<Writing and Speaking>

<Writing and Speaking>

By Rachel Kim

In our lives, there are hardships that we have to face. This is why you need to learn how to stand up for yourself. You can’t just let your parents take care of everything now. You have to grow up.

Think of the word “Speak”. What do you think of? Writing? Essays? Speeches? Debates? Well, those are all right. Speaking might be fun, or scary to you. For me, it is fun. Speeches. Many students don’t like giving speeches and writing stuff, but not me. I like writing. I especially like writing speeches. For example, in 4th grade, I even represented my class to go to the Speech competition! It was scary then. I was the first one to give the speech, and there were 3 teachers and 8 students looking at me. Many people would feel the same way as me. They would say “I hate speeches. It’s so hard! You have to check posture, gestures, content, voice, eye contact, and so more!” And that, that isn’t wrong.

Speeches are there to say, to speak. Speeches aren’t about grades. It’s about your thoughts and ideas about the topic. So, I recommend to my friends to take this advice. “Don’t be afraid of speaking. Once you get used to speaking, it will be much easier. Like I am with it.” Not speeches, but once you are enjoying writing stuff, you will write 800~1000 word essays, too.

When I started 3rd grade, I wrote really short speeches, but from whenI was starting 4th grade and until now, I am more fluent, more happy with writing more. It will be easier than the past. Because you learned more. My friends REALLY often say this “How come your debate part has so much information?”, or “Hey Rachel, that’s too long. It will be hard to memorize”. But I do not think it is too long. Why? Because once you start writing something, it becomes easier. Maybe not true for you. Even though I’d like to say, my friends are right. It is hard to memorize long speeches.

Let’s suppose that you like the book “Wonder”. If you are asked to write a book report about “Wonder”, you will write more than getting to write an essay about World War 2. You would be able to write about the “Wonder” book report first. Why? Because it’s a topic that you know better. Better than World War 2. As I said before, speaking is not about how much information you get from Google. It is NOT about who has the most evidence. Okay, that might be right for debate. But, writing and speaking is not that. You have to learn how to express your feelings. That’s why we don’t do the team debate. Maybe we have to go step by step. Like there is a process of growing, there is a process of learning.