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Once in a lifetime experiences

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Student Resources

Networking Made Easy

 Sometimes the prospect of meeting and having a conversation with new people can be daunting. But it doesn't have to be! 

Jen Harwood's Free Small Talk Report, provides tips to develop your small talking skills to help you make valuable connections, pique interest in others and become more relatable to them.

Read the following blogs for inspiration.

7 Tips for Shy People

Moving and Grooving

How to Prepare for Networking

 

 Public Speaking Workshop

How many times has it happened that you have tried speaking in public and there was no response from the audience?  Have you been a part of a presentation where you struggled to speak with confidence or were you a nervous wreck on stage when it was your time to shine?

On 30th April, Study Geelong organised an event called “Public Speaking Jitters” which was facilitated by Kylie Shrume, Senior Learning & Culture Consultant, City of Greater Geelong. The event took place at the offices of Study Geelong. It focussed on the importance of improvising, how to give a strong presentation by modifying the format of the presentation and talking with confidence.

Activities at the event:

  • Warm up: It is really important to know the audience and understand that they are not different from you. They are also interested to hear what you have to say. In this activity we heard what everyone likes or dislikes in the form of a chair game. At the end of this activity, everyone felt more comfortable speaking in front of each other.
  • Motivating spontaneity: To encourage thinking on your feet, participants were told that during the span of workshop, Kylie would select someone at random to talk about a topic that is completely arbitrary. This activity was really fun and taught us the importance of improvising under pressure when everyone’s focus is on the thing you are about to say or how you are going present yourself on stage.
  • Breathing exercise: Kylie shared her experience of giving a presentation in a professional environment. Sometimes we don’t meet the nicest of people and it is really important to talk with confidence and be professional at the same time. 
  • How to structure our presentation: Kylie shared her professional experience on how to structure a presentation. What is the right sequence in creating a presentation and how to divide it into 3 subtopics. In the end, we had the opportunity to create a prefect presentation based on new format.

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If you would like to see the resources provided to us during the workshop, click here.

There are also some great videos about public speaking on TED Talks. You can access them here.

 

Formal and Casual Aussie Communication

Cat got your tongue? Lost for words? Tongue-tied? Confused?

Anyone who has ever answered the question ‘How’s it going mate?’ with the response ‘I’m going down to the shops’ instead of ‘I’m well, thanks’ knows what we’re talking about. Aussie lingo is a weird and wonderful thing!

Study Geelong hosted the Aussie Communication Boot Camp, a free, fun social night of communication skills activities and language tips and tricks for the workplace.

A fun video about Aussie slang started off the event followed by an interactive game show. Then it was time for a bit of language theory and live acting of skits explaining formal versus casual communication. The students' knowledge was then applied through a fun word card matching game. Tips on body language, personal space & handshakes was given and then the students practised what they had learnt through engaging in conversation with each other.

The event provided the opportunity for International students to develop their formal and casual speaking skills, meet some local Australian and international students, and share some pizza!

View the video below that shows 3 examples of speaking casually and formally. See if you can work out which is casual and which is formal and which way of speaking is most appropriate for each situation.

 

 

Job Information Session

Paid or unpaid internships or volunteering can also be a great way to get exposure in your field of study.Volunteering is also a great way to give back to the community and make friends.

But do you know where to look for a job? Do you know your work rights? Do you know what employers expect of workers in Australia?

Study Geelong ran a jobs information session that helped answer these questions.

Resources from the session are below. Just click on the item to download.