Public Speaking

Every year, we have a speech to write in English class and we present it to our school and if you win you get to go to regional, which takes place in another village on the Coast. The places on the Coast that participate in the Public Speaking project are St-Paul’s River, St-Augustine, Chevery, Harrington Harbour, Lourdes de Blanc-Sablon, Tête-à-la-Baleine and La Tabatière. I find this is a good experience to get yourself out there and to meet new people. People get to know how talented you are also.

In the public speaking project, you can win many prices. The first place prize usually is a plane ticket anywhere the plane travels. The second place prize is money $. The third place prize is also money but not as much as the second place prize. When a prize is involved, it really makes you want to work even harder.

During the regional competition, we see lots of people from the Coast and make friends or see friends you already have from the Coast. During this experience you have so much fun with the activities taking place. We all eat dinner and supper together. For dinner they mostly have something fast to eat. For supper they will make a big supper and won’t make you hurry as much to eat and you can just relax because all the speeches are all done and over with.

In terms of transportation, it was pretty interesting. That morning we had to be at the airport for six o’clock with all our baggage, especially our speeches. When we got to our destination we had to be ready to jump on skidoos to get to the school. It was a pretty cold day that day.

The topics for our speeches varied from all different kinds. Last year I saw funny ones to sad ones. There are some that are dramatic also. The ones that are dramatic and funny to my liking are the ones I liked the most because the sad ones made you want to cry. Overall, all of the speeches were really good and everyone works so hard on them every year.

When I went last year, I found it was a very good experience. I made new friends and saw some of my friends I already had. I had a great time with the people we went with and all the people that were performing. It was fun to eat and chat with so many people and it was surprising to see so many people there.

Hopefully this year will be as fun as last year’s Public Speaking. Bring on the competition! New Year, new competition.

Rebecca Strickland, Secondary 2, English Class, École Mgr Scheffer