I want you to imagine something for a
second year back in school it’s a usual
Tuesday morning the teacher walks into
the room and she has a register in her
hand she starts taking the attendance
and as the names go by people say
present and then your turn comes in so
you stand up you take a deep breath
but you choke no sound comes out of your
mouth you try again this time with more
force with more vigor your lips are
moving or your jaws are clenching but
still no words form you’re absolutely
powerless over here so you look at the
people around you only to find them
looking back at you with extremely weird
expressions on their faces they’ve no
idea why this boy can’t see the simple
word present you’re stuck in that
situation and also in that word my name
is Allan Hahn and I’ve been stuttering
for as long as I can remember and for a
minute you got a glimpse of where it is
like to be in my shoes and also what
stuttering actually is stuttering is a
speech disorder
it’s when the flow of speech is
interrupted by involuntary interruptions
of elongation of words but now as I
speak you may wonder why is this boy not
stuttering where is that where is the
choking part over here but before I
answer that question I want to ask you a
question how many in this room have
picked up words or expressions from dear
friends or colleagues simple words
expressions quite a lot the word I
picked up from my friends actually from
a gentleman sitting in this hall right
now is the word cool yeah I know it’s
if you ask me how’s the TED talk going
in Milan I’m gonna say cool so if you
ask me do you want to go for gelato
sometime I’ll say cool if you ask me
how’s the weather in Abu Dhabi that’s a
not so cool but see these this education
that you get this this absorbance of
words or phrases
it’s very unconscious you don’t you
don’t consciously think about it you
just absorb them but these things are
minor Oh what I want to tell you is that
you can also pick up significant things
from your friends or colleague you can
pick up things which have more substance
and that’s exactly what I did with
theater now now before I mentioned
theater I want to clarify a few sumption
people say oh so he stutters he probably
didn’t have confidence and he worked on
it and then he overcame his stutter not
exactly or they say yeah he probably
practiced a lot you know rehearsing bla
bla so he practiced you okay mr. tree
and now he can speak fluently so that
but that’s not the case either what I
actually did was used the method of
acting acting itself is very methodical
it’s not just getting on stage saying a
few words screaming or crying it’s about
taking a seat and observing things the
three steps to acting our observation
conscious selection and replication and
they should be divided the time you put
into them should be divided like this
the most should go to observation the
second should be conscious selection the
third should be replication and that’s
where people go along they skipped the
first two and they directly jump to the
third I did this through observing
people so what I observed was when you
want to play a character
you look at that color you want to look
at how they walk how much how much do
they lift up their feet when they’re
walking or when they’re talking what is
their tone like do they have a deep
voice oh do they have a squeaky voice
you wanna look at all these details and
gather all this information because this
information is gonna be the basis for
the next step which is conscious
selection this is where you choose
characteristics or traits which you want
to embody in your character so if you
want your character to be friendly
you’ll probably go with the squeaky
voice or the fact that they’re really
energetic rather than at the deep
intimidating deep voice or the heavy
walk so the formula we’re gonna see next
there’s a formula I used an actor to get
the roles I really wanted to do but this
formula can also be used offstage and
that’s when I use them on the people
around me so the first people around me
were actors producers and my theater
coach so I used it on my theater coach I
realized how he had to pick up his pants
every now and then because the belt
buckle was loose or how he fixed his hat
but I also notice a very important thing
that he stuttered yes person who had
been teaching me acting for four years
had a stutter and I did not realize that
all this time not one single clue so I
took a step back I was excited because
if he can hide it or he can overcome it
that means so can I so I began learning
from him what does he do I start
observing him I started using the
formula you were looking at right now I
observed him it was a very calm and a
lot of composure this man could not be
fazed by anything he’d still talk to you
very normally even if you told him
something really exciting
you should speak very slowly he would
always let other people continue their
sentences
finish their sentences and then talk and
when he did talk he talked really slowly
he never had his mouth open when he was
thinking now this part is very important
because your mouth your mouth needs to
be in sync with your brain it needs to
come after you your brain helped on the
thinking process and then you speak so I
picked up on these things I observed
these things when I consciously selected
these things I try to incorporate them
into myself that’s the reason why the
boy I media Majan started a lot and the
boy you’re looking at right now is not
but this process of learning doesn’t
finish over here
I used it elsewhere I wanted to become a
better listener so I looked at my
college counselor now this man he
listens to you he would not look at his
phone when he’s talking to you he
wouldn’t look at his laptop he could
give you his hundred percent and that is
when he asks you questions he asked you
a lot of great questions not just
questions about yes or no you ask you
things which makes you clarify your
point or articulate your point better so
he can understand it better and so can
you
the third thing he used to do was mimic
my emotions so if I’m telling him
something and I’m really excited he’d
give me an approving smile and if I’m
telling him something in a greedy upset
you’re giving me a appreciative nod you
need to mimic the person’s emotions to
make them feel part of the conversation
and then they’ll share more I try to
incorporate this into my listening and I
think I’m a great listener my friends
could tell better but yeah but at this
point I want you to imagine I want you
to realize that if you if you Latin
something if you think you don’t make
good decisions find people who are
decisive observe them learn from them if
you’re not good at time management try
to look at people who do manage their
time well try to learn their habits now
before I leave the stage today
I want you to take a step back reflect
on who you are as a person right now and
then think about the person you want to
become think of the trades this person
has the one you have to become find
these trades in the people around you
look for them in your friends colleagues
parents because there’s a lot of
knowledge surrounding you and all you
have to do to gain that knowledge is
look around thank you [Applause]
second year back in school it’s a usual
Tuesday morning the teacher walks into
the room and she has a register in her
hand she starts taking the attendance
and as the names go by people say
present and then your turn comes in so
you stand up you take a deep breath
but you choke no sound comes out of your
mouth you try again this time with more
force with more vigor your lips are
moving or your jaws are clenching but
still no words form you’re absolutely
powerless over here so you look at the
people around you only to find them
looking back at you with extremely weird
expressions on their faces they’ve no
idea why this boy can’t see the simple
word present you’re stuck in that
situation and also in that word my name
is Allan Hahn and I’ve been stuttering
for as long as I can remember and for a
minute you got a glimpse of where it is
like to be in my shoes and also what
stuttering actually is stuttering is a
speech disorder
it’s when the flow of speech is
interrupted by involuntary interruptions
of elongation of words but now as I
speak you may wonder why is this boy not
stuttering where is that where is the
choking part over here but before I
answer that question I want to ask you a
question how many in this room have
picked up words or expressions from dear
friends or colleagues simple words
expressions quite a lot the word I
picked up from my friends actually from
a gentleman sitting in this hall right
now is the word cool yeah I know it’s
if you ask me how’s the TED talk going
in Milan I’m gonna say cool so if you
ask me do you want to go for gelato
sometime I’ll say cool if you ask me
how’s the weather in Abu Dhabi that’s a
not so cool but see these this education
that you get this this absorbance of
words or phrases
it’s very unconscious you don’t you
don’t consciously think about it you
just absorb them but these things are
minor Oh what I want to tell you is that
you can also pick up significant things
from your friends or colleague you can
pick up things which have more substance
and that’s exactly what I did with
theater now now before I mentioned
theater I want to clarify a few sumption
people say oh so he stutters he probably
didn’t have confidence and he worked on
it and then he overcame his stutter not
exactly or they say yeah he probably
practiced a lot you know rehearsing bla
bla so he practiced you okay mr. tree
and now he can speak fluently so that
but that’s not the case either what I
actually did was used the method of
acting acting itself is very methodical
it’s not just getting on stage saying a
few words screaming or crying it’s about
taking a seat and observing things the
three steps to acting our observation
conscious selection and replication and
they should be divided the time you put
into them should be divided like this
the most should go to observation the
second should be conscious selection the
third should be replication and that’s
where people go along they skipped the
first two and they directly jump to the
third I did this through observing
people so what I observed was when you
want to play a character
you look at that color you want to look
at how they walk how much how much do
they lift up their feet when they’re
walking or when they’re talking what is
their tone like do they have a deep
voice oh do they have a squeaky voice
you wanna look at all these details and
gather all this information because this
information is gonna be the basis for
the next step which is conscious
selection this is where you choose
characteristics or traits which you want
to embody in your character so if you
want your character to be friendly
you’ll probably go with the squeaky
voice or the fact that they’re really
energetic rather than at the deep
intimidating deep voice or the heavy
walk so the formula we’re gonna see next
there’s a formula I used an actor to get
the roles I really wanted to do but this
formula can also be used offstage and
that’s when I use them on the people
around me so the first people around me
were actors producers and my theater
coach so I used it on my theater coach I
realized how he had to pick up his pants
every now and then because the belt
buckle was loose or how he fixed his hat
but I also notice a very important thing
that he stuttered yes person who had
been teaching me acting for four years
had a stutter and I did not realize that
all this time not one single clue so I
took a step back I was excited because
if he can hide it or he can overcome it
that means so can I so I began learning
from him what does he do I start
observing him I started using the
formula you were looking at right now I
observed him it was a very calm and a
lot of composure this man could not be
fazed by anything he’d still talk to you
very normally even if you told him
something really exciting
you should speak very slowly he would
always let other people continue their
sentences
finish their sentences and then talk and
when he did talk he talked really slowly
he never had his mouth open when he was
thinking now this part is very important
because your mouth your mouth needs to
be in sync with your brain it needs to
come after you your brain helped on the
thinking process and then you speak so I
picked up on these things I observed
these things when I consciously selected
these things I try to incorporate them
into myself that’s the reason why the
boy I media Majan started a lot and the
boy you’re looking at right now is not
but this process of learning doesn’t
finish over here
I used it elsewhere I wanted to become a
better listener so I looked at my
college counselor now this man he
listens to you he would not look at his
phone when he’s talking to you he
wouldn’t look at his laptop he could
give you his hundred percent and that is
when he asks you questions he asked you
a lot of great questions not just
questions about yes or no you ask you
things which makes you clarify your
point or articulate your point better so
he can understand it better and so can
you
the third thing he used to do was mimic
my emotions so if I’m telling him
something and I’m really excited he’d
give me an approving smile and if I’m
telling him something in a greedy upset
you’re giving me a appreciative nod you
need to mimic the person’s emotions to
make them feel part of the conversation
and then they’ll share more I try to
incorporate this into my listening and I
think I’m a great listener my friends
could tell better but yeah but at this
point I want you to imagine I want you
to realize that if you if you Latin
something if you think you don’t make
good decisions find people who are
decisive observe them learn from them if
you’re not good at time management try
to look at people who do manage their
time well try to learn their habits now
before I leave the stage today
I want you to take a step back reflect
on who you are as a person right now and
then think about the person you want to
become think of the trades this person
has the one you have to become find
these trades in the people around you
look for them in your friends colleagues
parents because there’s a lot of
knowledge surrounding you and all you
have to do to gain that knowledge is
look around thank you [Applause]
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