“Communication works for those who work at it.” – John Powell

Do you know how to express yourself effectively, orally and in writing? If you know how to talk, you can get anything from anyone at anytime, anywhere. Being able to construct sentences expressing what is on your mind will help you get what you want. You will be able to inform your teachers which part of the concept you do not understand; you will be able to do presentations, write essays and communicate your answers well in tests and exams, and more. You can know something in your mind but if you cannot communicate it, it will not help you or anyone. No one will know what you know unless you communicate it. If you cannot explain it, you do not understand it. If the company you are working for wants someone to represent it, a person who can talk well is always the first preference. This skill is very important. Fortunately, it can be developed and perfected. It is the same as learning any other language.

You must read and build your vocabulary, listen to speeches, write essays, learn about nouns, verbs, poetry, debates, presentations, short stories, novels, etc. All these things, most of which are disliked by most learners in schools, are there to help you master the art of communicating. I used to hate things like comprehensions, essays, poetry and the likes. The main reason behind my hatred was the mere fact that I did not see how they would help me with anything in life. I used to pass them because I had to, not because I wanted to learn. This hatred was the reason why I did not obtain an English distinction in matric (the only distinction I did not get). It all came back to haunt me when I went to varsity.

Communicating verbally in English was a mission and a half for me, I come from a school where literally everyone is Venda-speaking so you can imagine. When I got to varsity, I could only make a noise when I was around Venda-speaking people. I would be the quiet one when a group of friends were making a hell of a lot of noise in English; I was forced to keep my opinions to myself. I hated American Pie, they lied!!! How can I impress a girl if I am unable to engage in a decent conversation with her, my lovelife almost died in my first year. I would also allow the lecturer to move to the next concept even when I did not understand simply because I did not want to embarrass myself by asking a question in my broken English. This posed a very serious threat to my academic life.

When I was doing my weekly reflections, I realized how important improving my speaking skills were. All my role models could communicate well. I also knew that experience is the best way to learn. Debating, that was the number one solution I came up with. Mind you, this was something I had not done before in my life. I joined three other people and formed a debating team in the residence that I was staying in; other students did not see the need I guess. We went to our first tournament, the inter-residential debate competition. In our first round, we debated against another all-male residence (EOH) and Musa (the YoTV presenter, I used to see this guy on TV) was in that team. We got chowed, severely so, but at the same time I was inspired. I was supposed to be against these guys, but I was admiring them instead. I wanted to improve to the level that these guys were in. I spoke to the judges after the tournament and they recommended that I join the Wits Debating Union if I wanted to be serious about debating.

I joined the union and my life became interesting. Wits debating helped me gain confidence, taught me how to build a case with well-structured arguments, how to attack and defend myself in the war of words. Seeing my speaking skills improving had a great impact in my life. I could now make a noise with my friends, I could consult with my lecturers, group studies with non-Venda-speaking people became more productive, academic presentations became easier and my lovelife was active. We travelled to many places, around the country and the continent, taking part in different tournaments representing the university. I left debating when I was in third year to join Toastmasters International so that I could focus specifically on public speaking. To be honest with you it was not easy, but it was worth it. Debating with students who speak fluently and who started debating from the earliest grade with my broken English took a lot of courage. I used my understanding of how important this was to me as a motivation, i.e. `my why.’ Today I am not the best debater or the best speaker, but I am sure I am way better than what I used to be and I will continue to strive for improvement. Thank you Wits Debating Union, thank you Toastmasters International Wits Business School Club.

There are people who can express themselves verbally, but cannot put it in writing. Given a problem, I could write my answer, submit it and pass. I used to commit grammatical errors and when I compared my report with those of my classmates, I could see that I had to improve my writing skills. The content was ne, but the way I structured my sentences and presented my work needed some attention. In my third year of study, I had to do something about this incompetent writing skill. Even though my timetable was very tight, I registered for an extra course with the Wits Language School, English for Professional development. It cost me R3900 and I paid for it from the money that I had been saving since first year. I attended my English lessons on Saturday mornings and worked on my homework in the afternoon. My Saturdays were all booked, so I had to do some extra work on my main engineering courses during the week. I passed it and my communication skills were significantly improved. I am now writing this booklet that you are reading. This was something I would not have to do if I had taken my high school English lessons seriously. Be in a continuous mission of improving your writing and speaking skills, they are life-requirements.

Self-confidence is in the same family with speaking and writing. It is very important that you have confidence in yourself. How you think and feel about yourself will definitely determine how well you will do the next thing that you wish to do. Unfortunately there are no shortcuts to building confidence; you cannot cheat your way through. The first step is to make positive conclusions about yourself. The premises to back up these conclusions should come from the outside world, these include your past victories, the lessons learnt from past failures, your beliefs about the future, etc. I like the following piece by Mike Tyson:

“I come out. I have supreme confidence but I’m scared to death. I’m totally afraid. I’m afraid of everything. I’m afraid of losing. I’m afraid of being humiliated. But I was totally con dent. The closer I get to the ring the more confidence I get. The closer, the more confidence I get. The closer, the more confidence I get. All through my training I’ve been afraid of this man. I thought this man might be capable of beating me. I’ve dreamed of him beating me. I always stayed afraid of him. The closer I get to the ring I’m more con dent. Once I’m in the ring, I’m a God! No one can beat me.”

He has supreme confidence because he has won many matches before; he has done a lot of training and he believes that he is going to win. I did not perform my first piece of poetry the first time I was supposed to perform it. I went to a show and I signed up to perform. A guy went and he delivered an awesome piece, everyone liked it. They called my name next. My feet literally locked, fortunately only my friend knew that it was my name that was being called. I just sat there and pretended like I didn’t know the person who was being called, until they called someone else. I went to the second show. This time I was a bit con dent because I rehearsed a lot of times in the mirror. I convinced myself that I could do it. Based on my debating and public speaking experience, I am not afraid to stand in front of people. I ignored all the negative thoughts and entertained the premises that support the positive conclusions in my head. My performance was as good as the other guys, I loved it!!! If you want to watch it, search Muimeleli Mutangwa on YouTube, it was posted by the Wits Poets Corner. Today I receive different invites to perform on different platforms. I speak to-and-for a lot of people through poetry. Imagine what would have happened to my talent if I did not believe in myself.

They talk about a thin line between confidence and arrogance, please find it and do not cross it!!!

“Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings.” – Samuel Johnson

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