Lessons from World Champion of Public Speaking 2014

It is a lazy Saturday evening. 

After shopping and singing K in the day, tiredness made me lose energy to do anything. But I requested myself to do something meaningful, at least one or two. So I opened some TED talks to watch. The videos reminded me of the world championship of Toastmasters. So I searched Youtube for Manoj's speech and also the speech of 2014 world champion. My intention is to learn how they made it to the international stage and what qualifications they had. I dreamed to be one of them (Finger Cross).

After watching the speech from Dananjaya, the 2014 world champion, an idea pops out in my mind. Let's write down what I have learnt from him in my beloved and long abandoned blog! LOL

First of all, the video is here :) Do enjoy it.

I will skip the standard and basic qualities of a good speech such as eye contact, body gesture, confidence and etc. 

From what I observed, he designed some incredible tricks in his speech:

1. He used props. A physical item that he could use to demonstrate his idea in more effective way. As an audience, I could feel the destruction of a beautiful object when he tore the petals and the revival when he presented a new flower. 

This increases the impact of the message and hooks up the sympathy of audience.

2. His speech was engaging. He engaged audience with his story in Toastmasters. This was wonderfully designed as most of the audience were toastmasters, the audience could relate easier.

This is why I always involve my audience in my speech, so that they can feel their importance.

3. Of course, his humor spiced the speech up. Humor is one of the most important part in a good speech. It can keep audience listening to the speaker and entertain them at the same time. Who doesn't love to laugh out loud. He fully illustrated his talent in humor which made audience love him. This is a powerful tool. I have to learn it. Words are wisely chosen and sentences are cleverly twisted to create the LOL factors. 

4. Inspiring speech using personal stories. A well designed story-line can only be awesome when it comes with fantastic storytelling skills. Personal stories satisfy people's curiosity towards the speaker too. Most importantly, he made the whole speech inspirational! Well paced stories with excellent narration caught the audience's attention and created a strong ripple in their hearts with great inspiration! Message of the speech was absolutely clear and remarkably presented. Not to mention, his whole speech is DAMN natural. 

This is simply GOOD JOB! 

Retrieved from Dananjaya's Facebook

Perhaps there are more things can be learnt from his speech. 

But I am too sleepy to absorb already. Haha. 

It is never an easy task to be a good speaker. Continual practices and relentless self-improvement are required. There is no destination for public speaking, but it is an enriching journey. 

Public speaking is frightening yet fun. Once you conquer the fear, the satisfaction is beyond description. 

Hope everyone will learn something, be inspired and enjoy his jokes. 

It is time to say Good night. Yawnnn.

First Impromptu Speech in Toastmaster

Yay,one of new year resolutions is to involve more in Toastmaster. Not only for English public speaking improvement, also for social networking.

A annual fee of 530 SGD is not a big deal for me, I believe I can gain a lot and improve tremendously. Thinking of wasting time playing DOTA, I have to raise up both legs to agree on this right decision.

Toastmaster Club of Singapore. The biggest and pioneer club in Singapore where a lot of talents gather. As a person who strives under pressure, I want to be better than them. This is my motivation! I have strong faith that I can and this time will not be 3 min enthusiasm again.

As a good start of 2016, I have raised my my shy hand today to grab attention from the tabletopic coordinator. Thanks God this round I get selected. My nervousness gone when I am standing on the stage. Paying attention to the topic chosen for me, I actually do not understand the topic. There is an English word which I don't know the meaning. (This show how bad my English is). Then I show my naively lost face with a lot of questions marks. The kind coordinator explains again and I roughly got it. "After I am dead, what will I wish the rest to remember me." I think I still don't catch the topic. Whatever! Haha.

Holding the mic, I have nothing in my mind. Blank! Seriously blank. I have started my speech with greeting and continued with nonsense which I almost forget all (even forgotten it after only an hour later). A debris of memory tells me that I am trying to say I am a funny, exaggerated and cheerful person. Hope people think of this when they remember me. I believe audience below will think "chek this guy is not funny at all", "this guy is not as what he proclaims" and etc.

When rewinding back, I should have bullshitted like I wish people remember me as a gigolo, or witchcraft, or lion dancer, or etc even after I am dead. Well, it is true that, there are three speeches ; one is speech you prepared; one is speech you given; one is speech you wished to give.

I just think my ending is considered ok. I said, "Please do talk to me more and know me better, so you will remember me after I die, thank you". At least there are some laughters. Hehe.

Yes I rated myself 1/10. One mark is for my ending and normal heartbeat without shaky words. And I only say "er" for twice. Yay.

Hmph, undeniable I so wish my first speech can be impressive enough. But think of this, I may not be born as a good speaker, I can work it out and be one!

How I can improve my impromptu speech! Of course practice makes perfect. Raise up my hand more and Go up to stage more. Furthermore, once got the topic, take 10 sec to think of something to talk about. Do not rush to say good evening ladies and gentlemen. Construct some storylines and bring up some significant points related to the given topic. Main problem with me is Lack of Ideas. Should start to do more thinking and practice my brain. Lastly, Enjoy the stage. =)

Yup, it could be not a good first time but it is surely a great start for the year. Break through the mental obstacles and counter the fear! As time goes, I will get better and better. Thanks God for the encouragement and seeing the positive side of today experience. I am shocked that I didn't immerse myself in disappointment. Awesome and praise the Lord.

Continue to get improved and be a better speaker. Fighting!!! Don't just dream, act it!

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.