A Story of Overcoming a Fear

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Public Speaking (English-111)

Assignment-1

Mr. Saleheen S. Ahmed

Course Instructor

Department of English & Modern Languages

Submitted By:

A Story of Overcoming a Fear

Talking in front of people whom you don’t know always cause fear because you are not in your customary range of familiarity anymore and sometimes it leads you some scary experience. Speaking in front of people is one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. I was always afraid of speaking in front of people either it was a presentation or seminar, but I decided that public speaking was an important skill that I should learn but overcoming its dread was the main challenge. What I didn't realize was that overcoming this fear would also make me a more confident person as I am today.

I can even now recall, it was my first day at my university, in a specific course our faculty wanted us to introduce ourselves to the classmates. Some of the students introduced themselves such a presentable way that made me more apprehensive. When my turn came, I stood in front the class and realized everyone’s eyes were at me, holding up anxiously to see how I present myself yet couldn't let out the slightest peep since some unknown fear already took over me and my legs were shaking. This was my first experience where I needed to present myself, however, I couldn't do it. But I made a promise to myself in that day that I have to overcome this fear.

“The first step of overcoming a fear is to face that fear” my mom always tells me that. To over this fear of public speaking I began to converse with myself in front the mirror. When English is your second language it is always hard to express yourself properly and if you are from “Bengali” curriculum that will make things considerably harder. Some of my teachers and friends helped me a lot to improve my situation. They suggested me to watch movies, dramas, make a partner whom you can speak with in English. At the beginning it was hard but soon I started to feel confident.

Practicing consistently and confronting the fear over and over helps a person to overcome with that. I was able to identify the problems rooted in this fear with the assistance of my teachers and friends. In my second year in the university, I had to give a speech in front a class about a particular topic. By then of time I wasn’t feeling nervous like before, my legs were still shaking but not like what happened in my first presentation. I realized I was not that same individual anymore who couldn’t say a word to his classmates at the first year.