Public Speaking Doom

Dear Mercat Tours,

Thankyou so very very much for what you have done to my life. Believe me I enjoyed almost every minute of my time guiding tourists through the dark narrow and winding streets of Edinburgh, and being effectively paid for raising my eyebrows at people - well, I still don't quite know how to thank you. There are times when the ability to tell stories comes in very useful (elephant houses in India), and a good ghost story never goes amiss, and I was genuinely sorry to miss another Mercat Halloween.

However, at the same time, do you realise what exactly you did to me?

It is no longer possible for me NOT to public speak. Present me with an audience of willing victims, a degree of silence, and lo and behold, my mouth opens, and words start to come out. Sometimes, they don't make much sense, but they will be accompanied by the occasional smile, inflection, eyebrow raises and the odd sinister roll of the eyes (old habits die hard). Even, as it turns out, when speaking Chinese.

As a result, I am now signed up to compete in some ' university speech competition', and am required to memorize much Chinese, to deliver to my entire school, and some Chinese people, who can actually speak Chinese, and therefore will understand how poor my Chinese pronounciation is, whilst wearing formal dress at 8 am on a Friday morning. This is despite the presence of people in my class who speak MUCH better Chinese, with MUCH better grammar and pronounciation, but without looking anyone in the eye.

So thankyou, Mercat. Thankyou. But for once, it would have been really nice to mumble incoherently, and have been allowed to retreat gracefully. Alas, it was not to be.

Yours sincerely

Hannah

PS I merely take comfort in knowing I am not the only one who will go through this ordeal. Two students from each class have been selected, including several other Edinburgh ones...