Supatra our Toastmaster of the Evening
As a Project Assistant, our Toastmaster of the Evening TM Supatra Lee was tasked to schedule meetings and arrange venues. Although those administrative duties seemed trivial to her in the beginning, she encountered difficulties performing them. As her thought of the day, Supatra shared with us “Don’t underestimate small tasks”. Because like the great philosopher said, “Great acts are made up of small deeds.”
A guest from Gavel Club
There was a surge of guests in attendance, consisting of visiting Toastmasters from other clubs in the area, 15 members from the Maktab Sains Gavel Club who were accompanied by 2 educators and 5 members from the Maktab Duli Debate team. Seeing the large collection of young and aspiring speakers, role players for the evening painted the meeting with laughter and education.
Peng, our Grammarian of the Evening
The meeting started shortly after our grammarian of the evening, TM Tieng Chwei Peng introduced the word of the day “Gung Ho”. The term is used to mean “enthusiastic” or “overzealous”; and is an anglicised pronunciation of the Chinese term “gōng hé”.
Saiful delivering his CC2 speech
In his CC2 Project entitled “Wow! The sensation in learning & inspiring”, TM Saiful Zamhor brought us on a journey of his photography career. He shared 3 pivotal experiences that made him the photographer today. Learning to first familiarize himself with his tools, making mistakes and learning from constructive feedbacks and evaluations, and continuously staying inspired by others in order to sustain his passion. These lessons he learned are what made him the fine photographer he is today.
Pooja showing us hand signs
For her CC5 Project, TM Pooja taught us some basic sign language with her speech “Importance of sign language”. Her story began with her aunt Kasturi’s unfortunate cycling accident which impaired her hearing. Unfazed, Kasturi and her family started learning sign language as a means to. Pooja shared that there were 2 standards of sign language, the American version which uses single hand signs the alphabets, and the British version which uses both hands to sign the alphabets. Followed by demonstrations on a few basic hand signs, she encouraged us to attend sign language classes conducted by Ministry of Education, every Saturday at the Special Education Unit.
Zainal holding a mock press conference
In fulfillment of his Advanced Communication Gold, project number 8 entitled “Bruhaha Public Apology”, Zainal Bostamman, ACS, ALS held a mock press conference as the CEO of Bruhaha Comedy Brunei to issue an apology statement for when one of his comedians, Jordan made insensitive remarks on stage. Explaining that Jordan is a compassionate and good individual who had no ill intentions, Zainal took fully responsibility and reassured the public that comics will be subjected to a stricter screening process before every performance. Following his statements, Zainal opened the floor to questions. When asked if Jordan was allowed to perform again, Zainal replied “only if he passed 3 layer screening process with MOHA’s approval on his material.” Pertaining to a question on how he dealt with legal action against Bruhaha, he said that relevant parties have been contacted and the matter had been resolved by offering free entrances to future performances.
Heidi, our Topicmaster of the Evening
TM Heidi Rahman led the second half of the meeting as Table Topic Master with scenario questions. Our first Impromptu speaker, TM A’aqiil Ahmad shared how he pretended to know what he really doesn’t as an in service in student in UBD, studying sociology and teaching. While he understood the lectures in the beginning, further into the course his mind started to trail off and he just stared blankly at the board.
TM Macallister Mak was posed the question “How an extra $1,000 every month would change your life?” To him, the first thing that came to mind was buying 1,000 ‘Nasi Katok’s. He continued on about having 3 cars at home but none was under his name. So he declared to save up his monthly $1,000 to buy an old Toyota in a year and maybe eventually a Lamborghini.
Our third speaker, a guest Amirah was asked “What job will she not do not matter how much the pay was?” She began speaking about the plight of hospital staff caring for patients and how she would never imagined herself as a doctor or nurse because of her fear for the scent and sight of blood.
Brandon Chin, our last impromptu guest speaker was given a topic “What life lesson you’ve learned the hard way?” Growing up, Brandon felt insecure and rarely talked to people. Soon, he realized he had no one to turn to in his times of need. So he decided to change the way he acts because in life, only 10% is about how you look while 90% is about how you act.
Pooja receiving her CC5 ribbon
Stuart delivering his general evaluation
Joel giving his closing remark
For his closing remark, our Club Treasurer TM Joel Loo confessed his love of collecting fees from members and guests. During his absence, he was thankful for the spirit of camaraderie by the other members of the Executive Committee who helped collect fees on his behalf. He heavily emphasized that performing uncomfortable task actually reinforces a mastery of it. So he urge us to attend meetings regularly in order to absorb new knowledge.
Written By
TM Gerald Goh
Photography By
Chang Seng Yee, CC