of Chinese in America and I was there to provide back-up historical narratives on the subject. It was my first time speaking in front of a non-academic audience and it mostly went well. I was pretty happy with how calm I was for most of it. I learned some things about being in the spotlight, haha!

But today, I'm just exhausted and can barely work on prep work for class later this week.

3 comments:

  1. So is it "easier" to speak to academics or non academics?

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  2. :) it's easier in the sense that i don't have to prepare a presentation that showcases original research. it was difficult in the sense that i had to make it entertaining!!!!! but it also inspired me to make my academic stuff entertaining as well. my work hasn't seemed very fun for a long time and i wonder if things could be different. so this is great! i'm goingto try to be more fun as an academic. :)

    it was difficult to be on stage with the spotlight shining into your eyes but i surprised myself by demonstrating a great deal of calm. many pats on my own back!!!

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  3. Congrats! How exciting and fun : ) Terrifying, but thrilling, I'm sure...

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