1-Personally, I don’t suffer from this fear as much as I used to because I would always practice the speeches on my own until I felt I was confident enough to not mess up. However, you learn to adapt that not everyone speaks as perfect and it’s okay to be nervous and scared. Learning to appreciate what you have is a big thing and creating techniques that’ll help you get through would work as well. For example, music helps me feel relaxed so usually before work or any speech I know I have that following day I would listen to music. For some people, this may work for you as well but everyone adapts and have their own way of coping with their feelings.

2-Public speaking has been a huge fear for me and I usually dealt with it by focusing on what I had to say and articulating it in my mind instead of focusing on my surroundings. I also kept a water bottle with me which allows me to take a short break if I feel too overwhelmed and to collect my thoughts. Overall, what helped the most was probably practicing beforehand so that I knew what I had to say and did not stumble on my words much. In spite of this, I would often say something wrong. I have a feeling that this fear may have exacerbated over the pandemic as the last 2 years have presented very few opportunities for public interaction or speaking in front of crowds and groups. Overall, I don’t think using notes and aids tooo much gives a favorable impression, especially for people who are reading off them. It creates the impression that they may not know the material themselves. Thus, if aids/notes are being used they should be used professionally and sparingly.

3-To be frank, I have stage fright. When I was in high school back home in the Philippines, our teachers assigned each of us a topic to discuss in class. They also require you to provide visual aids while doing the presentation or what we call it back home “reporting”. No matter how prepared I am and how much I studied the topic that was assigned to me, I still get totally anxious in front of my classmates. I think I overcame it when I was got to College back home. We were asked to do a group presentation and I was not as nervous as when I was in high school. Our presentation was pretty great and I found it fun. I tried to engage with the audience more compared to when I was in high school. If I were to come back to that time and give my younger self an advice I would tell her not to worry too much especially when you are prepared with what you are going to present and practicing does not hurt, so practice as much as you think you’re getting better.

50 word each please