Are you comfortable in front of people, or
does the idea of public speaking make you want to hide in the bathroom? Why?
I’m really
okay with public speaking. I kind of had to become okay with it at 22 when I
was put in front of a group of 18-19 year old Marshallese students for the
purpose of teaching them to read, write, and speak English. I may have told you
this story already, but I ran out of the room crying that first day because
when I called roll, no one would answer me.
I soon found out from the Dean that they were answering me, but with the
use of their native body language. A quick raise of the eyebrows in the
Marshallese culture is a way to say yes or acknowledge that someone is speaking
to you. So, in actuality, all the students were “speaking”
to me. I just didn’t know it. After
that, I headed back in and started over with a slightly startled group of young
men and women who felt bad that their new teacher had been crying, and the rest
is history. J
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