Learn to love the fearful side of you

During the round of introductions, our Table Topics Master, the jovial Aziman Nasir, CC, ALB, decided that Table Topics would revolved around the theme "what if?". The suave TM Jidun Dollah as Table Topics Evaluator announced beforehand that he would base evaluations on delivery, structure and body language for the impromptu speeches.

The cheerful TM Lim Mei Ann's word of the day was 'emulate'.

Emulate /ˈemyəˌlāt/
a verb
= to match or surpass, typically by imitation =
Example: I would love to emulate her style, but I would look ridiculous in a dress as frilly as that.

The Ah Counter & 'Who said what?' was Nabil Abdul Kadir (CC, ALB). Timer & Tip was TM Izzah Salam. Our General Evaluator of the evening was revealed to be Ong Yin (CL) during the introductions.

In the PREPARED SPEECHES session of the meeting, a visiting Toastmasters, Prashad Navaranjan, ACB, ALS, had 8-10 minutes to inspire his evaluator, Gerald Goh, CC, ALB, and his audience using the CC10 speech project.

"Give from your heart"

Prashad wowed the audience with his speech by urging the importance of giving from the heart, which becomes a part of our integrity. He cited several examples of those who give from their heart, including Bill Gates and the late Saint Teresa of Calcutta. In Prashad's confession, he admitted that he was very skilled at football while growing up, but he was unable to assert himself. He witnessed bullying and every time he tried to defend a team mate, he got beaten up. So he worked relentlessly to become the captain of the team to bring about a positive influence to his team. Prashad shared a valuable message: in this world, life is not easy for people with disabilities. So he decided to dedicate his life to contribute to their well-being. He gave us the example of Stephen Hawking. Hawking contributed so much because he had a group of supporters. With this in view, Prashad has started a scholarship scheme with the guidance of his mentors. Today, after five years, he has a successful business. Now he is in the position to recruit people to manage a trust fund and to register his scholarship in New Zealand. We have the best of our wishes to Prashad in his endeavor.

With only one prepared speech, there was ample time for 6 TABLE TOPICS speakers.

If you could be a character from a movie, who would you be and why?

Farhan Jafar Ali, ACB, ALB, loves movies and he fancies himself to be like Gru of 'Despicable Me'. Why? It's because he has his own minions in his Gavel Club! He thinks he can be like Johnny English too, but of all movie characters, the one he could be like the most is Batman. Batman is a person determined to beat superman, he has all the gadgets and he is an idol. Farhan said Bruce Wayne is a person that is worthy to look up to.

If you could live anywhere, where would you live?

A question apt for TM Edy Zurina because she travels a lot. She has been to a lot of countries, and she often flies to Malaysia and Philippines. Her favourite country is Japan, but if she could live anywhere, she would live in France, especially Province, the city of oil diffuser.

If you could solve the problem of hunger or repair the ozone, which one would you do?

Mr Javon chose to end hunger. In one of his travels, witnessing poverty changed his life. With his money, he contributed food to little children to relieve their hunger, but to his surprise, the little children did not accept his help. He was made aware of their pride.

Given a choice between great wisdom and great wealth, which one would you choose?

TM Safarul Hassan chose wisdom. According to him, money is easy to come by, but not knowledge. Money will bring troubles to you if you don’t have the knowledge on how to use it.

If you are ask to speak to a graduating class, what would you say?

Hazwan Kamarulzaman, ACB, ALB, said he would tell them that life will kick you in the stomach and try to keep you down, but it’s important to stand your ground. When perceptions are destroyed, we lose hope. Being aware of this will help us deal with life.

If you are given a chance to live, how long would you live?

Immediate Past President, Jordan Yau, CL, said, "Forever!" He would like to postpone death for as far as possible. He is a self-confessed addicted consumer. He loves to binge watch good movies and Japanese anime. He watches YouTube regularly and easily sits through Korean dramas. His humorous speech won him the 'Best Table Topics' ribbon. 

After the prepared speech and Table Topics , we had our quality controller, General Evaluator Ong Yin, CL, take control of the EVALUATIONS segment, in which every evaluator provides constructive feedback to the speakers and role players. Here are the tips we can learn from the evaluators:

• Gerald Goh, CC, ALB – Relevance in speeches is important. Using anecdotes and quotes adds flavor to the text. Body language and emotions helps bring the story alive.
• Ong Yin, CL – Use objectives stated in respective speech projects for speech evaluations. That will help us to deliver a structured evaluation. Use vocal variety and hand gestures to add impact.
• TM Jidun Dollah – Engage the audience with personal stories. Have one take-away message from your speech.

In the closing, President Pooja Shivanand, CC, ALB, took the stage and invited members to participate in meeting roles, speeches, evaluations and practice as much as we can every week so that we can get better equipped to effectively speak with family members, communicate with office colleagues, pitch in new proposals, persuade clients in sales or positively influence students in classrooms.

“Roles, speeches, evaluations, contests are vital tools to get better at public speaking.

The more we use them the better skilled we become”