1st December 2015 – Mindset of a Public Speaker

Our Youthful Toastmaster of the Evening, TM Rano Iskandar

TM Macalister Mak, Sergeant At Arms was delighted to see so many guests this week. We had a huge turnout of guests and members. Could they have come for the B.E.S.T speaker? Or could it be because of our Wunderbar TME TM Rano Iskandar? Or could it be due to the school holidays? It turns out we had a lot of guests who came as awesome supporters for our prepared speech speaker TM Sophiana Chua!

TM Amran Jamaluddin as our Timer & Tip

TM Rahmat Tarsat introducing the Word of the Day

This week’s office bearers are TM Rahmat Tarsat as the Grammarian. She taught us the word of the day, which is “ferhoodle”. It is a verb, and it means to confuse or mix up. Our Timer & Tip Role was taken up by TM Amran Jamaluddin, who shared his tip: the earlier, the better. It is important just in case anything happens along your plans. TM Ada Rani took up the role of the Ah Counter & Who Said What?. There were no table topics this week as we allocated time for the B.E.S.T speaker. TME TM Rano shared his thought of the day: to not focus on the negative side of things. He took an example from his photography experience. There are times that you take good photos, and sometimes you take bad ones. Don’t dwell on the bad ones, just take another picture.

TM Sophiana Chua tell us about “Going Solo”in her CC3 Speech Project

As for the prepared speech, TM Sophiana Chua did her CC3, ‘Going Solo’, and began by telling her story when she was fifteen. She represented her school, STPRI, in a 4×100 relay race. She humorously told us she was disqualified from the race because she ran to the sandpit. She felt terribly guilty and felt responsible for the loss for the team. Decades later as she was having coffee with a friend, she was told that people have been noticing that Sophia has been doing a lot of things alone. She played the piano, she reads, and collect stamps: activities that’s been done alone. Sophiana then joined an orchestra, and played the cello. After practicing for years, she performed well alongside the other band members and she felt that she had made the conductor and composer proud. Sophiana concluded by giving advice for us to take a leap and to not let the fear of sandpits (metaphorically speaking) make you feel like a failure to your teammates.

TM Rahul Breh telling us about “The GReatest Warrior”in his CC8 Speech Project

TM Rahul Breh delivered his CC8 project titled ‘The Greatest Warrior’. When Rahul was a boy, he came home and run to his grandmother, telling her that he doesn’t want to go to school because he was afraid of the school bullies. His grandmother then asked young Rahul this question: “Who is the greatest warrior?”. Rahul then explained the story of Alexander the Great and King Porus, the king of Punjab, India. Alexander was said to be the greatest conqueror of the world, as he conquered many countries with his mighty army. On the other hand, King Porus didn’t want to conquer any land. He just wanted to stand his ground and protect his family and land. One day, the battle of the two warriors occurred. By applying strategy and tactics, Alexander won after battling for 3 months. King Punjab lost many of his men compared to Alexander, but King Punjab still stood strong as a respectable, fearless warrior and a King. Rahul concluded by sharing his grandmother’s advice to his younger self: “If you are fearless in the face of the greatest and fiercest challenge, YOU are the greatest warrior”.

Allen Ang ACS, ALB introducing Stuart Lee as B.E.S.T speaker

Stuart Lee ACB, ALB tell us “Psychology of a Speaker

ACS, ALB Stuart Lee presents his B.E.S.T topic on ‘Psychology of the Speaker’. He began by engaging members and the audience on the attributes of a great speaker. After collecting some input from the audience, he then asked whether we have been encouraged by these three phrases before: ‘Be Confident!’, ‘Be Comfortable!’ and ‘Be Yourself!’. These are the worst advice to give to a person who’s about to give a public speech. These are important – however, what matters is how we approach it. When we get nervous, our heartbeat beats faster. What we need to do is to control the heartbeat, and this comes with experience. Remember our best memory and our worst nightmare from our public speaking experience, and it will help us know not to repeat the same mistake again. What is our motivation to be public speakers? Stuart told us to ask why and why and why and why, over and over again, until we can’t answer the question. Then we will find out why we want to be speakers. He closed his B.E.S.T speech by advising us all to be a professional speaker as much as we can. We do not know when we will be called to give a speech again.