Question
Describe the most influential speech that you heard.
Sample answer
I have heard numerous speeches, lectures, commentaries on various topics and issues throughout different stages of my life and among them the speech that was given by our primary school teacher on occasion of our fare-well is the most influential one and I still vividly recall it. The teacher who gave the speech was Mr. Mark Augustine and he was at his late forties at that time. As fifth grade school going kids we did not comprehend quite clearly what was the school fare-well all about. We knew that this is going to be our last day at our primary school and we would start our new school soon. Mr. Mark was already a revered teacher for his teaching style, good manor, humour and honesty. Rumour had that, he was much more qualified to be a college professor rather than being a primary school teacher.
On the day, we had our parents present in school and we had been enjoying everything. As part of the farewell speech Mr. Mark approached to the stage and started mentioning what funny things we had done in the last 5 years. We as well as our parents started laughing on the things he mentioned. He mentioned how a kid started screaming in the sight of a cockroach, how a kid of class two expressed his friendship to a girl, how we tried to play amid of the class and many more interesting and funny events.
He then moved on topics that I still hear in my mind. He told how study is our primary responsibility, how we should listen to our parents, how have we achieved our liberation as a nation, how to respect the Mother Nature and all the honestly and bravery we should possess in our heart. The topics and his way of presenting them vibrated us heavily. I can still remember how the advises came back to my life time to time. As a kid those advises and moralities were probably way to heavy to grasp but I still believe that the speech had a great impact in my life as well as the lives of the other kids who were present there.
Tips for answering this cue card topic:
Think about a speech that you heard and liked/ disliked. Usually people remember speeches which are interesting, which were delivered with great eloquence and have lasting impressions. Such speech can be something you heard in person or watched on TV or heard on radio. Sometimes the speeches given by a famous person remain alive in generations and you can also mention one such speech that affected the whole nation. If you want to talk about a speech you heard on radio and TV, mention a famous speech by leader of your country. If you want to talk about a speech that you heard, look for the following options that may match the speech you are thinking about:
A speech given by your school teacher.
A speech given by your debate team leader/ class captain/ sports team leader/ football, cricket, rugby coach etc.
A speech delivered by a local politician that addresses a public issue.
A speech given by a social worker that touched you.
A speech delivered by the presenter of a social program.
You should avoid personal speeches like advices from your parents, grandparents, teachers that was aimed to advice you. Those are usually considered to be personal advices not as speeches in broader sense.
Follow the below structure chronologically to effectively answer this question:
1. Name of the person who gave the speech and his/her identity.
2. The occasion and reason the person gave the speech and how old you were then.
3. What was the topic of the speech and who were the audiences of this speech.
4. What was the topic(s) of the speech and how good the person was delivering his/her messages.
5. how the speech was accepted and praised.
6. How people commented on the speech and how they reacted after they heard the speech.
7. How you accepted the speech and what are your personal opinion on the issues addressed by the speech giver.
8. How you felt and what was your reaction.
9. How the speech touched you and what valuable things you learned from that.
10.How the speech affected you in your later course of action in life.
