I'm not a very good public speaker unless I have something to read from. I love writing speeches and actually saying them too, but ask me to be spontaneous and speak publicly, I will stutter, get flustered and insert "Uh...", "Ummm..." and/or "Errr..." after every other word. Maybe I should take a public speaking class.
I'm not a very good improviser either when it comes to speaking to large groups of people or to small groups of important people. If I know I'm going to be speaking to a group at work, say during a conference call or at a board meeting, I have to make sure I've got notes, that I've practised talking (at least in my head) and make sure I at least sound coherent. But if I were to be asked a question where I'm not sure I have the answer, you might as well put a dunce cap on my head and shoo me away. I think maybe I have issues with authority and I prefer to only speak if spoken to. Funny though, I was never taught specifically to be that way when I was growing up.
I'm also not very skilled at speaking properly when I'm excited. I just get loud and talk quickly. Mr.S often reminds me that I should be using my inside voice. It's like I'm 5 at Chuck E. Cheese. I think I know how quickly my train of thought travels (so quickly it flies away away into space, like my sisters sometimes say), so I try to speak faster than it and the words don't necessarily come out in the correct order, or the choice of words is like I used a thesaurus and chose a word that doesn't actually make sense.
Maybe this is all in my head. I hate listening to myself talk when in replay, but maybe I need to listen to myself to find out if all this is true, if I do sound as silly as I think.
