Evaluation of AP1 project from the Storytelling Manual: The folktale
Speech title: The Story of Bukit Merah
Everyone loves a good story. I would like to commend the speaker for choosing such an interesting story that explains how Bukit Merah, which means Red Hill, got its name. It gave us an insight into the history of Singapore.
The second commendation is the use of the questioning technique at the beginning of the speech. The speaker asked 'Do you know what is the meaning of Bukit Merah?' to arouse the interest of the audience.
I would like to share 5 recommendations on how the speaker could have made his story come alive by using the acronym ALIVE.
A is for action. Everyone loves a story that is full of action. Be animated and energetic and use appropriate gestures to dramatise your story. For example, when you mentioned the red lava erupting from the hill, you can use a sweeping gesture to demonstrate the intensity of the action.
L is for language. Use words that your audience understands. When you used the word 'rajah', which is a Malay word, explain its meaning. When you mentioned 'garfish', I had no idea what you were talking about. Also as the story was in the past, use past tense consistently instead of switching between past and present tense. Polish your use of the language to make your story easy for the audience to understand.
I is for interest. How do you maintain the audience's interest throughout your story? The manual advises that stories be well paced, with few dull spots. At times, the speaker hesitated during the storytelling, indicating uncertainty. More rehearsals would have enabled the speaker to deliver with greater fluency.
V is for vocal variety - the all-important ingredient in storytelling. Vary your volume, rate and tempo more to enhance your story. The part in the story when 'the red lava of the hill erupted and swallowed the Rajah's advisor', be loud and dramatic to create a climax.
E is for ending. Give your story a memorable ending by sharing a moral or a take-home message, instead of allowing the story to tail off.
In conclusion, storytelling is a great skill that is not easy to master. Continue to use questioning techniques to your advantage. Learn to leverage on gestures, vocal variety and simple, correct language to sustain your audience's interest and to make your stories come alive. Always end off with a bang.
Time taken: 3 min 28 seconds
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Believe You Can!
Opening Address at Katong TMC on 21 January 2010
Believe You Can
Good evening, fellow toastmasters, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the year 2010. Do you know this is the year that great things CAN happen in your life? How many of you believe that?
In December last year, I went to Guangzhou for my TCM practical. Our club member Zhang Bin happened to be Guangzhou at that time so we met up. Having done some internet research before going there, I told him I would like to visit Baiyun Mountain since I was yearning for the great outdoors. 'Sure, no problem.' he said. 'A walk in the mountain should take us about 3 hours. Let's meet at 9am.'
On Sunday morning, two of my classmates and I met up with Zhang Bin and his girlfriend and the 5 of us set off happily to conquer the mountain. The air was cool and crisp and we started perspiring after climbing up the interminable steps leading into the gardens. 3 hours later, it was 12 noon, time for lunch but we had only climbed up, we hadn't even started coming down yet. Zhang Bin kept saying, 'We're almost there.' At first we believed him. Then we realised in China, when you say 'we're almost there' it could mean anything from 10 minutes to 2 hours. In fact, we were still 2 km away from the exit!
My legs were trembling with fatigue, my muscles were shouting out in pain. I wanted to surrender and say, "No more, please no more!" I had obviously underestimated the grandeur of the mountain and overestimated my own athletic ability. I persuaded my friends to take the tram down but Zhang Bin said no adamantly. 'That would be tantamount to cheating,' he opined.
So with constant encouragement from my friends, and with the 'can-do' attitude, I persisted and finally 5 hours after we have started off, we arrived at the southern exit. It was only then that I saw the map of the mountain and realised its vastness: Baiyun Mountain, made up of 30-odd peaks, measures 7 km from south to north, and 4 km from east to west. The highest peak, Moxing Ridge (Star-scrapping Ridge) stands in the center of Baiyun Mountain, measuring 382 meters in height. And we had not even conquered it!
As a driver in Singapore, I always park as near to my destination as possible. If I had to walk for 10 minutes, I would complain. But in Guangzhou, I walked for 5 hours! That would have seemed like an impossible feat but I did it! It is indeed an achievement! And frankly I would not have been able to do it without my friends by my side encouraging me.
In the same way, in Toastmasters, we can achieve great things, impossible feats because of our dreams, our perseverance and our fellow toastmasters' unstinting support. If not for your support, I would have failed, I would have faltered. There are so many times, as club President, I felt discouraged and disheartened. But because you were there for me, I never gave up. I never gave up myself, I never gave up on you, and I never gave up on the club.
I urge all of you to be that pillar of support and strength to each other in times of need. When the VPE or club President needs you to present a project speech, or be an appointment holder, or organise a contest, or whatever it may be, accept the invitation graciously. Your support means the world to your fellow toastmaster. It is also an opportunity for you to learn and to grow.
Fellow toastmasters, are you here to become better speakers? Are you here to become better leaders? How about champion speakers? Hold on to your dream! Believe you can. Believe in yourself. Get support from your fellow toastmasters and make that dream happen this year!
Believe You Can
Good evening, fellow toastmasters, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the year 2010. Do you know this is the year that great things CAN happen in your life? How many of you believe that?
In December last year, I went to Guangzhou for my TCM practical. Our club member Zhang Bin happened to be Guangzhou at that time so we met up. Having done some internet research before going there, I told him I would like to visit Baiyun Mountain since I was yearning for the great outdoors. 'Sure, no problem.' he said. 'A walk in the mountain should take us about 3 hours. Let's meet at 9am.'
On Sunday morning, two of my classmates and I met up with Zhang Bin and his girlfriend and the 5 of us set off happily to conquer the mountain. The air was cool and crisp and we started perspiring after climbing up the interminable steps leading into the gardens. 3 hours later, it was 12 noon, time for lunch but we had only climbed up, we hadn't even started coming down yet. Zhang Bin kept saying, 'We're almost there.' At first we believed him. Then we realised in China, when you say 'we're almost there' it could mean anything from 10 minutes to 2 hours. In fact, we were still 2 km away from the exit!
My legs were trembling with fatigue, my muscles were shouting out in pain. I wanted to surrender and say, "No more, please no more!" I had obviously underestimated the grandeur of the mountain and overestimated my own athletic ability. I persuaded my friends to take the tram down but Zhang Bin said no adamantly. 'That would be tantamount to cheating,' he opined.
So with constant encouragement from my friends, and with the 'can-do' attitude, I persisted and finally 5 hours after we have started off, we arrived at the southern exit. It was only then that I saw the map of the mountain and realised its vastness: Baiyun Mountain, made up of 30-odd peaks, measures 7 km from south to north, and 4 km from east to west. The highest peak, Moxing Ridge (Star-scrapping Ridge) stands in the center of Baiyun Mountain, measuring 382 meters in height. And we had not even conquered it!
As a driver in Singapore, I always park as near to my destination as possible. If I had to walk for 10 minutes, I would complain. But in Guangzhou, I walked for 5 hours! That would have seemed like an impossible feat but I did it! It is indeed an achievement! And frankly I would not have been able to do it without my friends by my side encouraging me.
In the same way, in Toastmasters, we can achieve great things, impossible feats because of our dreams, our perseverance and our fellow toastmasters' unstinting support. If not for your support, I would have failed, I would have faltered. There are so many times, as club President, I felt discouraged and disheartened. But because you were there for me, I never gave up. I never gave up myself, I never gave up on you, and I never gave up on the club.
I urge all of you to be that pillar of support and strength to each other in times of need. When the VPE or club President needs you to present a project speech, or be an appointment holder, or organise a contest, or whatever it may be, accept the invitation graciously. Your support means the world to your fellow toastmaster. It is also an opportunity for you to learn and to grow.
Fellow toastmasters, are you here to become better speakers? Are you here to become better leaders? How about champion speakers? Hold on to your dream! Believe you can. Believe in yourself. Get support from your fellow toastmasters and make that dream happen this year!
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
AP5 Bringing History to Life
This was my second attempt at this project. This first time I presented it was at Tampines Changkat TMC. The speech, about Maria Montessori, was more of a chronological record than a story and so the evaluator Coen Ching rightly 'failed' me.
I read up various internet reports about Helen Keller and put together a story about her relationship with her teacher Anne Sullivan. I presented it at Kampong Glam TMC to a group of non-toastmasters as a demo speech and was evaluated by DTM Christine Lim.
FROM DARKNESS INTO LIGHT (A story about Helen Keller)
Kate was deeply troubled. Her 6-year-old daughter Helen was becoming more and more uncontrollable. She had contracted an illness when she was 19 months old. It had left her blind, deaf, and consequently mute. Frustrated that she could not see nor communicate with anyone, Helen would fly into uncontrollable rages and tantrums everyday.
One day, Kate came across an article about the successful education of another deaf and blind child, Laura Bridgman and excitedly showed it to her husband. The couple quickly contacted the Perkins Institute for the Blind, the school where Laura had been educated. The school's director, asked former student Anne Sullivan to become Keller's instructor. Anne was herself visually impaired and only 20 years old,
Anne Sullivan arrived at Helen Keller's house in March 1887. Kate brought Helen to Anne and placed Helen's hand in Anne's. 'Hello Helen, I have a present for you.' Anne said, even though she knew Helen could not hear her. Anne placed a doll in Helen's hands and Helen started feeling the doll and stroking her hair. Then Anne took one of Helen's hands and started finger writing on her palm. She was spelling the word 'doll' d-o-l-l. Helen did not understand what Anne was doing. She pulled her hand away and continued to stroke the doll.
The next few days were traumatic. Helen hit, pinched, and kicked her teacher and even knocked out one of her teeth. Anne convinced her parents she needed two weeks alone with the child if she was to achieve any progress in her education. Anne finally gained control by moving with the girl into a small cottage on the Kellers’ property. Through patience and firm consistency, she finally won the child’s heart and trust, a necessary step before Helen's education could proceed.
Helen's mother once told Anne that Helen had been precocious in her learning of language before her illness and that her first word had been "wah-wah" for water. One day, while Anne and Keller were at the water pump refilling a pitcher of water, Anne kept spelling the word 'water' into Helen's palm. Suddenly, Helen whispered 'wah-wah'. She kept repeating it. Finally she understood that 'wah-wah' or w-a-t-e-r was the the tangible substance splashing from the pump.
It was a moment of enlightenment that brought Helen from darkness into light. She finally understood that words represented things. Later Helen Keller wrote in her autobiography:
"Suddenly I felt a misty consciousness as of something forgotten—a thrill of returning thought; and somehow the mystery of language was revealed to me. I knew then that “w-a-t-e-r” meant the wonderful cool something that was flowing over my hand. That living word awakened my soul, gave it light, hope, joy, set it free! … Everything had a name, and each name gave birth to a new thought. As we returned to the house every object which I touched seemed to quiver with life."
Helen wrote of the days that followed, “I did nothing but explore with my hands and learn the name of every object that I touched; and the more I handled things and learned their names and uses, the more joyous and confident grew my sense of kinship with the rest of the world.”
Sullivan fingerspelled to her constantly, and coached her in the give-and-take of conversation. Keller’s love of language, her great articulateness and grace as a writer and public speaker were built upon this foundation.
The following year Helen attended the Perkins Institute for the Blind where she joined other little blind children in their work and play, and talked continually. She was delighted to find that nearly all of her new friends could spell with their fingers. She wrote of this experience: "Oh, what happiness! To talk freely with other children! To feel at home in the great world!” Helen studied French, arithmetic, geography, and other subjects. She especially enjoyed the library of embossed books and the tactile museum’s collection of bird and animal specimens.
Later Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan moved to New York to attend other special schools for the deaf and eventually in 1904, at the age of 24, Helen Keller graduated from Radcliffe College, becoming the first deaf blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree.
Keller went on to become a world-famous speaker and author. She is remembered as an advocate for people with disabilities. She was able to achieve all this because of one person - her teacher Anne Sullivan.
Anne Sullivan became more than a teacher to Helen Keller. They became lifelong companions who lived, worked, and traveled together. By 1935, Anne Sullivan became completely blind. She died at age 70, with Keller holding her hand. When Keller herself died in 1968, her ashes were placed next to Anne's.
In October 2009, a bronze statue of Helen Keller was added to the National Statuary Hall Collection in America. It depicts Keller as a seven year old child standing at a water pump. The statue represents the significant moment in Helen Keller's life when she understood her first word: W-A-T-E-R, as signed into her hand by teacher Anne Sullivan. The pedestal base bears a quotation in raised letters and Braille characters: "The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched, they must be felt with the heart."
Christine's recommendations for improvement included more vocal variety and dramatisation to make the story come alive.
A good start to the new year. Two more project speeches to AC-S!
I read up various internet reports about Helen Keller and put together a story about her relationship with her teacher Anne Sullivan. I presented it at Kampong Glam TMC to a group of non-toastmasters as a demo speech and was evaluated by DTM Christine Lim.
FROM DARKNESS INTO LIGHT (A story about Helen Keller)
Kate was deeply troubled. Her 6-year-old daughter Helen was becoming more and more uncontrollable. She had contracted an illness when she was 19 months old. It had left her blind, deaf, and consequently mute. Frustrated that she could not see nor communicate with anyone, Helen would fly into uncontrollable rages and tantrums everyday.
One day, Kate came across an article about the successful education of another deaf and blind child, Laura Bridgman and excitedly showed it to her husband. The couple quickly contacted the Perkins Institute for the Blind, the school where Laura had been educated. The school's director, asked former student Anne Sullivan to become Keller's instructor. Anne was herself visually impaired and only 20 years old,
Anne Sullivan arrived at Helen Keller's house in March 1887. Kate brought Helen to Anne and placed Helen's hand in Anne's. 'Hello Helen, I have a present for you.' Anne said, even though she knew Helen could not hear her. Anne placed a doll in Helen's hands and Helen started feeling the doll and stroking her hair. Then Anne took one of Helen's hands and started finger writing on her palm. She was spelling the word 'doll' d-o-l-l. Helen did not understand what Anne was doing. She pulled her hand away and continued to stroke the doll.
The next few days were traumatic. Helen hit, pinched, and kicked her teacher and even knocked out one of her teeth. Anne convinced her parents she needed two weeks alone with the child if she was to achieve any progress in her education. Anne finally gained control by moving with the girl into a small cottage on the Kellers’ property. Through patience and firm consistency, she finally won the child’s heart and trust, a necessary step before Helen's education could proceed.
Helen's mother once told Anne that Helen had been precocious in her learning of language before her illness and that her first word had been "wah-wah" for water. One day, while Anne and Keller were at the water pump refilling a pitcher of water, Anne kept spelling the word 'water' into Helen's palm. Suddenly, Helen whispered 'wah-wah'. She kept repeating it. Finally she understood that 'wah-wah' or w-a-t-e-r was the the tangible substance splashing from the pump.
It was a moment of enlightenment that brought Helen from darkness into light. She finally understood that words represented things. Later Helen Keller wrote in her autobiography:
"Suddenly I felt a misty consciousness as of something forgotten—a thrill of returning thought; and somehow the mystery of language was revealed to me. I knew then that “w-a-t-e-r” meant the wonderful cool something that was flowing over my hand. That living word awakened my soul, gave it light, hope, joy, set it free! … Everything had a name, and each name gave birth to a new thought. As we returned to the house every object which I touched seemed to quiver with life."
Helen wrote of the days that followed, “I did nothing but explore with my hands and learn the name of every object that I touched; and the more I handled things and learned their names and uses, the more joyous and confident grew my sense of kinship with the rest of the world.”
Sullivan fingerspelled to her constantly, and coached her in the give-and-take of conversation. Keller’s love of language, her great articulateness and grace as a writer and public speaker were built upon this foundation.
The following year Helen attended the Perkins Institute for the Blind where she joined other little blind children in their work and play, and talked continually. She was delighted to find that nearly all of her new friends could spell with their fingers. She wrote of this experience: "Oh, what happiness! To talk freely with other children! To feel at home in the great world!” Helen studied French, arithmetic, geography, and other subjects. She especially enjoyed the library of embossed books and the tactile museum’s collection of bird and animal specimens.
Later Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan moved to New York to attend other special schools for the deaf and eventually in 1904, at the age of 24, Helen Keller graduated from Radcliffe College, becoming the first deaf blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree.
Keller went on to become a world-famous speaker and author. She is remembered as an advocate for people with disabilities. She was able to achieve all this because of one person - her teacher Anne Sullivan.
Anne Sullivan became more than a teacher to Helen Keller. They became lifelong companions who lived, worked, and traveled together. By 1935, Anne Sullivan became completely blind. She died at age 70, with Keller holding her hand. When Keller herself died in 1968, her ashes were placed next to Anne's.
In October 2009, a bronze statue of Helen Keller was added to the National Statuary Hall Collection in America. It depicts Keller as a seven year old child standing at a water pump. The statue represents the significant moment in Helen Keller's life when she understood her first word: W-A-T-E-R, as signed into her hand by teacher Anne Sullivan. The pedestal base bears a quotation in raised letters and Braille characters: "The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched, they must be felt with the heart."
Christine's recommendations for improvement included more vocal variety and dramatisation to make the story come alive.
A good start to the new year. Two more project speeches to AC-S!
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