卡耐基演讲·4.利用对话，使讲演戏剧化

假设，你要举例说明，自己如何利用人际关系的原则成功地平息了一位顾客的愤怒，可能会这样开始：Suppose you want to give an illustration of how you succeeded in calming down an irate customer by using one of the rules of human relations. You could begin like this:

“前几天，有个人走进我的办公室。他非常愤怒，因为前一周我们送到他家里去的洗衣机操作不灵。我对他说，我们将竭尽所能弥补我们的失误。过了一会儿，他便平静下来了，对我们全心全意要把这件事情做好显得很满意。”这则小事件有个优点，它十分详细。可是它缺少姓名、特殊的过程以及缺少最紧要的、能使这件事活生生呈现的真实的对话。我们试一试给它添油加醋一番。The other day a man came into my office. He was pretty mad because the appliance we had sent out to his house only the week before was not working properly. I told him that we would do all we could to remedy the situation. After a while he calmed down and seemed satisfied that we had every intention to make things right. This anecdote has one virtue - it is fairly specific - but it lacks names, specific details, and, above all, the actual dialogue which would make this incident come alive. Here it is with these added qualities:

“上星期二，我办公室的门‘砰’的一声被打开。我抬起头来，看见怒气冲天的查尔斯·柏烈克珊。他是我们的一位常客。还没来得及请他坐下，他劈头就说：‘艾德，这是你最后的一件事了：你马上派辆卡车去，把那台洗衣机给我从地下室运走。’Last Tuesday, the door of my office slammed and I looked up to see the angry features of Charles Blexam, one of my regular customers. I didn't have time to ask him to take a seal. 'Ed, this is the last straw,' he said, 'you can send a truck right out and cart that wash machine out of my basement.'

“我问他怎么回事，他气急了，几乎无法清楚地回答。I asked him what was up. He was too willing to reply.

“‘它根本不管用，’他大吼，‘衣服全纠缠在一起，我老婆讨厌死它、烦死它了。’It won't work,' he shouted, 'the clothes get all tangled, and my wife's sick and tired of it. '

“我请他坐下，解释清楚些。I asked him to sit down and explain it in more detail.

“‘我才没时间坐下，我上班已经迟到了！我想我以后无论如何也不上这儿来买家庭用具了。你相信我，我再不干了。’说到这儿，他伸出手来，又是打桌子，又是敲我太太的照片。I haven't got time to sit down. I'm late for work and I wish I'd never come in here to buy an appliance in the first place. Believe me, I'll never do it a?gain.' Here he hit the desk with his hand and knocked over my wife's picture.

“‘听我说，查理，’我说，‘你坐下来把情形都告诉我，我答应替你做一切你要我做的事，好吧？’听了这话，他才坐下，我们总算能平平静静地把事情谈了个清楚。”Look, Charley,' I said,' if you will just sit down and tell me all about it, I promise to do whatever you want me to do.' With that, he sat down, and we calmly talked it over."

当然，不是次次都要把对话加进讲演里去。不过，你应该看得出，上面摘录中单引号里的对话，有很强的戏剧性。如果讲演者还能模仿一下，把原来的声调语气表现出来，对话就更见效果了。而且，对话是日常生活中的会话，会让讲演更为真实可信。它使你听起来像个有真情实意的人，是在隔着桌子说话，而不是个老学究在学富五车的学会会员面前宣读论文，或是个大讲演家向麦克风里吼。It isn't always possible to work dialogue into your talk, but you can see how the direct quotation of the conversation in the excerpt above helps to dramatize the incident for the listener. If the speaker has some imitative skill and can get the original tone of voice into the words, dialogue can become more effective. Also, dialogue gives your speech the authentic ring of everyday conversation. It makes you sound like a real person talking across a dinner table, not like a pedant delivering a paper before a learned society or an orator ranting into a microphone.