Reflection on Pecha Kucha

It feels like Pecha Kucha was ages ago, but in reality it was just before Christmas. We were working on many projects this semester and had to write a lot of homework. Since we are getting close to the end of the winter semester, it is time to look back at what we have done. One of our biggest projects was the Pecha Kucha project. Pecha Kucha what? Pecha Kucha is a presentation style in which 20 slides are shown for 20 seconds each (six minutes and 40 seconds in total).

When Frank told us to research it for homework I had no idea what it was. I read through some blog posts and articles, but did not give it much thought until Frank told us that we will have to do a presentation like this ourselves! I thought he was joking. I do not know what to tell you. Usually I cannot wait to do a presentation, but that was not the case with Pecha Kucha. First, we got a partner for our project. Mine was Katharina and we got along well. Then, we were supposed to choose a topic. The topics were actually really interesting. Mine was the Maltese language. I loved my topic. When I was on Malta in 2011 I thought I would understand what they are talking because I assumed that the language is similar to Italian, which I speak a little. The truth is, I did not understand a single word because it is nothing like spoken Italian. When I was given the chance to do research on Maltese I was really excited. I learned that Maltese is the only Semitic language written with Latin letters. While preserving its Arabic roots, it the course of its history, Maltese pronunciation and words has been subject to strong influence from Italian and, more recently, English. Maltese, as well as English are the official languages in Malta.

My peers had also good topics for their presentations. Laura and Andrina talked about the Slovenian, and Harald and Orsy about the Hungarian language in Austria. Another cool topic was bilingual schools in Austria. If I would have to judge Pecha Kucha on the topics I listened to, I would say that it was an awesome project and that I would love to do it again, but that is not the case. Honesty is the best policy, right? I hated Pecha Kucha. I hated the way I had to present my topic. I think that every single topic we had to do was fun and that we could have learned so much from the presentation, but it was not like that. In my opinion, the whole learning process got lost in the nervousness of presenting. I know how I felt, at least. I was really under stress because of it. It is not easy to have to present one slide in exactly 20 seconds. When practicing I was either too slow or too fast, or I could not remember my lines. I was also nervous because I did not know whether our videos are going to work or not. On presentation day, at least I think so; I and my partner lost it. She was too slow and talked into my slide, and then I had to be super-fast to catch up and stay within the 20 seconds. Whenever I would catch up she would again be too slow. On one slide I could not remember my lines so I had to leave out a sentence or two. I could not wait for the presentation to be over, honestly.

I never ever want to do a Pecha Kucha presentation again. It was no fun to me, on the contrary my heart started racing, my hands started sweating and a total chaos was in my head. I really love doing presentations; it is one of my favorite parts of class. For instance the last year’s Culture Project was one of my highlights from my first year in university. I really enjoyed doing that presentation. Everyone was so relaxed and looking forward to presenting something they have been working on for weeks. Though we had a limited time there as well, the pressure was not that big. If I would ever get the chance to do either Pecha Kucha or Culture Project again, my answer would be the latter. Maybe my peers liked my Maltese presentation, maybe they did not, I do not know since we did not get any feedback. What I do know, however, is that I am not satisfied with the way I presented it. I hope you guys are satisfied with how you presented your presentation and that you had more fun doing it.

XOXO A.

"Life begins at the end of your comfort zone" :)