yet another 1st of March

The audience was small today. Jee Aik, the SAA, asked the crowd to introduce themselves and also asked them that if they could meet the prime minister, what they would say. Many of them seemed brave enough to let what others think, while some sounded playful with their answers, while some had interesting remarks. Jee Aik then passed the control to the president, Ernest. Ernest briefed everyone about the benefits of Toastmasters one can gain and how important communication skill is.

The Toastmaster of the Morning, Gajendran, took control after that. He initiated the assignment speech session instead of the Table Topics session, because the Table Topics Master, John, had not arrived due to unfortunate event. The first assignment speaker was Kang Han, with his Ice Breaker speech entitled “The I Word.” He described himself as a very cautious person, which is why he also wants to be an actuary as it suits his personality. As he illustrated each point of his story, he marked and reshaped the alphabet letter written on the board. For example, he marked “j” when he was talking about his joy and reshaped it by subtracting the dot of the “j” and lengthened the tail of “j” which led to an “O” for complete. Never seen an Ice Breaker speech like this before, commended Gajendran.

Next came Chee Hong, with his fourth speech called “A Global Threat.” The global threat was not something big like war and global warming but violence in forms of not just physical but also verbal. He gave examples of such violence such as politics and road rage which most people were familiar with. He concluded his speech by saying that we should practice to make good speeches in Toastmaster to overcome violence.

Around that time, the Table Topics Master had arrived, so John took over the control and the session was switched to Table Topics. The topic question was like this. There are several people in the hot air balloon, and the volunteer speaker is one of them. The volunteer speaker is to pick a character or personality, for instance Osama bin Laden, and reason why he or she should be allowed to stay behind in the hot air balloon while the rest should not. This topic John created allowed plenty of room for creativity and was easy, and many people participated without too much hesitation.

The first speaker was Ernest. He picked to be a police and reasoned that he has the authority and can threaten anyone with his gun. Next came Boon Keong, who for the first time trying out the Table Topics. He chose to be Dr Mahathir. He reasoned that he has greater authority, so not even the police can go against him. After him was Dexter who chose to be a serial killer, obviously threatening to kill everyone in the hot air balloon. Next to jump into the stage was Dat Han (nicknamed as Darth Han) and he picked the famous dark lord known as Darth Vader. He boasted about his greatness and power. What’s next? Master Yoda? Nope, it was Toastmaster Gajendran! He picked a Toastmaster which is basically himself. He came out with brilliant logical reasons to persuade us. He reasoned that he has a club to chart and members to train, and that most previous speakers just basically wanted to only kill. And Gajendran won the best Table Topics speaker. Amazing that a Toastmaster can beat even Darth Vader, so never underestimate the power of a Toastmaster, lol. Then came Qin Mei who was not going to let Toastmaster Gajendran to stay in the hot air balloon without a fight. She picked to be herself. She reasoned that she is just as capable as Toastmaster Gajendran as she can be used to do many things including training members. The most interesting part was that she reasoned that she has very small cute eyes which is impossible to resist her command.

After the Table Topics, it was back to the speech assignment session. Claudia was next, with her speech entitled “How to Guide,” which was her sixth speech assignment. She taught us how to maintain long distance relationship. Some of the ways she mentioned were wishing happy birthday by SMS and communication people with a chat program, if possible with a web cam too. In her last words, she said that if there is no effort, there will not be sacrifice, and that means no relationship also. Since she has completed her sixth speech, she is now eligible to be a speech evaluator! That means the club now has three evaluators!

After this was the break. People chatted and greeted one another After the break came the evaluation session. Siew Peng, the Table Topics evaluator, expressed that she enjoyed the Table Topics speeches as the speakers showed great creativity and confidence. Gerard, the evaluator for Kang Han, expressed that Kang Han did very well for an Ice Breaker speech. Gerard was also awarded the best evaluator later. Michael, first time as a Language Evaluator, did well at jotting down the correct and wrong usages of the language. He did it very confidently, even though it was his first time being a Language Evaluator. Then came Pei Yi, the Ah Counter, who seems to be back in action! Claudia gave her evaluation as a General Evaluator for the second time. She seems to have interest in improving her evaluation skill.

Overall, the meeting had one of the best Table Topics session and that members have grown much stronger. The club members have participated new roles, and this is a sign of learning and growing. Hopefully, they become better and more confident in their abilities. An assurance you can make is that the club has become stronger after this meeting.

Written by Jee Aik

February has arrived!

Twas Saturday, the 23^rd of February. A time for people to rest, a time for people to let down their hair, for it is a weekend for relaxation in order to face the upcoming weekdays of work. However, the end of the weekdays means the beginning of yet another enthralling HELP Toastmasters meeting!

The meeting was begun by the SAA of the morning, Chee Hong, with a warm smile as he conducted a brief ice-breaking session to get everybody acquainted with one another. As soon as everybody had a rough idea of who is to their left and right, Chee Hong passed the stage to Ernest, the president of the club.

President Ernest

Ernest, as jovial as ever, welcomed the crowd with open arms, charming the crowd with his spontaneous jokes, but yet sending a clear message to the audience of HELP Toastmasters aim for the year.

Once Ernest had completed his presidential address, he passed the stage over to Kian Yoong, a visitor from DU Advance toastmasters club who is going to play the role as Table Topic Master, to conduct the table topics session of the morning.

Kian Yoong, Table Topics Master

Kian Yoong rose to the occasion with a calm composure. However, as soon as he took control of the stage, Kian Yoong started to display his love for table topics by telling people what table topics meant, and why one must participate in it with a level of passion that few speakers have. In no time, he called upon his first volunteer, Faris, who had promised him earlier to volunteer for the table topics session, to step up to the stage to face the challenge.

Faris timidly came up to the stage, took a brief glance at the audience, and then concentrated his eyes at Kian Yoong. He was presented with the topic entitled ‘failure is better than success.’ Faris tried his best to relate closely to his topic. With all his might, Faris managed to construct a pretty neat two-minute speech, thus overcoming his fear of speaking in front of a crowd for a split second. Faris breathed a sigh of relief once he was done with his speech.

Next up, before anyone raised their hand when Kian Yoong asked for a second volunteer, Chen Kiat immediately raised his hand to accept the second table topic challenge. He was presented with the title ‘is beginning harder than the end?’ Enthusiastically, Chen Kiat, related his two-minute table topic speech with confidence, agreeing that the beginning of something, be it an act of joining a competition, or beginning to exercise after a long break, is indeed harder than the end.

The third table topics speaker slot was given to Qinmei, who volunteered to go next after a great done by Chen Kiat. She was presented with the topic ‘what is success?’ Without hesitation, Qinmei started her speech immediately after hearing it from Kian Yoong, startling everyone by her amazing level of spontaneity. Although Qinmei started her speech immediately without thinking for a split second, she was actually able to come out with surprisingly good speech!

Soon, it was time for the fourth table topic speaker volunteer, which was filled in by a visitor by the name of Edward. Coolly walking forward, Edward faced the audience with a calm face filled with confidence, which again surprised the crowd as not many newcomers display such calmness. Edward still did not display any anxiety when he was presented with his topic entitle ‘0do little things matter?’ by Kian Yoong. With a smile, he started off his speech with such an amazing opening statement that it immediately captured the audience’s attention. The room remained silent for a good 2 minutes as the audience was listening intently to what Edward had to say. As soon as Edward finished his speech, the room was roaring with claps from the audience who were amazed by this newcomer’s speaking ability.

Finally, after four table topic speeches, Micheal felt the need to speak up, thus volunteering himself as the fifth table topic speaker. Micheal, who is the club’s table topic table topic runner-up, knew very well that he musn’t show fear or anxiety while tackling a table topic speech. Hence, Micheal remained calm and composed as he was presented his table topic speech entitled ‘is losing better than winning?’ Taking merely 10 seconds to think, Micheal began his speech with an authoritative voice, which somehow ordered the audience to hear what he has to say. Micheal expertly drew a clear picture of his speech and convinced his audience that losing might not be the end of one’s life but an opportunity for one to learn from his or her mistake.

Soon, it was John Lee, the table topics evaluator of the week, to give his thoughts on the table topic session.

John Lee, Table Topics Evaluator

John was pretty receptive in picking out the strengths and points of improvements of every table topic speaker. With words of kindness and encouragement, John urged the table topic speakers to participate more often as he can actually see the hidden potential in some of the speakers that needs to be cultivated.

After a fabulous table topic session, it was time for the assignment speeches session to take flight. This session was started with a speech done by Qinmei entitled ‘the colours of my life.’ With a smile, Qinmei began to weave a very interesting story of her life as she stepped through the many colourful stages of her life as a girl scout, a prefect, and a taekwondo student. Qinmei brought the audience to a virtual memory of herself with her vivid words. Her style of speaking breathed life to her description; it was like a magic incantation that brought the audience back in time to specially share her life experiences. Such a marvelous speech was immediately greeted with a round of continuous applause as Qinmei bowed slightly to mark the end of her speech.

Then, it was time for Micheal to show the audience what he’s made of by presenting his first assignment speech entitled ‘the many interesting things about me.’ Being the confident person that he is, Micheal swept the audience of their feet by starting off with a bang of an opening statement. Micheal soon went on to elaborate his hobbies and ideology, awing the audience with his amount of general knowledge and wittiness. By the end of his speech, Micheal received a strong round of applause from the audience; a clear sign that they liked his speech.

After an interesting assignment speech session, it was time for the evaluation session. This time round, it was Claudia’s turn to act as the general evaluator.

She and her panel of role players did a marvelous job in giving their evaluations on the strengths and the improvements that can be done as well as their report about the meeting. In the blink of an eye, it was once again time to say good bye and to look forward for yet another stimulating toastmasters meeting! See you my friends~!

Carpe diem,
Jason Moi

Wake up to the world

"Wake up, it is time to cease the day..." whispered the beating of my heart. It was the time of my life once again, for it is time for yet another HELP University Toastmasters meeting! Eager as always, I leaped out of bed like every Toastmaster that are excited to learn the fine arts of speaking would. The meeting started off at around 9:40, with Jason Moi starting off the ice breaking session that requires everyone to briefly introduce themselves and tell the each other what they hope to get for this upcoming chinese new year.

Once everyone was warmly acquainted with one another, the stage was passed on to John Lee, the Vice President of Education, for his opening speech on behalf of the president, Ernest. With a calm and voice, John Lee welcomed the guests with open arms and a welcoming smile. John later handed the stage to Gajendran, the table topics master of the morning.

With a sparkle of excitement in his eyes, Gajendran conducted the table topics session with confidence and charm. The table topic session went on smoothly as participants sweat it out as they speak off the cuffs for two minutes about a topic specified by Gajendran. Once Gajendran has given out all his table topics, he handed control over to the table topic evaluator of the week, John Lee.

John Lee, as always was indeed very encouraging in his words as he generously gave compliments to the table topics speakers and at the same time pointed out the ways of improvement for each speaker. After a thorough table topic evaluation session, John Lee passed the stage back to the toastmaster of the morning.

Soon, it was time for the first speaker, Jason Moi, to start off his second assignment speech of his competent communicator manual. The title of his speech today was ‘Dreams.’ Jason started off his speech with a melodramatic voice, and continued to illustrate the role of dreams in a human’s life.

Then, it was time for the second speaker of the week, Jee Aik, to present his third assignment speech entitled ‘the meaning of religion.’ In his speech, Jee Aik presented a deep thought of what religion truly is. He emphasized that religion cannot be restricted to just the colour of one’s skin nor the one’s nationality, but it must be recognized as one’s belief. Jee Aik believes that all humans have actually very similar traits and that there is only a very insignificant modification of the human genes that differentiates one human being from another.

In no time, it was time for the evaluation session to take place, and in the blink of an eye, it was time for yet another HELP toastmasters meeting to end. Thus, until next time!