The Perfusion Club, operating under the Directorate of Health, Culture and Sports (SKS) of Üsküdar University, organized an event titled “Effective Speaking, Oratory and Making Oneself Heard.” Communication Expert Şaban Özdemir was a guest at the event. Özdemir emphasized the decisive role of body language, tone of voice, emphasis, and intonation in communication, noting that sincerity, a positive approach, and properly managed excitement are keys to a successful speech. Explaining articulation, breath, and voice masking techniques with examples from his own experiences, Özdemir drew attention to the placebo effect of strong communication, especially in the healthcare sector, underscoring that communication is an auxiliary treatment method. He stated that a significant portion of the violence experienced in the healthcare sector stems from communication issues. Özdemir particularly highlighted the importance of being constructive and positive in communication, also mentioning that his biggest fuel is being positive.
The event, held at the Ibn Sina Auditorium of Üsküdar University NP Health Campus, was moderated by Prof. Dr. Ali Kocailik, Head of the Perfusion Department at the Faculty of Health Sciences.
In the program, which was met with great interest by students, effective speaking techniques and the art of oratory were discussed in all their intricacies.
“The most accurate intonation is to do justice to the word…”
Sharing what can be done to captivate the audience in the first few minutes when starting a speech, Şaban Özdemir began his words by saying; “People are greeted by their appearance and bid farewell by what they tell, their knowledge, and their shares. To be effective on stage, attire, appearance, and body language are extremely important and complementary. Because approximately 60% of communication consists of body language. Your gestures, facial expressions, posture, and clothing are also a part of this. Approximately 38% is our tone of voice, that is, being able to use the voice correctly and effectively. Of course, there are techniques for this. There are many resources on this topic in the vastness of the internet; you can benefit from them. Only 7-8% consists of the words we use. So, approximately 90% of communication consists of body language, appearance, gestures, facial expressions, voice, and intonation. These need to be paid attention to. The tone of voice can sometimes be undulating; sometimes it rises, sometimes it proceeds more stably. Therefore, emphasis and intonation are extremely valuable. The most accurate intonation is being able to say, to voice the word according to its meaning… It is giving it its due with its emotion… If it's love, being able to say ‘love’, if it's affection, ‘affection’, if it's anger, fury, being able to say ‘fury’. It is necessary to clothe the word with that emotion and that tone.”
“My biggest fuel is being positive”
Emphasizing the importance of sincerity in communication, Özdemir said; “Just like people’s tongues, their brains also speak. As my professor Nevzat Tarhan emphasized, mirror neurons work in the brain. If there is sincerity in communication, brains also interact. As we understand, know, and trust each other, it might sound ambitious, but you truly start to become one, to be unified. This allows me to anticipate the reaction the person in front of me might give; because the person trusts you, they open themselves up to you. Communication flows sincerely. Communication, in a sense, is an exchange of intentions. When the intention is pure and sincere, energy emerges, and the energy of two people transforms into synergy. I am a positive person by nature, I love being positive. Being positive also determines the course of communication and increases its effectiveness. My biggest fuel is being positive, positive energy. This is actually one of the fundamental rules of communication life. The effort to remain positive and to be positive…”
“Without excitement, there is no success”
Answering questions from the participants, Özdemir underlined that excitement must be managed correctly. Özdemir said, “I always get excited before every program, and I was genuinely very excited coming here. Excitement should exist. Without excitement, there is no success. The important thing is to be able to channel excitement to the right places. One needs to achieve this. You must be able to load this excitement into your voice, your body, your facial expressions, your body language, and the words you choose. If you cannot dissipate the excitement and it remains in your throat, your voice will tremble, you will not be able to express yourself, and you will tire yourself out and panic. Excitement will naturally be there, but if we channel it to the right places, excitement turns into real fuel for us.”
“I wore out 8 pencils in my mouth…”
Özdemir stated that he intensely used the pencil technique to learn to speak distinctly and found significant benefits in overcoming lip, tongue, and jaw laziness; “I wore out 8 pencils. Wearing out a pencil is not easy. You don’t wear out the pencil by writing; you do it by grinding it with your teeth. I used to specifically choose cemeteries when speaking and making sounds so that no one would see me and treat me as abnormal. There are dead people in cemeteries, the only ones who don’t make mistakes… Because they are dead. Even if I made a mistake, no one would have heard it anyway… I wore out eight pencils to be able to speak properly, to articulate clearly, and to pay attention to the correct articulation of words in the right tone. For anyone who was a child with an accent, someone who was a subject of ridicule and mockery… someone with an accent, broken Turkish, struggling to pronounce words, emphasize, and intonate correctly, these are doable things. Pencils are indeed very useful at this point. Especially in overcoming lip and tongue laziness. When speaking, we sometimes swallow letters; we cannot say the right word with the right tone and articulation. I benefited greatly from the pencil technique in learning to speak distinctly.”
“Breath is our greatest ammunition”
Speaking about the concept of voice masking, Özdemir said; “Since I started the program, I have been using my voice by masking it. Voice masking means moving the voice from the chest, throat, and head voice to the mask area. You take the voice with proper breathing and diaphragm. The chest will not expand; you already know diaphragmatic breathing, and there are exercises for it. Notice, if you observe, that with the breath you take, the abdominal region expands, not the chest region. Because breath is our greatest ammunition. We must use breath correctly, economically, and sparingly. You will pass the breath through your throat, carry the vibration in your vocal cords to the mask area, and resonate it. When you carry your voice here, it spreads over a wider volumetric area, your voice resonates more beautifully, and your vocal cords are not overburdened, allowing you to speak easily and for a long time without getting tired. The reason why many teachers experience problems like nodules on their vocal cords is actually their inability to breathe correctly using the diaphragm and overloading their vocal cords by not using breath properly. Announcers, presenters, and people who constantly work with their voices do not strain their vocal cords too much. Because they carry their voice to the mask area and perform the correct intonation there.”
“Strong communication in healthcare has a placebo effect!”
Özdemir concluded his speech by drawing attention to the importance and necessity of communication in the healthcare sector; “A significant portion of the violence incidents experienced in the healthcare sector today stem from communication mishaps. Of course, there are also systemic shortcomings, but if we set those aside, I want to emphasize this especially because you are healthcare professionals. I believe that communication in healthcare has a placebo effect. Patients are waiting for a voice, a compassionate expression to come from the lips of healthcare personnel. In healthcare, patients should not be seen merely as cases. You may have the latest technological devices, you may be working in well-equipped health complexes, but merely prescribing will not go beyond giving a chemical or medicine. I see communication in healthcare as a method of treatment. Do not deprive your patients, your clients, and those who need you of this treatment method.”