Wednesday, 13 May 2015

Dr. Sameh Abdallah give seminar to CLC students



The main message that Dr. Sameh Abdallah wanted to deliver during his seminar was 10 tips you need to become a journalist. I honestly think he was good overall. The way he was speaking was understandable, friendly, and carefree and this let people understand and pay attention to him more. Because of his way of speaking I think he managed to successfully deliver his message. I don’t really have an interest in becoming a journalist, so his message didn’t really leave an impact on me.

At the very start he stated that he does not like sitting down while speaking, got up and started right away. There was no indication that he will begin talking about tips on becoming a journalism; which was nice because it made the overall seminar inviting. He ended on a more serious note while maintaining his friendly demeanor.

While he was speaking, he used both Arabic and English. I am used to hearing people speak with both languages in everyday conversation, my classes, and even in the movies I watch, so the situation of his use of multiple languages did not bother me. I thought it was appropriate due to the fact that he was talking to a group of college students in a way that was friendly. It was as if he was one of us while directing us towards becoming journalists. His English and his Arabic were both very good. He did not use any jargon and was able to communicate successfully with the room. The only expression that stuck with me was when he kept on repeating “international standards of professionalism or go home” and continued to use the “or go home” expression at the end of any example that went against being a good journalist. The use of the expression was nice, until he started to overuse it. Once he said, “go home”, for the fiftieth time, it was irritating.

His overall body language was good because he did not stand stiffly while speaking. His hand gestures were natural and flowed nicely. I did not notice any excessive overuse of gestures. His movement was too much. I did not like his need to personally interact with the audience and get very close to people. In addition to his excessive interaction, I would have preferred that he maintain his movements within a certain area that everyone could see him at, instead of circulating the room. At one point he stood off to the left side of the room, and from where I was sitting I could no longer see him. His voice was strong, and his volume was loud, which was great. I was seated in the last row and could hear him clearly. In both English and Arabic his intonation of the words were clear and precise.

He had short presentation with the points written on each slide. There was no information under the headlines. It was effective because of his use of the visual aids. He did not have any aids that he relied on, and his explanation of each point made up for the lack of information on each slide.


Only a few people asked questions. He did answer all of them, including the girl that asked several questions at a time. Regarding her, he was more open to answering he questions directly because her voice was loud. There were others I could not hear, and he yelled at them to speak loudly because “all journalists need to have loud voices”. By doing so, I think he scared other people and that is why not many questions were asked.

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