Live The Moments Of Truth
TMD Sharon Siow began the round of introduction by
inviting everyone to share one good thing that they want their loved ones or
themselves to do. Ching wished for his son to to get married, Vince wanted his
wife to lighten-up on shopping, John wished for one more day in a week, Daryl
wished for his loved ones to win a million dollar lottery, Shahnawaz wished for
hugs instead of texts from his daughters and Zahira wanted to garner more courage
to do her future projects.
In his opening address, Ching introduced audience to a
DOSE approach and encourage members to enjoy their toastmasters journey by
staying the course to maximize the learning experience:
D – Doing their project speeches and other assignments
regularly
O – Observing other seasoned toastmasters performing
various roles and learning from them
S - Sharing your
experience with other toastmasters because when you share you gain more.
E – Enjoy every moment of the toastmasters experience
John Tan in his LE role introduced two words which are
often mis-used:
1. Adapt (verb
– used with object) - To adjust oneself to different conditions,
environment etc. To adapt easily to all types of circumstances.
2. Adept (adjective/noun)
A – very skilled, proficient, expert
N – a skilled or a proficient person, expert, having a
natural ability to do something that require skills. She is a shrewd consensus builder, adept at
winning local support.
ADEPT was the word of the day.
Prepared
Speeches
Shahnawaz in his ‘off the cuff’ advance manual specialty
speech compared life with ultra endurance race and shared 3 lessons of
life: 1. Connecting long term aspirations
with short term success, 2. Continue to make honest self-assessment of ones
skills and 3. Aim to improve 1% every day by joining toastmasters.
Lee Zheng Xiang in his P2 speech ‘Embracing the Differences’
- started by showing us a paper bag which to everyone's surprise contained a
high heel female shoe….he mentioned that his wife has 20 such pair of shoes. He then went on and draw interesting parallels
of men and women brains and how each processes the information – Men stores
information in compartmentalized square boxes hence takes long pauses while
transitioning from one topic to other while, women store and process
information in a super highway format hence smooth, non-stop and relentless
transitions from one subject to other.
Men needs space, women needs love but despite their differences men and
women are living together harmoniously with the help of this wonderful word of
‘compromise’. I think that’s why Vince
is also putting up with 20 + pairs of shoes.
Xinni in her P3 speech ‘Do not get impulsive over McToy’
started by putting up a question on ‘who in audience queued up for Mctoy and
Hello Kitty toys?’ – almost everybody said yes. She talked about people’s silly
interest in owning a hello kitty with no mouth or Despicable Me’s McToy with
one eye. Then she went ahead and
beautifully linked these wants with Maslows’s five hierarchy of needs from most
basic (physiological) to the most pressing needs (self actualization). She
mentioned that most people do such stuff to satisfy their self esteem needs by
showing off to their friends and families their prized purchases and
possessions. Most people feel that these impulse buying sprees give them sense
of recognition, emotional control and internal happiness. Xinni urged audience to become smart consumers
and start saving instead of impulse shopping and become happier person….WASTE
NOT - WANTS NOT
Rajesh Khanna in his P5 speech, ‘Gain massive
advantages from any workshop’ encouraged
audience to follow his six points strategy to maximize the benefits from any
workshop. 1. Give level 10 attention by
being mentally present, 2. Don’t be a spectator, be a player – participate to
reap the full benefit. 3. Don’t confuse beginning with ending and attend
generally with a mind that you are here to gain new knowledge/ideas to work on
your problems. 4. Don’t just be photocopies be a photographer – be an active
listener. 5. Use air filter action and
pick up key actions, ideas and resources from the workshop to refer at an appropriate time. 6. Put your learning into action and do it
for 21 days to make it part of your routine.
Aswin in his P5 speech, ‘My favorite City’ talked
about New York (NY). He mesmerized the audience
by portraying a very fuzzy, fun and friendly image of NY despite of being a
jungle of concrete and steel. His vivid portrayals of NY skylines, larger than
life billboards and use of phrases like ‘Aswin was in wonderland’ captured our
imagination and ignited a desire in us to visit the Big Apple … ‘A City with a
Soul’ as Aswin calls it.
RaviKumar in his P6 speech titled ‘Bella’ told us a lovely
story of a beautiful girl named Bella whose father remarried after her mother
died bringing home a selfish stepmother
and her two pampered daughters. They
were very harsh with Bella and made her do all the housework. One day Bella got the opportunity to attend
Prince’s Party with the help of fairy grandmother who transformed her into a
princess for a night with a magic. The
magic ended at 12:00PM and Bella had to leave the party in a rush and while
doing so left her shoe. Prince used that shoe to tack down Bella and one day
reached her home where despite of Bella being in maid’s clothes he insisted on
her trying the shoe, which was a perfect fit. He then brought her back to
castle and made her his queen and they lived happily ever after.
1st evaluator Ching was impressed by Rajesh’s stage presence and
maturity. He noted Rajesh’s purposeful movements, eye contact and body gestures,
which was effectively used by Rajesh to accentuate key points of his speech. He
encouraged Rajesh to use 3 -4 points
instead of 6 point as it is difficult to follow so many points in a seven minute
speech for audience.
2nd Evaluator Anthony Leung evaluated
Shahnawaz and Xinni:
Shahnawaz -
Anthony liked the thought process and structured approach used by the
speaker especially the comparison of life with an ultra endurance race. He commented on the purposeful way Shahnawaz
linked the speech to his Toastmasters journey
Xinni speech
brought back old memories for Anthony where his wife made him queue up for
hello kitty toy and how he hated it. He
loved Xinni’s topic selection, which resonated well with everybody. He encouraged Xinni to manage her time better
by practicing more to ensue that she finishes her future speeches within the
stipulated time.
3rd Evaluator Daryl Tan commented on Vince’s effective use of prop to invoke and
grasp audience’s attention. He loved the analogies used by Vince to describe
men’s and women’s mind as square boxes and super highways. He recommended Vince to use the full speech
allocated time of the speech (finished in 5:30 sec vs. 7 mins allowed) to beef
up his conclusion by reinforcing it with some more examples of how men and
women can live more harmoniously despite such stark differences.
4th Evaluator Shahnawaz loved Ravi’s vivid
picturization of New York and commented on the short and punchy words he used
to portray a warm and fuzzy picture of NY.
As a recommendation for improvement Shahnawaz gave GPC acronyms to Ravi,
G – Ground firmly
while speaking and avoid unnecessary swaying as it might distract audience, P- Practice and Rehearse more to make the
speech delivery look natural, C – Beef up Conclusion
by giving some additional pointers on when is the best time to visit, affordable travel options etc.
5th John evaluated Ravi on his P6 ‘Your
body speaks’. He loved Ravi’s powerful voice and how he used it to convey his
message. He suggested Ravi to leverage on his voice and could play the voice of
Bella, the protagonist of the story or king to inject more fun and life in his
speech. He also recommended Ravi to
deliver his speeches within time by practicing more.
Language Evaluation
John Tan started his evaluation by commending on the language
gems (a tagline first coined by DTM Richard Sng) used by the speakers. He sighted few examples… Ching’s use of four-letter word DOSE to convey short
and impactful message. Use of the
contrast words ‘compelling’ and
‘draining’, comparing life with the ultra endurance race, use of adjectives
gusto and gumption. ‘Strike fear
in some people and ignite fire in
others’. Comparing Men’s and women’s brains as square boxes and highways.
Comparing camera vs. photocopier to paint a picture on being selective….I came,
I saw and was conquered….Aswin in wonderland…captivating and mesmerising.
John highlighted few language germs (a tagline first coined by DTM Richard Sng) or the pronunciation
errors and encouraged speakers to take note. Level ten vs. level term, today I
brought paper bag along…along redundant….stored vs. stocked….we have finished
prepared speeches…finished overuse word replace with concluded or
completed…people get impulsive buyings…could be improved - ‘ people at times
display impulsive buying behavior’
Best Speaker – Zheng Xiang
Best Evaluator – John Tan
Regards,
Shahnawaz Lalani
Vice President Education
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