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Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Life in SG: Toastmaster Club Singapore

Hmph, do you guys feel that, the smoother the time flies, the more you indulge in your comfort zone. Yeah, I believe human being is an adaptive species, we can adapt and find a way to make ourselves comfortable. If Life goes on without major obstacles or interesting opportunities, changes are what we don't want most! 要稳定,不要乱!!!

Yes, once stepped in comfort zone, it takes double the efforts to step out. You agree? 
Don't agree? Who cares. Haha

For me, I have wasted too much time! Alamak!

It is time for self improvement and be a better me! I don't want to be maggie mee but better Mr. Tee.

Ok what things I can do?! My friend shared with me 7 skills/things we can do or learn. The final goal is, we can use these skills to earn a living. 
Language, photography, culinary, music, sports, wrtting and investment. It takes me 5 minutes to write these 7 stuffs down! Short-term memory! Tired die my brain.


Yeah all sound good. Nothing is bad except you don't even try. May be you got the hidden talent in cooking leh? Who knows?


For me, I am trying something that I heard long time ago, but didn't get a chance to join. Which is.... drummmminngggg...

Toastmaster

Ngek. Who heard about this before, please raise up your hands. Anyone? Good. (Self directing and acting)

Why toastmaster!? Hmph. When you are in Singapore you will know! Locals here can speak english like shooting bullets! The speed is even faster than lightning. They don't even need to think they can speak in English nonstop. Ya, this makes me feel a bit "small" “渺小 ” . My Engelish is not so good YET. Haha. So so so, I think of joining toastmaster, 1 to improve my communication skills, 2 to networking, 3 to challenge myself.

Jo Do Ma De, challenge? Any challenge o?
Jang Kam Man yo. I will explain why.


Open Google and type Toastmaster Singapore. 
Pop: ....



Uh huh, this club meets three times a month, other clubs mostly meet once a month. FYI, there are a lot of toastmaster clubs in Singapore. I think a frequent meetup will be more helpful. Once a month, the progress is too slow. 
The only thing it makes me so reluctant to join is, the meet up place is in Newton! Downtown area! It will take me at least ONE HOUR to go there from my company!!! Haha. But still, I go lo. Have a look.


Visitation to this club is not FOC (sad T T). It requires 20 sgd registration fee, which is for food, refreshment, drink and hall rental. The meetup location is Sheraton hotel. Atas nyeee .
Welcomed by the registration fee, go in, take some foods n start mingling around with strangers. Ok not first time for me, so it is still ok even though I still feel a bit shy n closed. Haha.


Then here comes the main event. Basically it splits to three parts:
Firstly is, prepared speech. Members will need to join a series of presentation projects. Different projects got different themes and objectives. They will book their presentation slots and present on that day. One presentation, few minutes only. 


Then they have a round table discussion. This session is kinna interesting. The organizer has prepared some topics for impromptu speech! Members will volunteer themselves and blindly pick a paper/topic. Then they have to start their speech after gotten the topic. Some titles could be funny like, If you were a spiderman, how to let your girlfriend know your secret OR if you were SG foreign minister, what will you say to Indonesia over the haze issue. Some speakers are hilarious! Admirable and awesome. How can they speak so well o. T.T



Last round will be the evaluation on the first session, prepared speech. Evaluators, mostly distinguish + experienced toastmaster will come out and share their evaluation on the candidates. The special thing is, their evaluation will be evaluated by the audience. Haha.
All three rounds have the best presenters, voted by the audience. Prizes will be given to them as well.



Ok I seem to write too much here ®®
How do I feel then? 

Err. I would say interesting! I think it could help me a lot on the "fear to raise up hands" for the impromptu speech, my weakest point. Honestly I can speak better when I am prepared, prepared presentation is not an issue for me. But speaking out of no way is indeed a big big challenge for me. 
Bullshitting in Mandarin is a piece of cake but not in English! I also need to learn to speak out and be proactive in expressing myself. So I would say Toastmaster can be a good self-improvement for me. Undeniable. The club is well organized, I like it. However, the annual fee is like 530 SGD o. Haha. Can it be free??? =p


I give myself one week time to consider. 
Do you think I should join? I wanna see hands! Hahaha. Ok. Feeling Positive!!! Fighting.