"But you were a Sweet Adeline! You sing in front of people all the time!"

[firecat88]

I hate giving speeches. Even the thought of having to give a speech turns me into a quivering jellyblob of fear and sadness and make me want to throw up. I don't know why this is. It just is. However, I love singing in front of people. The bigger the audience, the better.

Anytime I mention being terrified of giving a speech, at least one person (though it's usually between 2 and 3 people) will always say "But you love singing in front of people!", which drives me nuts. I don't know why, but I don't consider public speaking and singing in front of an audience to be the same thing. I never have. To me, they're about as similar as chocolate pudding and guacamole. So when people try to tell me that, it just...geh. I hate it.

[Ginger Tea]

Singing is reciting already established words in tune to music, giving a speach isn't the same.
Anyone who can sing can sing the same song as the next person can (give or take), but a speach is meant to have a bit of conviction behind it, you have to belive in yourself and the basis of the speach, if you only believe in one of those (hell there could be more aspects if I'm willing to bother thinking) but lack of faith in another can seriously let it all down.

Someone with strong belief in their 'stage presence' can still sound like a liar if they don't believe in the speach they are giving.
And someone who has strong convictions of the cause but speaks like a timid mouse, will no doubt gain few supporters to the cause.

Similar to how people who stutter can recite or sing without stammering as the words are already there, its the stringing together of a sentance in real time that can be/is the stumbling block.

I forget where I read or heard it, but it was once said that "stutterers are afraid of words" ???

[HYHYBT]

Well, it depends. Many people have a much more general "stage fright" response, and it's not unreasonable for those who do to think of singing and giving a speEch as being similar in that regard.

(After you've explained why they're vastly different to you, of course, they should be able to understand that and not insist you feel the same way they do.)

[Lachrymose]

Heh..reminds me of the people who used to say to me "Wow, you have a lead role in the school play? But you're so shy!"

Totally different.

ETA: Let me clarify. I left that kind of ambiguous there.

I have almost no problem acting in a role that is unlike myself. When it came to verbalizing my own thoughts in school though, I was usually terrified.

I discovered semi-recently that I actually can produce a decent speech of my own and read it pretty well, as I did for my father's eulogy a few years ago.