| Voice |
April 30, 2020
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| It was a new idea that he had never heard of. On this day, he was reading a newspaper. In the paper, there was an article that introduced a new service on the web which offered some points of view from various athlete. There were 16 athletes on the list, and listeners could access the site by getting an app for smartphones, etc. The site was run by a company that was founded by a famous soccer player. He said in the article that he would like to give listeners messages from top athletes from various fields. He believed that their speeches would offer a new perspective to listeners, while being real voices that would be casual in tone, but, at the same time, deep. The company was thinking to include guest speakers from other genres, like musicians, business owners, etc. He thought it was a good idea. He thought about the features of radio personalities' talk shows. On radio programs, speakers were alone, maybe sometimes with two people or more, but usually always a small number. The recording room itself is quiet,  avoiding all outside noises. So speakers can concentrate on talking itself. So their talk tends to be personal, and sometimes frank, open, and straight. It's very different from a TV show. He recently watched a TV show in which one guy revealed that he couldn't relax in face to face situations, but could relax only when he used his "avatar" on the web, although his voice was the same. He said humans care too much about their own appearance, so they can't relax. As the app was free for a month, he tried downloading it. There were 16 athletes on the list with their photos and the length of their speeches. Their sports ranged from soccer, rugby, baseball, basketball, tennis, badminton, swimming to boxing, marathon, bouldering, and ski jumping. They were given the same theme, this time "To children in this country". He clicked one of the icons as a try, it was a male golfer who was one of the most popular golfers in the country. The golfer thanked the soccer player who founded the project for inviting him as one of the first speakers. He said that he was excited about the great possibilities for the project. He also said that he was hoping to speak about golf, as he loves playing golf, but maybe he didn't have much confidence that such a talk would have any meaning for the listeners. He was concerned that he might become self-satisfied in the speeches. He hoped that children would try anything new in this current coronavirus situation, where people were forced to stay home. Usually people were busy in their usual lives, so they don't tend to do any new things even though very small things. So this might be a good chance to start new things. This speech was about 10 minutes long. Some other talkers also spoke about the current emergency, and all spoke about being positive. One Major League pitcher mentioned that when he was in a yearlong rehabilitation after surgery, he was happy. However, many of his other friends who suffered from the same situation, all complained of their misfortune. He recommended thinking positively because pessimism wouldn't improve anything. Some other athletes said that not giving up is very important. By continually doing something, the results of the activities would make up for time lost. Even if you couldn't win, you could find a new self. The length of the messages varied from only one minute, just greetings and a short suggestion, to 15 minutes, a rather elaborate speech. Maybe some of the speakers might not know how to successfully speak on a pod cast. But even so, he felt the potential for such a project, as the golfer mentioned. The speakers were not professional speakers, but they had something normal people don't have, or they have some methods in order to change normal people into specialists. The article also stated that video posting sites like YouTube are in full business, there were so many of those. However, in this situation, specializing in listening would give listeners a new approach. Unfortunately, the cost of this site seemed to be rather expensive, about 10 dollars for a month. The first theme was "To children in this country" didn't seem to match the people who would subscribe. Even for him, he wasn't sure if he would continue the subscription past the free trial term. But even so, he wanted to check out this site. As the golfer mentioned during his speech that he was not good at writing, and writing what he wanted to share is sometimes difficult, because postings can be too plain or too modest. But, in such a podcast, being able to articulate one's ideas with their own voice can transmit their real feelings to others. As the founder of the site predicted, it could have a huge potential. And, of course, their saying are persuasive because they are first rate athletes. |
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*care :気にする
*self-satisfied :自己満足
*pessimism :悲観主義
*make up for :償う、帳消しにする
*elaborate :凝った
*specialize :特化する
*subscribe :定期購入する
*articulate :明解な
*transmit :伝達する
*persuasive :説得力のある