英语演讲稿——Get Along with Fear

　　Hi. My name is Zhang Meng. I’m an engineer at Keysight. Today I’m not going to introduce my birthplace, childhood, or education background in detail. Because like most ordinary people, there is nothing interesting.

　　Today I want to tell you a story. To be frank, it’s not easy for me to stand here. It means that I have to stand by my fear. I still remember the first time I did public speaking. It was about three years ago, when I was a college student. I was selected to participate in the English speaking contest of my university, in represent of my class. If I do, I do my best. So I started to prepare the draft. Rewrote it again, again and again, until I felt perfect. Then I memorized all the words, presented to my friends and got feedbacks from them. Everything went well. I even believed that the speech would be a total success. But when I stood on the stage at the very moment, I saw hundreds of people sitting in front of me. I started getting nervous. I was so nervous that my hands got wet, and my head was blank. I could still express my points that time, thanks to my adequate preparation. But if any audience noticed the paper hold in my hands, he would find that I was shaking. It’s just like you are in a dangerous desert with so many fierce animals starring at you, but unfortunately, there is no place you can hide. I was embarrassed to death. Although I finally won the second prize, it became a horrible memory in my life.

　　Since this experience scared me so much, I refused to do any public speaking even though I was once selected to participate the English speaking contest for Beijing college students, in represent of my university. That was a very good opportunity. But I refused, because of my fear. I lose so many chances to overcome my fear, and finally it became an obstacle for me. Then one day, I realized that I had to face it without any other choice. I bought many books to find a solution. Such as do a deep breath, or imagine all the audience to be potatoes. I believed there must be a solution to depress my fear. However, no matter how hard I tried, fear was still here. I spent three years to fight with my so called weakness. It turned out that the more I want to control it, the more I got nervous. In fact, you cannot handle fear because it’s human nature. Fear is common, even the best speakers get troubled with it. It’s not a totally bad thing. It can protect us from danger, even though sometimes there is no danger at all. But the good news is even if we are nervous, we can still do a good speech, just like my first public speaking. The only way is to prepare more and practice more. Pay more attention to the points that you want to express, instead of the fear itself. No one care about your funny accent or small mistakes. What really matter are the ideas you are delivering. That’s also why people want to stand on the stage, and share their stories so generously.

　　Several months ago, after knowing my concern about public speaking, my boss gave me a suggestion. Just have a try and focus on the things you can control. So I come to Toastmaster. Learn to get along well with my fear. Speech is powerful. I admire people on the stage, who can confidently share their ideas, and inspire others. They are so shining. I want to be one of them. But if I refuse to take any step, this would always be dream. I believe it’s time for me to take the first step.