The power of language - from the heart

Chelsey 2022-04-22 07:01:39

At the end of January and the beginning of February this year, I was assigned by my unit to study a course on speech in Beijing. When I came back, I needed to share and communicate with the unit. In the process of preparing to share the course and communicating with a colleague who has a lot of experience in speeches, I was inevitably a little swayed and unsure about what I wanted to share. He recommended this movie to me and let me watch it. After finishing, I have the strength to continue my sharing and exploration of speeches. If I remember correctly, he recommended the movie to me on February 3rd, finished it on February 11th, and I shared it internally on February 12th. I stayed up late the first day and insisted on watching it. The reason is that there needs to be a kind of strength that will give me the courage to face the sharing session the next day.

Before watching this film, because I was interested in the political system of the United States, I had read books on American history, including novels about the Civil War like Gone with the Wind, and had a little understanding of the history of segregation between the North and the South in the United States. Watching this movie and seeing blacks and whites living in complete segregation, including the segregation of trains, schools, living quarters, etc.; seeing James Farmer Jr.'s father, a respected college professor blackmailed by white farmers , I can only choose to be obedient; I burst into tears when I saw the teacher, Tolson, with his students, when he saw the white man hang the black man for no reason, and could only choose to flee at the fastest speed. The history of a country is always much heavier than we imagine, even if it is a lifetime away from today. What we need to do now is to strive to prevent history from being annihilated, tampered with, and not forgotten, and to present the original appearance of history, so that people today can reflect on it!

And this film presents a country and a nation's thinking about history in the form of speeches and debates. At this time, words are weapons. James Farmer Jr.'s final concluding remarks in the Harvard debate was just a story that he had witnessed when a white man lynched a black man for no reason, but the power it brought It was the thunderous applause of everyone, because of sincerity, because of personal experience, and because of starting from the heart.

This time I went to Beijing to study speech. There are many skills in speech, but as the teacher said, once you reach a certain level, you will no longer have skills. You only need to tell your own story. So when I came back to write about the experience of this study, the last sentence I wrote was that speaking, we need to use the sincerity from the heart, tell a story without great truth, and bring the listeners moving and strength, to change, to Persevere and start over. Although two days of learning is speaking and speech, it is actually life.

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Extended Reading

The Great Debaters quotes

  • Melvin B. Tolson: Take the meanest, most restless nigger. Strip him of his clothes in front of the remaining male niggers, female niggers, and nigger infants, tar and feather him, tie each leg to a horse facing an opposite direction, set him on fire, and beat both horses until they tear him apart in front of male, female and nigger infants. Bullwhip and beat the remaining nigger males within an inch of their life. Do not kill them but put the fear of God in them, for they can be useful for future breeding. Anybody know who Willie Lynch was? Anybody? Raise your hand. No one? He was a vicious slave owner in the West Indies. The slave-masters in the colony of Virginia were having trouble controlling their slaves, so they sent for Mr. Lynch to teach them his methods. The word "lynching" came from his last name. His methods were very simple, but they were diabolical. Keep the slave physically strong but psychologically weak and dependent on the slave master. Keep the body, take the mind.

  • Henry Lowe: School's the only place you can read all day. Except prison.