Presentations - Advice on Cultural Differences

Presentations cultural differences

Presentations/ Language of advice/ Environmental services

Decide if each piece of advice below is:

1. Probably a good idea in all countries
2. Usually a good idea in my country, but maybe not such a good idea in some others
3. Not usually a good idea in my country, but probably a good idea in some others
4. Not a good idea in any country

• You should start the presentation at the set time, even if some people still haven’t arrived
• If someone comes in late, my suggestion is to stop your presentation until they have sat down
• You should leave at least half an hour at the end of the presentation free because there will be lots of questions
• I recommend telling people to keep all questions until the end because otherwise you will never finish your presentation
• It’s best to make eye contact with the audience as you speak to them
• It’s generally a good idea to pause after each section and check if everybody understood
• I would advise you to tell as many jokes as possible to keep people interested
• If there is silence from the audience, I would suggest asking them if everything is okay
• When you want to show you are really getting serious, my advice would be to take off your jacket and roll up your shirt sleeves
• If I were you, I’d finish at the set time even if there are still questions from the audience
• If I was in your place, I’d watch people’s body language carefully and be worried if people cross their arms
• Whatever you do, smile all the time
• If you need to drink water during a presentation, make sure you pour it into a glass and don’t drink it out of the plastic bottle
• You’d better wear bright colours to get everyone’s attention.
• If it was me, I’d sit on the edge of a desk to show your “relaxed but attentive” attitude.
• If I were in your position, I’d chat with people as they come into the room before your presentation starts.
• You ought to spend a lot of time preparing the visuals for your presentation.
• If someone in the audience closes their eyes when they are listening, you should assume that they are asleep.
• Have you thought about asking particular people to ask you a question? That’s what I would do to get the Q and A session started.
• Why don’t you give the presenter a round of applause when they finish the presentation? In my opinion, it’s the most polite thing to do.
• You could try writing all measurements in metres and feet so that everyone in the audience can understand.
• Make sure you aim your talk at the most important person in the room.
• One idea is to write your presentation out in full and then just read it out to your audience

Read out one you agree with and see if other people have the same opinion.

Ask about any which you don’t understand, have no opinion about, etc.

Find language of advice in the sentences above (e.g. “You should…”)

Use similar language to give advice on these topics and see if other people agree.