International

Public Speaking

 

Vocabulary

expand	translate	interpreter
range	virtually	worldwide
end up	seminar	tremendous
fluent	strategy	rudimentary
darn	book (2)	major (3)
Nordic	circle (2)	stake (2)
prolific	goal (2)

 
 
 
 
 

Video

 
 
 
 

Transcript

Sixty-Nine Countries

Hello I’m Brian Tracy, and I’ve spoken in sixty-nine countries around the world in the last thirty years.

I’ve spoken in virtually every large and small company on every continent. So I’ve had a lot of experience. Also I have been translated by about 50 different professional interpreters in those different languages.

So I know a little bit about speaking worldwide.

And let me tell you why I speak worldwide.

Reasons for Speaking

Number one is I am in business.

As a businessman, I look to expand the range of offerings of my products and services.

Number two, I also so consulting and coaching. This entail speaking professionally in and of itself.

When I started off in the first ten to fifteen years, I was focused in North America — of course as everyone else is: in the United States and Canada.

But then I began thinking . . . it would be a good idea to expand, strategically into other countries.

So I made a bridge into Germany.

Germany

Germany was the starting point of my international speaking.

What I did then is that I learned German.

People said if you could speak German, we could develop a tremendous business in Germany around your speaking and your seminars, around my video programs, my audio programs, and my books.

So I sat down, and I had some basic, rudimentary, high-school German; and I sat down and I began taking lessons and courses and tutoring.

And today I can speak almost fluent German.

Surprise. Surprise. I ended up doing ten to fifteen talks every year in Germany.

Springboard

And since Germany is an epicenter in Europe, people would come from other countries.

And then I began speaking in Poland … and Switzerland … and Austria … and Romania … and Czechoslovakia … and then Czech Republic and Slovakian Republic.

Then throughout all of Serbia, including Kosovo, Croatia, Slovenia, Albania.

I began to speak in Italy. And people began to book in the Middle East, and in the Nordic countries; I began to speak in Sweden, and Finland and Denmark and Iceland.

Amazing darn thing.

So what you do is you link in, you put your stake in the ground in one country. And then you do a really good job.

70, 71

And then people come up to you and say, “Could you come to my country and speak as well?”

Now I have spoken in 69 countries. I have one good friend who has also spoken in 69 countries. So my goal now is to speak in 70 countries.

That will make me the most prolific professional speaker — probably in the history of the world.

And fortunately, next month, I’m speaking in my seventieth country. And probably in June, I’ll speak in seventy-one and seventy-two.

There is no country that I have wanted to speak that I haven’t spoken in; but there are a lot of little countries, like I’m going to be speaking in Georgia — which is south of Russia, which is on the Black Sea — very soon.

So it’s going to be an interesting experience.

Questions

1. The speaker has a passport. True or false?

2. He gives speeches, talks and presentations only because he wants to inspire and uplift people. Is this correct or wrong?

3. Had he always spoken internationally?

4. What does he say about Germany? What was a major key to his success as a speaker in Germany?

5. He asked companies in other countries if he could speak there. Yes or no?

6. What kind of countries has he spoken in the most, and the countries he hasn’t spoken in?

 

A. Do you know any professional or successful speakers? Who are some famous or popular speakers in your city or country?

B. I, my friends and colleagues have to give speeches and presentations. Yes or no?

C. People who can communicate and speak well become very successful and earn good money. Do you agree?

D. Would you or your friends like to become a professional speaker? What subject matter could you talk about or present?

E. What will happen in the future?