Preply survey on UK attitudes toward and fears about public speaking

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a post at the Preply blog from the Preply Language Learning Team on April 3, 2025 titled Speak with confidence: Tackling the UK’s public speaking phobia. But it doesn’t really talk about phobia. Instead  there are results from a survey of 2,007 adults regarding their attitudes.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One bar chart (shown above) has answers for six questions about how they felt about public speaking. 21% both said “it’s fine – I will do it but don’t actively go after opportunities and “I hate it and I avoid any occasion that I have to do it. And 20% said “I don’t like it but will do it if I have to.”   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A second bar chart (shown above) has the top ten settings which caused the most anxiety. A job Interview was first at 32%, followed by Presenting in Public at 25%, and a tie between Speeches and Work Presentations at 22%. Then came Performing in Front of Others at 21% and Talking to Authority Figures at 14%. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A third bar chart (shown above) has the top ten fears while public speaking. Forgetting words was first at 36%. Then at 33% was a tie between Freezing Up and Looking foolish. Fear of Being Judged was third at 32%.

 

The cartoon of a confident female speaker came from Wikimedia Commons.

 

Cory Booker delivered the longest speech in the history of the United States Senate

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cory Booker is a Democrat and the senior senator from the state of New Jersey. Starting at 7:00 PM on on March 31, 2025 he delivered the longest speech in the history of the Senate – lasting for twenty-five hours and five minutes. There is a Wikipedia page titled Cory Booker’s marathon speech. He protested Donald Trump’s second term as president.

 

There is an article about it by Robin Camarote at Inc. on April 2, 2025 titled Cory Booker and the Art of Authentic Communication. A second article by Suzanne Lucas, also at Inc. on April 2, 2025 is titled Leadership lessons from Cory Booker’s filibuster: Focus on the message, not the spotlight. And there is a third article by Stephen Khan at The Conversation on April 4, 2025 titled The hidden power of marathon Senate speeches: What history tells us about Cory Booker’s 25-hour oration.

 

The portrait of Senator Booker is from Wikimedia Commons.

 

Remembering skeptical investigator Joe Nickell

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have long enjoyed reading articles and books by Joe Nickell, particularly his Investigative Files columns in Skeptical Inquirer magazine. There is an article by Blake Smith at The Skeptic on March 10, 2025 titled Joe Nickell, legendary skeptical investigator, dies at the age of 80. A second article by Jonathan Jarry at the McGill Office for Science and Society on March 14, 2025 is titled Remembering Joe Nickell, Skeptical Icon. A longer third article by Benjamin Radford at the Center for Inquiry on March 12, 2025 is titled The Joe I Know. There is a good magazine article about him by Burkhard Bilger in The New Yorker for December 23 and 30, 2002 titled Waiting for Ghosts. Joe wrote about thirty books and hundreds of magazine articles.

 

Among other things, he is known for his work on the holy Shroud of Turin, and having produced a no-so-holy Shroud of Bing Crosby. If you are looking for a skeptical take on several topics for a speech, then look up his 2011 book titled Tracking the Man-Beasts: sasquatch, vampires, zombies and more.   

 

A 2018 portrait  came from Wikimedia Commons.

 

Add a hundred or more gestures to your vocabulary with baby sign language

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is an article in the April 2023 issue of Toastmaster magazine titled Back to the BASICS that has a section on pages 16 and 17 titled 10 Strategies to Boost Your Gestures and Body Language. Under gestures it says five things:

 

1]  Train yourself to gesture more.

2]  Learn from the pros.

3]  Create a gesture for each main point.

4]  Observe yourself in action.

5]  Have a dress rehearsal.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But it doesn’t say where to get those gestures. One good source is American Sign Language (ASL). The alphabet is shown above, and in a video. There is a comprehensive 600-page book from August 2021 (editor in chief Clayton Valli) titled The Gallaudet Dictionary of American Sign Language with 3000 entries. And there is a third edition of another shorter book from 2014 by Lottie L. Riekehof titled The Joy of Signing: A dictionary of American signs.      

 

Where can you find a more compact set of ASL gestures to learn? At Open Lines on November 14, 2022 there is a blog post titled Sign Language: How to Teach Your Baby to Communicate describing eleven signs. 

 

And there are books about teaching sign language to babies. My local Lake Hazel branch of the Ada Community Library has a 2018 book by Lane Rebelo titled Baby Sign Language Made Easy and subtitled 101 Signs to start communicating with your child now. Another 2021 book by Diane Ryan is titled Baby Sign Language: More than 150 signs baby can use and understand (easy peasy). There is a preview at Google Books that on page 67 discusses signs for eat and drink:

 

“EAT: Your hand moves back and forth – toward and away – from your mouth as if eating.

DRINK: Pretend you’re holding a glass and taking a sip.”

 

There is a Signing Time Dictionary web site with 400 entries (including brief videos) for both eat and drink.  

 

Images for the first and final gesture for drink, and the ASL alphabet are from Wikimedia Commons.