A careless day…

Yesterday, one of my primary classmates SMS to inform me to go over to her Toastmaster club. I replied and said yes, I will go over to take a look. She also informed that I will be the “Ah Counter” this round.

At night, after I fetched penquin, I straight away headed to Seberang Jaya Safira Club to join the Toastmaster meeting. Once I reached there, I told the committee there that I was the Ah Counter.

When I settled down, I looked around, and I didn’t see my primary classmate there.  When I looked at the meeting agenda, there was no name stated for Ah Counter in the agenda. I started to feel curious, why my primary classmate wasn’t there?

As the meeting has started, I just could SMS to my primary classmate and waited for her reply. She didn’t reply me at all, so during the break time, I tried to called my primary classmate, but I failed. Thus, I just looked for the president of the club and asked whether my primary classmate belongs to that club.

Surprisingly, the president told me, she does not belong to that club. Oh gosh!! I went to the wrong club!! And I even grabbed their Ah Counter role!! What an embarrassing situation!! Ah~~~

Although they said that it’s ok, not a problem, but I felt like finding a hole and skip myself into the hole!! Ish!!

Anyway, from there, I knew that my primary classmate is the president of another club, and her club is in Northern Tower. Northern Tower!! It’s very far far away from the Seberang Jaya Toastmasters Club!!

Sigh… I really couldn’t imagine that I was such a careless girl… Wordless…

TM speech (CC# 2) - Secret

On the past Tuesday, I attended the Seberang Jaya Toastmasters Club meeting with Penquin, as she is looking around to join the Toastmasters Club that is near to her house. It was a good experience to go around outside and join with other people from other clubs. There were a few people from some other clubs that attended the meeting as well.

I realized that, every time when I have something in my mind, and I wish to talk about that, my hands will automatically turn to be very cold, and even shaking. Indeed, I don’t even get up to speak yet!! =.=" And, that is why, I feel that my hands are so heavy to be put up and say I want to have a try on the table topics session. >.<

Anyway, today, I attended another meeting, which was the Dell Penang Toastmasters Club meeting, and I presented my speech for assignment# 2. (Gosh… I have joint for more than half a year, and yet, that was only my 2nd assignment!!) The speech presented is as below. Some of the sentences could be different from what I presented, but the ideas and meanings are still the same. I try to put down here as a record for future reference on what I have presented.

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Title: Secret

After I graduated from the university, I bought a car and a house in 3 years time. I’m not proud of what I have achieved, because right now, I’m suffering from the car loan and the home loan. Indeed, those are my goals, my dreams.

Just right after I bought the house, my brother brought me a video clip, which teaches us how to achieve our dreams, how to achieve our goals. All and all, it talks about the law of attraction. It means, whatever we think in our mind, it will create an attraction to the universe, and the universe will arrange the things to be in the situation as what we think in our mind.

After I watched the video clip, I look back at my past, I realized that, the way I used to achieve my dreams, my goals, are the same as what was presented in the video clip. The title of this video clip is “Secret”. I believe, some of you might have read the book, right? So, today, I’m going to share with you the summary that I made after watching the video clip. The 2 main points of the video clip that I captured from the video clip.

First point, is to ask yourself, ask yourself, what you actually really need to have in your life. You can write it down on a piece of paper, write with the sentences in present tense. It means, you need to imagine that you have achieved your dreams. You can imagine the feeling that you have after you have achieved it. Imagine, imagine with the senses of your body. You can feel with your vision, what you can see; your hearing; you can smell it, probably; or the taste; or even the touching. It will increase the passion you have towards your dreams, your goals, and it will motivate you move forward to achieve them.

In addition, if you want to make it to be better, you can try to find the picture that related to your dreams, your goals and cut it down, paste it on some places that visible to you. For example, if I would to buy a 2nd house, I can go and find a picture of the house, which I like the design a lot, cut it down and paste on the wall, or somewhere that visible to me, so that every time, when I pass by the place, I will look at it and imagine that I have got my 2nd house. It will really motivate you to achieve it.

For the 2nd point, is to accept. Accept everything that comes to you, accept it with the positive way, whether it is a good one, or a bad one. If it is a good one, of course, you don’t have any problem to accept it, but how about the bad one? You will have to accept it, and pray for it to get away from you. When you pray, you will need to use the positive words in your prayers. Try not to use the negative words, for example, “no”, “not”, “don’t want”, all these negative words. For example, let’s say, today I have diarrhea, then, tonight, when I go onto the bed, I could pray for it. I could pray that, “Oh, I hope that tomorrow, when I wake up, my stomach will be OK.” Try not to use the negative words, something like “Oh, I hope that tomorrow, when I wake up, I will have no more diarrhea.” Although the meaning of these 2 sentences are more or less the same, but try to think carefully. When you say “I have no more diarrhea”, but it’s possible that you might have some other problems on your stomach. So, not to use the negative words in your prayers.

I have tried to have discussion with my friends, who have read the book “Secret” before, most of them feedback to me that, this Secret is best used when you are finding car park. Anyone of you have tried for this? For those people who have not tried out before, you may go and have a try. It works for me.

To me, I used this secret to achieve 2 dreams: one is to buy a car; 2nd is to buy a house. And now, I use the secret to achieve my 3rd dream, which is to be a lecturer, as I mentioned in my first assignment. I have achieved it!

So, just remember 2 points:
One is to ask yourself, what is the things that you really need to have, imagine it and visualize it.
2nd is to accept all the things that come to you positively.

If I can use this secret to achieve my dream, so you can do it as well!!

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The time presented was 6 min 33 sec.
The main comment was that, I need to have a stop while I was doing the transition from one point to another. It is to let the audience to have a chance to digest for what I was talking about. :)

Alright, that’s all for tonight. It’s a tiring day, but the meeting was really really fun!!

Table Topic session…

Every time, when I think about the Table Topic sessions in the Toastmasters Club meetings, I keep struggling, whether or not I should go out to have a try. At the end, of course, I failed to make the step on. Only when the Table Topic Master calls up my name, then I will go forward to have a try.

I just back from Bagan Ajam Toastmasters Club meeting. As usual, I was called up to take part in the Table Topic session. The topic given to me was “Milk + your brother”. =.=" What a weird topic for me to talk about… My imagination is not creative enough to link up milk and my brother, but I definitely have to come out something with these 2 stupid unrelated things!

In the end, I just told the story of the younger brother, how he react when he wanted milk when he was a baby. A simple one, right? Even I couldn’t get to organize my speech well… Having a lot of problems in my speech… I wonder why I couldn’t make it huh… Anyway, at least I tried. Moving forward, could I make a step forward to take part automatically? Trying hard.

I have one idea in my mind, probably I need to train up myself to think faster (Nah… This is not the first time I talked about it, man). How to do it? Whenever I see something, try to create sentences for the things in front of me, just create sentences, either it is a silly one, serious one, crazy one, whatever, just think about it.
(Until a circumstance, I might be going crazy with all the things appear in my eyes. =.=" )

Alright, going to have a sweet dream tonight. Tomorrow I will have to wake up early although it is a Saturday. I will be going to have a photo walk tomorrow, with my colleagues. ^^ Wish all of you have a nice weekend!!

Experience of an SAA

Well, I didn’t really describe what I felt when I was doing my presentation for my icebreaker speech last 2 weeks. By the way, I felt that it was really a great speech of mine, as I didn’t really feel as nervous as the first time standing in front of all people.

By the way, I just felt that my content was too serious. I know, it was an icebreaker speech, and it supposed to be relax and fun. However, whenever I talk about my dream, it is always my dream, and I am automatically turning myself into a serious face. =.="

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Last week, our Toastmasters Club held a contest “International & Table Topic Speech Contests 2010”. I tried to help out as a Sergeant-At-Arm (SAA) & Registration Manager. Wow~~ What a nice title with me in the progress of the contest. XD

It was the first time for me to be an SAA after nearly half a year of joining Toastmasters Club. And, I would rate myself a B as an SAA. Haha~ it was just that I didn’t really know what should be done as an SAA in the contest. From that experience, I saw, I heard, I learned. :)

Anyway, that contest was a fun one, I met up with a lot of outsiders. Although I didn’t really talk to everyone during the contest period, but at least I still manage to recognize some faces, who I have met them before in Vista Toastmasters Club.

After the contest, there were a lot of food left on the table, and so we got everyone to take some food back home, or the food would be just ended up in the dustbin, what a waste~~ When it was my turn to take the food, one of the guests from other club, took a piece of cake and said, “This is nice”, then put that cake into my container. Then, he took up another piece of cake, same types of the cake and said again, “This is nice too”, then put that cake into my container again. Wah~ He put more than 3 pieces of cakes into my container!! =.=” How could I finish so many cakes??

Then, I said, “Are you planning to increase my size again??” =.=” He said, “It is not easy to keep this size, you know?” Hahaha~~ So did he mean that I should keep going on with this weight?? Ish~~

Hence, that night, I ended up with full stomach laying on my bed, couldn’t really get into a nice sleep. =.=" This can be a moral story for kids, talking about a girl who is GREEDY. XD

By the way, I still got a certificate for the title of SAA. :P

Ha~ OK, I’m gonna take a good rest tonight, definitely. I’m gonna get sick soon~~ >.<

My first speech in TM

I have been preparing my very first CC TM speech for quite some time. Today, while I was practicing the speech, I tried to record down my voice. Here is the recording. XD 

Title: Who Am I?



Yeah, I know… my voice is not strong enough, I wished to speak with more “ohm”, but seemed like not successful. =.=" Anyway, it is still a good try for me, at least. I hope that I could present better to my mentor tomorrow. :)

And, this coming Thursday, it will be a great day for me to share my speech to other TM members. XD

Certificate

I just snapped a photo of the certificate I got for attending the training program last Saturday.

Yea, I am going to start my own training for the preparation to present a speech of the very first project in Toastmaster Club. It is an easy one – Ice Breaker speech.

I planned to talk about my ambitions. Yes, I am now getting nearer and nearer to my ambition, my ambition since I was small. I hope I will succeed to achieve it!! ^^

Criteria of a good speech

Before go to bed, I just wish to put on few words to this blog. I attended a seminar held by Toastmasters Club in KDU Penang on last Saturday. The seminar with title “Speech Contest Judges Training Program” was actually to teach us how to be a judge.

To be a judge for the contest, a person not only need to be a member of Toastmasters Club, he must have completed 6 projects for Communication Competence (CC) and above.

Although I haven’t reached to the level to be a judge, but at least, I know what does the judges look for in a good speech. The judges are just the ordinary audience as the rest of the people in the contest. It’s just that, they have the authority to judge people, to give marks to the contestants.

From the perspective that judges are looking for, I know how I should do in order to deliver a good speech. It is not only for the judges to judge how good I speak, but it is to train up my speaking skill in order to have better communication skill and presentation skill with people. Below are the criteria of a good speech delivered to the audience.

1. Challenge the mind – it’s to challenge our mind to give a speech / message which is out of the ordinary one. Do not under estimate the audience. They can be cleverer than you. So, we need to think of the contents that are beneficial to the audience. Make sure they will bring home with some useful information. Thus, we need to study a lot, do survey, so that we are delivering the correct information to the audience.
2. Touch the heart – Be yourself, and create connection with the audience. Tell something that you have experienced and be informative to the audience.
3. Tickle the funny bone – To make the audience enjoy your speech, and not to be a too serious one. It can be a humorous speech, which do not need to be funny, but will let audience think about it, and laugh.

I know, the above 3 points are only the theories. I will need to practise more to get those 3 points realistic. How far I can go to train up my skills? I do not have the answer, but I would like to try, so that I know, how far I can increase my own value of competencies.

The most challenging part of each meeting, is the table topic session, as we need to talk about a given topic on the spot. This is really challenging my mind in order to think fast, not only take care of the messages that I would like to pass to other people, but also need to take care on the grammar, vocabularies, body language, eye contact, etc. This is not an easy way, but I know, I have to go through that, no matter how, no matter what.

I remember, last time, one of my teachers told me, if I would to improve my English, I would need to train up myself, not only to “speak” in English, but need to “think” in English too.

Ha, anyway, I still like Chinese a lot. I will never stay away from Chinese, just because, I am a Chinese. ^^

Good night, everyone!

The 3rd meeting in Toastmasters Club ^^

It’s again, another Wednesday which has Toastmasters Club meeting in Dell AP1. Although we were late to the meeting for more than half an hour, but at least we still managed to attend the meeting, and I really enjoyed the Table Topic session.

To other people, it may be a scary session, because we need to give a speech with the given topic right on the stage. Although it was only a 2 minute session to speak, but it really squeezed my mind to at least provide some information, either it’s useful information, nonsense, or simply a joke.

This round, I got a question about love - "Should you tell the person that you fall in love to him / her?" Haha~~again, I talked about my love story =.="

In fact, I have confessed to the one I like (not LOVE, I know how I feel, ok), and until now, no result feedback. Haha, eventually, he has feedback the result to me. Of course, the result was a negative answer, otherwise, I’m not single and available anymore now. :P

Should I let him know? Yes, I should, at least, it’s a chance to me, and to him. If I didn’t tell him about my feeling, I’m actually putting myself into a cage, prevent myself from going beyond the limitation.

Ehe… an easy answer, right? I could talk about an easy answer for 1:55 minute. I think it’s good to me, but still, I wish that I can provide more answers in my next table topic. I know I’m a slow thinker, that’s why I’m trying to make myself to think more than what I normally can think of. How much I can go? It’s just a challenge to myself. :)

Besides, I learned a new word, and a new phrase:

1. coerce – forcing somebody into doing something
2. Beat about the bush – say something indirectly

From the comments given by the grammarian, I didn’t really have grammar errors. Thus, I think I need to improve my vocabulary in the next step. Hope that I can make it. :)

The 2nd meeting in Toastmasters Club :)

Wednesday, I attended the Toastmasters meeting. That was the 2nd meeting that I attended as a Toastmasters member.

Because of the low volume of attendance, which were only 7 members turned up in the meeting, so I was picked to be the time keeper. It was the easiest role during the meeting, where by I just needed to take care of the timing and turn the lights on and off accordingly.

During the table topic session, I was called up to the stage with an easy topic (to me, I felt that it was easy), but I couldn’t really think of what to say within the few seconds. The topic was “Describe your happiest moment during your childhood to the middle age”. Isn’t it an easy topic to you?

However, when I thought of the happiest moment… Did I have the happiest moment? Basically, I had a lot of happy moments, but I couldn’t measure which moments to be considered as the happiest.

Out of a sudden, a person’s image turned up in my mind. Yes, it was he, the guy that sat beside me when I was in kindergarten; the guy that studied in the same secondary school with me; the guy that stayed beside my house for more than 10 years… and he was the guy that I admired for 13 years, but ended up with hatred among my family and his family. That was the end of story between us.

Was that moment the happiest moment to me? I do not think so, but it just appeared in my mind, and so I just took the inspiration to talk about it straight away. Of course, it was a good laugh to the members, because of the silly actions from me to get his attention when I was a little naughty girl.

At the end, I was the only person who exceeded the time given, which was only 2 minutes. I know what was my weakness when I spoke, and I’m trying to change it. I will see how much I could change. ^^