Toastmasters & Etc.

Listening * Thinking * Public Speaking * Self Improvement

8

Aug

Lecterns vs. Podiums, Jerks vs. Snobs

Posted by John Spaith  Published in Toastmasters Gone Wild

I wrote about lecterns and podiums and confused the terms quite a bit to save some words. For the record - a lectern is placed on a table or on top of some other base. A podium, on the other hand, is free standing. The word comes from ‘pod’, which is the Greek foot, because it stands on its own.

 

Most Toastmaster clubs have at least one snob who gets excited whenever someone confuses the terms. It is important to get it right so you don’t appear to be part of the unwashed masses, as the thinking goes.

 

The fellow who does this at my club (it’s not me) is nice about it, but I’ve seen downright crabby behavior at other clubs. Once a guy shouted the correction right in the middle of an already nervous speaker’s presentation, thinking himself funny and doing a favor. The guy who was interrupted was neither amused nor helped.

 

More important than getting lectern/podium wording right is not being a jerk. Most of the audience doesn’t know or care about the lectern/podium difference, but they do know and care when they see rudeness. If you see someone calling out the difference and being a jerk about it (I’m sure you are not the jerk), tell them to knock it off. Do this in private – they deserve respect even if they weren’t showing it themselves. The good natured snob who graciously points out the difference, like the guy in my club, is doing some service and should be left alone - though not encouraged!

 

I’m not the only person who has noticed this - this fellow here writes along the same line, over 7 years ago it seems and down in California.

4 Responses

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Michael Donlan says,
in 8-12-2007 @ 15:29:04    

I hear you. There are definitely better ways of handling that very understandable mistake than by embarrassing people.

Jeff Bailey says,
in 9-24-2007 @ 16:37:26    

This one always tickles me. It is amazing how often “some of us” get carried away over the most unimportant details. This exact thing happened at my club once; the person pointing it out was nice. But still, I wonder if it is not another way of saying, “Hey, look at me, I am smarter than you!”

Barbara Kryvko says,
in 12-16-2007 @ 10:43:05    

I can sooooo agree with this!

I was at an area evaluation contest last year, where the patter speaker leaned his elbows on the lectern. Of course, all of the evaluation contestants mentioned it. Three of the contestants referred to it as a “podium.” When they did this, there was a definitive hiss from about three people in the audience, “LECTERN!” I agree with Jeff in that it’s saying, “Hey, look at me, I am smarter than you!” It also says, ““Hey, look at me, I am more rude than you will ever be!”

TIDISTRICT44 says,
in 12-18-2007 @ 15:48:00    

Thanks for the clarification (Lecturn vs. Podium.) - Now I should be more accurate when I (admittedly) confuse the two.

The one verbal-clutch that my club repeatedly points out is the habit we use when describing “our desire to” vs. actually doing it.
“I want to tell / I would like to (x)” is a repeated verbal crutch that we use in place of the “Ah.” Such was mentioned at a previous club meeting that we normally reply “Go right ahead!” when we hear this filler-phrase.
Seeing the three fingers pointing back at me when I point, I admit my mentioning this practised grammatical faux pas as it has become such a tradition in my club to mention this “reflex.”
From where had this common filler-phrase begun?

I do know the origin of the term “O.K.”
I want to tell everyone this. - O.K?
~Charles