Classes, woo hoo. My new Effective Speech teacher made a good point today, although a few of his illustrations committed logical falacies. We spend a good chunk of our time in the educational system learning how to write things like essays and letters, but how many times a day are we required to do that in real life? Contrast that with speaking, which happens for some of us almost constantly. How many classes on proper speech have you taken in high school? College? Your manner of speech is extraordinarily important in making an impression on other people, right up there with what kind of shoes you're wearing. To paraphrase Professor Higgins, it absolutely classifies you. We should all be more aware of what sort of image our speech is projecting. Judging by the way most people on the bus talk, they've never considered the idea that the hideous sounds barking out of their noise tubes might be unpleasant to others.