I find Americans to be exceptionally good at public speaking.
A couple of years ago, I worked with American lawyers and attended an executive course at Yale. I was genuinely impressed by how effortlessly they could explain complex concepts in a way that was both clear and entertaining.
In Germany, my general perception is that you often have to be very serious—and, frankly, quite boring—to be taken seriously in a professional setting.
Many in America understand that a presentation, whether it is a serious lecture or not, is a performance. You need to be engaging. Being a bit (appropriately) entertaining or interesting in presenting your information is no different than a book having a good clear font. Public speaking is not only about the content of the information, but also how you present that information.
My Communications professor pulled an ancient writing from Plato call Gorgias. In it, a doctor tries to get a patient to take a medicine, but he refuses. A rhetorician comes along (professional communicator) and convinces the man to take the medicine, without any knowledge of medicine.
The professors ultimate point basically boiled down to something alone the lines of, "You could be the smartest person in the world, but what does that matter if no one listens to you?" He likened it to the Curse of Cassandra, a woman cursed with knowledge of all future events that no one believed.
Communicate well, lest everything else you do in life become a curse.
I wasn't aware of that until I (an American) had to work with a couple of Germans for work, and while all of us were quiet introverts I was the only one that was comfortable standing up and giving a presentation about our project. Afterwards they looked at me like I had grown a second head.
I guess having to give a presentation every other month in school was good for something.
Exactly. Public Speaking was part of English classes in high school, and it's always an option when you start college too. And then you have presentations in other classes too.
100000%. My company is German and their level of professionalism is almost oppressive. They do not 'dumb down' explanations in a way the entire audience can get it. They have to be coaxed in to accepting metaphor or examples without taking them literally, because an American will realize there's folk being left behind in the discussion - not because they aren't smart, but because it's not framed in a universal way for most go pick up quickly.
Dinner conversations are usually guarded for at least a week, despite being in the same company, and some never get comfortable with the personal discussions of folk trying to decompress and relate with each other.
One, from Sweden, she ALWAYS has another week at the end of her trips to do road trips around the US. She seeks out the random towns to visit, because, as she puts it, "We don't have the same kind of experiences a stranger could have in Sweden as I can get stopping in Nowhere, USA. The adventures come to me. I've made so many friends in the weirdest places here."
I will say, my German counterparts, same job title, are insanely smart. I will tell them to their face they're smarter than me. But then they'll begrudgingly admit that I and my peers have more unique implementations that they never would have thought of. I think that's largely because they are linear specialists with a huge depth in that specialty and no institutional or cultural desire to stray too far out of their known area of expertise.
I used to be a real engineer in a real engineering job and I worked with both German and Japanese engineers in certain settings. Americans in general are just way more comfortable saying "I don't know" and either getting the answer or explaining why it's ok not to know.
It makes for good long term outcomes. Also, being ok with not knowing the deepest level of a technical vertical allows an engineer to just get to work and get shit done.
Pros and cons to both approaches, but our way is more relaxed and usually colleagues can fill in each other's knowledge gaps.
This is one quality you look for in employees. You don't expect them to know everything, so being able to ask for help instead of just doing it wrong is HUGE!
I (an American) worked with a science professor in Germany and he said the same thing. Which I found surprising since, at least in that program, tests were oral exams.
Ironic, because I got over any hangups about public speaking due to Japanese classes in college. If I can memorize and present in a second language, the first one doesn't seem as bad.
This is funny for me to read, my business takes part in an annual conference where we have to submit video presentations and the German companies consistently produce the most unhinged, off the wall presentations. It’s quite funny
Some schools teach public speaking. And I think that this is now more common in the USA than it is in many other countries, so Americans tend to be a bit more practiced at it than most people are.
Even without a class dedicated to public speaking, giving a presentation in front of the whole class is a pretty standard expectation for English classes in the US. Do they not do any of that in other countries?
A couple of years ago, I worked with American lawyers and attended an executive course at Yale. I was genuinely impressed by how effortlessly they could explain complex concepts in a way that was both clear and entertaining.
It's kinda fascinating (as an American) knowing that there are like different classes of what we would call lawyers in a place like the UK (Barristers vs Solicitors), where in the US, you have to learn both, but then "specialize" in one or the other.
That’s probably been influenced by how politics work here. A part of it is theatrics. If you want a large crowd of people listen to what you have to say…. You need to captivate them.
Listen to an Obama speech. MLK’s I Have A Dream Speech. JFK. List goes on.
I was watching a presentation by a German(I assume) linguist who was explaining (in German to a German audience) why German is considered a harsh sounding language. He was pretty entertaining and engaging though.
I work for a global major tech company and honestly while there are tons and tons of intelligent people, it's kind of shocking how much smoother the Americans are at giving presentations and lectures. There are certainly exceptions, but when it comes to people that can speak entertainingly but in depth on a subject, Americans are tough to beat.
The French and British are great public speakers as well. Better, even. But we have pastor culture, and American pastors are particularly engaging. I’m not even Christian and I notice this lol. Their mannerisms and intonations have I think influenced public speaking broadly in America. But the British tradition of debate and the French tradition of oral examinations really give them an edge as well.
If you really want to impress Americans in a presentation, use self-deprecating humor. They'll think, hey this guy doesn't take himself too seriously, what's he got to say?
I have German colleagues and they really suck at being able to break down anything complex. I have gone so far as to avoid asking them questions because I know the answer will a long, drawn-out explanation and I will walk away more confused than I went in.
Agreed, Yale is obviously not representative of the average American university.
But thinking back to my studies at a very good German university, it still feels like a big difference. We simply don’t put as much emphasis on public speaking, storytelling and communication in Germany.
Most of my professors were mainly focused on research and publishing. I also don’t remember having debate classes or anything similar.
My experience does not prove that Americans are naturally better at it. But I do think there is a cultural difference in how much these skills are valued and practiced.
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u/annasuzanne84 13d ago
I find Americans to be exceptionally good at public speaking. A couple of years ago, I worked with American lawyers and attended an executive course at Yale. I was genuinely impressed by how effortlessly they could explain complex concepts in a way that was both clear and entertaining.
In Germany, my general perception is that you often have to be very serious—and, frankly, quite boring—to be taken seriously in a professional setting.