Public speaking is one of the most important and at the same time stressing forms of communication. At school, we are taught about content and context, but we don’t really get the opportunity to practice speaking and presentation. While what we say is important, the way we say it is important too. However, having to make a speech in front of people that you know, or you may not know needs courage and confidence and we will all come to a situation where we will need to do it as some point in our life. So, we need to work it regularly and spend time in developing a certain level of comfort with it and it goes without saying that acting classes emphasize heavily this skill set; students will practice their emotional range by experimenting with their pitch, projection, cadence, and dramatics.

Why is public speaking important?

1. Inform/ Get informed. Through everyday interactions, you can get information about various topics that may interest you. That may involve information about a test at school, or how to use/do something, etc. But you can also inform others about something that matters and use your public skills in order to make them listen an understand what you want to say.
2. Persuade Others. This can be a discussion between your friends on deciding where to go for lunch, it can be a debate between your parents on accepting something that you want to get, it can be a suggestion at work that you want to implement.
3. Entertainment. When you want to say a joke that you just learned, or you want to wish your friend best of luck in their new beginnings over a dinner outing or you just want to share a funny incident that happened at school to your family members.
4. Win Over Your Crowd. No matter who you have in front of you, you need to use your public speaking skills and your experience in order to make sure that you catch the attention of your audience and you keep them interested throughout your speech.
5. Motivate Others. Using your public speaking skills, you can motivate others to make the change, either by changing the way they do something or try something new.

What are the benefits of Public Speaking in your life/career?

1. Boost Confidence: Public speaking repeatedly is a great boost of self-confidence. Every time you speak, you gain a bit more confidence as you see your ideas and you were well-received by your audience.
2. Customer/Sales Sector: If you want to work in a shop/restaurant, you will need to speak with customers in order to inform them of your products, make suggestions and make more sales by using your public speaking skills.
3. Career advancement: If you are looking at getting a new job, you will need to sell yourself well at an interview using your public speaking skills and also convince your manager that you deserve a promotion.
4. Become a leader: if you are in a managerial/team leading position, you will need to manage your team members in a way that they will trust you and they will come to you so if you show confidence through your good public speaking skills, you will manage to have them collaborate better with you.
5. Make New Social Connections: being confident in public speaking will help you interact more easily with people around you and make connections. You will find people that will become friends or supporters because they will see that you share the same values and beliefs.