As part of our homework, I chose to watch John Green, “Understanding the Refugee Crisis in Europe, Syria, and around the World” from group A and Isla Rowntree, “Teach your Kid How to Ride a Bike” from group B. Regarding the first video, it lasted for about 7-8 minutes and I was enjoying every single second of it. John Green really knows how to keep the audience focus and interested to hear more about what he has to say. He uses some of the linguistic components of Youtube voice mentioned by Julie Beck, in the her article “The Linguistics of Youtube Voice”. The way he stretched out the vowels, long vowels, when talking about the percentage of refugees who fled Syria and the difference between a “migrant” and a “refugee” was clearly evident. He also used the technique of aspiration and used his hands when he described the situation of the Syrian kid who died and was covered in blood on the beach in Turkey. I honestly think that these techniques made his video appear more intriguing to all the people watching it and I think that public speakers in general should consider using these techniques as it grabs the audience’s attention in a very indirect way. Whilst, regarding the other video from group B, I noticed how Isla also used most of the linguistic components of Youtube voice mentioned by Beck. She moved a lot and demonstrated some of the practices that kids should do in order to ride a bike by themselves. Acting the practices out in the open causes the person who is watching feel more engaged and so more interested to learn more about it. Isla also changed her tone of voice during the video and also stressed on some of the vowels to make her words come out in the way that she wanted them to. I personally believe that if public speakers in general were to follow such techniques, the chance of them becoming famous and successful is great.
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