TED TALKS

YOUR BODY LANGUAGE SHAPES WHO YOU ARE

This talk is made by Amy Cuddy, and the main topic of it is the body language. She starts the talk by asking to the people listening to her to take a look of what are they doing right now, what’s their corporal position, because that shows a little bit of their personality.

Then, Cuddy focuses on the nonverbal communication and its importance. She says that we tend to think that the way we look or act only affects how other people see ourselves, but that’s not totally true; it also affects ourselves. To explain that, she talks about the power dynamics, especially she focuses on the nonverbal expressions of power and dominance. Then, she talks about an interesting fact about animals as well as humans: when we want to demonstrate power we tend to expand, open up, take up space. Even when you, for example, win a race and you just feel powerful for ten seconds, you will open your arms to show it. Cuddy says that this type of thing (open your arms when you feel pride) is universal. One thing that caught my attention was that she said that even a person who has born blind and, of course, never has seen somebody do that pose, he/she would still do it if he/she won in a physical competition; because that sign is universal, both in the animal kingdom as well as in humans.

Contrarily, when we feel powerless we do exactly the opposite: we close up, we make us small (both animals and humans).

Afterwards, she moves her theory into a classroom: there are people who you notice them a lot, they speak loud and stand out among the others; contrarily, there are the opposite people, who prefer not to stand out and remain quiet and silent. In fact, this is related to gender: women feel chronically less powerful than men, so they normally are quieter and more calm what it comes to standing out in class. Cuddy figured out that this is also related to participation, the first type of people tend to participate more at class, while the other type nearly speaks. This could be a bad thing in some degrees at College, where participation counts 50% of the mark. So then, Cuddy asked herself a question: could those people who are more insecure to fake being more participative? Basically, can they fake it until they make it?

Therefore, she did an experiment to prove it. She found out that if you force yourself to “feel powerful”, you actually really feel it. The simplest way to do it (and the most effective one) is to adapt a powerful pose during 2 minutes, and that makes you increase your security in yourself. But also it works the other way, if you unintentionally adapt a pose of dominance, your self-confidence will decrease. So she recommends us to, before a job interview or an exam (for example), adopt a powerful pose during 2 minutes in the bathroom, the hallway or wherever you want. That really can help you, make you feel more secure and powerful, and it’s very easy to do.

 

Amy Cuddy finishes her speech by telling us to not just “fake it until you make it”, but to “fake it until you become it”. She says that if you keep doing this little experiment your self-confidence will eventually increase until you will become secure in yourself.

PERSONAL OPINION:

I think this is a very motivating and inspiring speech; Cuddy gives a lot of good advices for feeling more secure in you. Naturally, the quote that I liked the most is: “Don’t fake it ‘till you make it, fake it ‘til you become it”.

NEW WORDS: 

Hunch: Encorbar-se
Tweak: Modificar
Glance: Mirada
Outcome: Resultat


Link: https://www.ted.com/talks/amy_cuddy_your_body_language_shapes_who_you_are

EMAIL TO MY TEACHER

Dear Lourdes,


My name is Paula Caball, you might remember me because you were my English teacher in first of ESO.

I don’t consider necessary to do a physical description of me, so I’m going to explain who I am. I think it’s difficult to do a brief description of my personality, because I have a lot of things to say. But, in general, I consider myself a positive person, cheerful and talkative. I’m also outgoing and I love meeting new people and being with my friends. I’m a hardworking person too, and that sometimes it’s a bad thing because it makes me be stressed out, especially now that I’m in Batxillerat. Another bad thing that I have is that I worry way too much about things that maybe aren’t very important. Also, I’m very perfectionist, and I like to do everything correctly. Finally, I think I care too much about what the other people think of me, and that shouldn’t be important.

Now, talking about which are my short and long-term goals, I don’t have it very clear, but the first one that I want to achieve is to finish Batxillerat with good grades (the best that I can but trying to not feel too stressed). I also will try to get a scholarship, because I think it’s possible although I know it’s very difficult. To achieve that I will have to study hard, concentrate in class and organize myself very well. I also have some long-term goals, for example one of them is to enter in the degree I want to study in the University and finish it. I also want to keep studying English to finally obtain the Proficiency (CPE) qualification. I would like to learn more languages too, especially French and German, but also some others like Italian, Russian or Chinese. Like most of the people, I want to travel a lot, and I’m sure I will find ways to travel that are not very expensive, because exploring the world is something I force myself to do! For example, I could do an au pair or volunteering in a NGO. Focusing on the people who can help me to stay on track, well, for the short-term goals I think I only need myself, because studying is something that, even though you can need help, you have to do it on your own. About the long-term goals, I also think that I don’t need anyone in particular to help me, but it’s always nice to have somebody by your side, so I think my family and friends could help me, but just to give me support.


“You can’t let your failures define you; you have to let your failures teach you. You have to let them show you what to do differently the next time.”

This is one of the quotes I liked the most in Obama’s speech. I liked it because it shows that failures aren’t a sign of weakness, it only shows you that you have done something wrong but most of the times if you try harder, change something and keep trying you will achieve your objectives. The most important thing is to never give up.


I look forward to hearing from you.

Best regards,

Paula