Speech

The first time I went to Japan, I was an exchange student in college living with a host family. During my second month there, my host brother got married and I had the opportunity to attend his wedding. My host family thought it would be a good idea if I gave a speech at the reception. I didn´t think this was such a good idea. I am shy and hate talking in front of people, and my Japanese wasn´t very good. Hoping they would forget about this and it would all go away, I put it off till the last minute.

Unfortunately, my host family didn´t forget and so, in the car on the way to the wedding, I hastily write out a speech in English and my host sister translated it into Japanese for me. Before I knew it, it was the reception and many guests were giving these long-winded, flowery speeches about the bride and/or groom. Then I was announced. I got up in the spotlight in front of several hundred guests and stumbled through my barely rehearsed speech. It was a short speech compared to the others-barely five minutes-but it was one of the longest five minutes of my life!