LE @ NUS Alumni TMC 8 April 2016 Chapter Meeting

Brickbats

(1) Grammar
- NUS Alumni Toastmaster Club => NUS Alumni Toastmasters Club
- most of the thing I wanted to do => most of the things I wanted to do
- where did the act of piracy took place? => where did the act of piracy take place?
- when Raffles hears this, he saw an opportunity => when Raffles heard this, he saw an opportunity

(2) Vocabulary
- A friend of mine psychoed me => A friend of mine inveigled me 
(NB. inveigled means to entice, lure or ensnare by flattery or artful talk)
- I anyhow join a few clubs => I randomly chose some clubs to join
- to do their projects => to present their projects
- so I will cut it short => so I will keep it short
- I did very bad in the first round => I did very badly in the first round
- save our asses => to save us from dire situations
- her lung was broken => her lung was damaged/impaired
- that made her adoption family => that made her adoptive family
- she doesn't want to bother the family => she didn't want to burden the family
- you do a great speech => you delivered a great speech
- you did a story => you shared a story
- three other things for improvement => three areas for improvement
- the point seems a bit lagging => the point seemed a bit lacking
- improve on your position => improve on your stance
- to marry someone that loved you => to marry someone who loves you
- that I felt in my opinion => I felt that ... (in my opinion is redundant)
- I will make things more easier =>  I will make things easier 

(3) Sentence structure
- Once upon a time, there was a email pop up => once I received an email
- anybody who come after me is new => any member who joined after me is considered a new member
- not long after he came to the earth => not long after she was born
- due to the finance reason, she was adopted by her uncle => due to her family's financial difficulty,...
- bring your speech into life => help to make your speech come alive

(4) Pronunciation 
(click on each word to hear the correct pronunciation... hyperlinks from Dictionary.com)
think 
mouth
mesmerize
anxious
especially
lilac
intrigue
allies
iteration
abrupt
detect
monotony
monopolize
Wang (rhymes with hung)
Vu (voo)

Bouquets

(1) Alliteration
Confident and convincing
Interview and immerse
stand steady
Projection, pacing, pauses, pitch, polished

(2) Rhyme
- fake it until you make it
- positivity and creativity
- educational and historical
- facts tell, stories sell
- innovate and create
- loving and dating

(3) Metaphor
- butterflies in my stomach
- colourless life
- could bring colour back into her life
- ballooned to 5 thousand
- eventually I saw sunlight in our life
- fountain of youth

(4) Repetition
- very, very very nervous
- wish me luck, wish me luck
- look forward, move forward
- do new things, try new things, learn new things
- born anonymously, live anonymously and die anonymously

(5) Triads
- encouraged, persuaded, enticed
- pleasant, natural and sincere
- when you're hungry, when you're thirsty and when you don't have what you want

(6) Quotations (Table Topics)
- Learning is an experience, everything else is just information. - Albert Einstein
- Don't go through life, grow through life (also showing parallel structure & contrast)
- Work hard, stay positive, get up early - it's the best part of life.
- The key to successful aging is to pay as little attention to it as possible
- There is only one happiness in this life - to love and be loved. 
- You are never too old to set another goal or to dream another dream.
- Success is nothing more than a few disciplines practised everyday.

Language Evaluation @ NUS Alumni

NUS Alumni Chapter Meeting 13 November 2015

Brickbats

1. Grammar
(a) plural

• NUS Alumni Toastmaster Club => NUS Alumni Toastmasters Club
• I could go oversea to study => I could go overseas to study
• I have three question => I have three questions
• A lot of thing can went wrong => A lot of things can go wrong
• will have many happy moment => will have many happy moments
• school holiday => school holidays

(b) tenses

• I still feel very happy for that => I still felt very happy about that
• A lot of us are stretch to the full => Many of us are stretched to the full
• I seek for help => I sought for help
• When the earthquake strike => when the earthquake struck
• In order to be qualify for voting => In order to qualify for voting

(c) subject-verb agreement

• Someone who is passionate about volunteer work and enjoy travelling => Someone who is passionate about volunteer work and enjoys travelling 

2. Vocabulary 

• fang xue le! => 6pm! Time to knock off! (Avoid using Mandarin, unless necessary and include translation)
• I am the TME for this evening. => I am the TME for tonight's meeting.
• for those who are doing their P1 speech => for those who are presenting their P1 speeches
• someone who will take care of our pause-fillers => someone who will take note of our pause-fillers
• you will hear the bell, in which you have to stop. => you will hear the bell, after which you have to stop.
• who doesn't not make wrong choices => who does not make wrong choices
• speak on the feet => think on your feet, speak off the cuff
• lame and nonsense stuff => lame and nonsensical stuff
• culture differences => cultural differences
• We should not feel sad of Singapore => We should not feel sad for Singapore

3. Sentence Structure

• Congratulations on completing your Project 1 and I just move on to your Project 2 speech => Congratulations on completing your Project 1 speech and I strongly encourage you to move on to your Project 2 speech
• Samsung is fighting against Apple. => Samsung can give Apple a run for their money.

Bouquets

1. Alliteration

• market mechanism
• bend backwards
• idleness is ideal

2. Rhyme

• We should not just survive; we should thrive.
• anything and everything is up for sale

3. Metaphor

• one of our club's newest collection (referring to a new member)
• People think that I bite. I won't bite but don't step on my tail.
• When I look back at this chapter of my life...
• Marketisation sharpens the sting of inequality.
• crowd out the values we seek to create
• You are the speech
• There is a big teddy bear in him. (referring to Lau Kwong Fook)
• Wisdom is the name they attache to four of your teeth.

4. Parallel structure

• No mountain too high, no river too wide
• moral and civic goods that market do not honour, and that money can't buy.

5. Vocabulary

• fixated on issues without caring about people's emotions => fixated means to have an obsessive attachment

6. Contrast

• Instead of letting changes happen to you, let the change come from within yourself.
• Instead of seeing change as negative, view it as an opportunity to learn a new skill.

5 TIPS ON FORMING ALLITERATIVE PHRASES

Alliteration refers to the repetition of the beginning sounds of words, as in “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers”, “long-lived”, and “the fickle finger of fate”.  

Alliteration makes great tongue twisters! They also add lyrical beauty to your writing.

However, note that it’s the sounds of words that must repeat, not the spelling. Thus, ‘honest’ and ‘humble’ are not alliterative, neither are ‘charismatic’ and ‘charming’.

In Toastmasters Competent Communicator Manual project 4 How to Say It, speakers are encouraged to use rhetorical devices to enhance and emphasize ideas. Alliteration is one of the easiest rhetorical device to use.

Here are 5 tips on forming alliterative phrases to add impact and beauty to your writing:

(1) Adjective + Noun

This is the easiest way to form an alliterative phrase.  Take a noun and think of an adjective that begins with the same sound. Pair them up and hey presto! you get an alliterative phrase.

Here are some examples: “clumsy clown”, “sensational speaker”, “towering tree”, “bungling burglar”, “terrified teacher”, “gentle giant”,  “decadent dessert”, “pink panther”, “Magic Mike” etc.   

(2) Adjective + Adjective

Another way to form alliteration is by using two adjoining adjectives that begin with the same sound to describe the same thing or person.

For example, “big, bad wolf”, “that man is crude and crass”, “a confident and charismatic speaker”, "a poised and polished presenter", “the performance was entertaining and enthralling”, “an effervescent and effusive person”, “The storm was unrelenting and unstoppable” etc

(3) Verb + Verb

Another common way to form alliteration is by having two verbs that begin with the same sound.

For example, “He hemmed and hawed”, “the doctor poked and prodded me”, “the girl banged and bawled”, “frame and focus”, “mumbled and muttered under his breath” etc.

(4) Noun + Noun

Having two nouns that begin with the same sound is also a great way to alliterate.

For example, “tips and techniques”, “the next buzz and bing”, “the prince and the pauper”, "Superman and Spiderman" etc.

(5) Adverb + Adjective / Verb + Adverb

An adverb (usually a word ending with –ly) can easily be paired with an adjective or a verb to create alliteration.  

For the former, the adverb comes before the adjective.

For example, “disturbingly delicious desserts”, “exuberantly executed performance”, “painstakingly painted piece of art”, “disgustingly dirty socks” etc.

In the latter case, the adverb comes after the verb.

For example, “perspiring profusely”, “hummed happily”, “stared at me sinisterly”, “laughed light-heartedly” etc.

**************************************************************************************************

By using these combinations of alliteration, you can easily come up with alliterative triads or even your own tongue-twisters!

Round and round the rugged rock the ragged rascal ran! (from Dictionary.com)

Jolly Joni jests about jiving in jet planes jovially. 

When you come across any wonderful examples of alliteration while reading or listening to speeches, write them down in a notebook. This will become your treasure trove of alliterative phrases that you can refer to again and again for inspiration.

3 TIPS ON USING ALLITERATIVE TRIADS

Alliteration refers to the repetition of the beginning sounds of words, as in "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers", "long-lived", "short shrift" and "the fickle finger of fate".
(from dictionary.com)

A triad is a group of three, especially of three closely related persons or things. (from dictionary.com)

Put the two together and you get ALLITERATIVE TRIADS, that means groups of three words beginning with the same sounds. 

I love alliterative triads. I like to use them in my speeches and evaluations. It helps me to remember my points easily too!

Here are 3 tips on making alliterative triads work for you.

(1) Use alliterative triads as heading for the points in your speech. 
Let's say in your speech, you want to share three points. Think of three words all beginning with the same sounds that can describe these points succinctly.

Here are some examples from my own speeches:

3 things you lose when you have a baby: sleep, sex, sanity
(Read the speech Are You Ready? here)

3 things you put up with when you have a baby: pee, poo, puke
(Read the speech Perils of Parenting here)

3 ways to win a man's heart: food, fantasy, freedom
(Read the speech How to Train a Man here)

(2) Use alliterative triads to describe a person or thing vividly in your speech. 
You can use three adjectives to describe a person. For example, "John is a cool, calm and confident speaker", or "The dashing, dapper and debonair hunk caught everyone's attention."

A cafe used an alliterative triad to describe their offerings as "disturbingly delicious desserts". How cool is that?

(3) Use alliterative triads in your project evaluations.
Using alliterative triads in my project evaluations helps me to remember my points easily. In a club evaluation contest in 2010, I used 3 Ss for the commendations and 3 Es for the recommendations. 

I commended the speaker for her smooth delivery, sincerity and stories. The recommendations were expression, energy and effective use of grammar. (Read the evaluation speech here)

I also used this technique in the District 80 Evaluation Contest in 2010 which helped me to clinch the champion trophy! (Read the evaluation speech here)

By using alliterative triads, you can add value, verve, vitality to your speech. Try it! 

BECOME WHAT YOU BELIEVE

(Contest speech presented at Area Z3 International Speech Contest on 27 March at Katong Toastmasters Club)

Last year my friend gave me this book for Christmas because she knows that I love cakes. But what she didn’t know was that I can’t bake! When I flipped through the book, I would drool over each picture but to even think about baking them, I was overwhelmed to say the least. The recipes looked daunting and the ingredients list alone was enough to scare the living daylights out of me.

Good evening, fellow toastmasters and friends. Have any of you ever wished you could do something (like public speaking or paint or pole dance) but gave up trying even before you started simply because it seemed too daunting? Well, I totally understand how you feel.

It felt the same for me with regards to baking. My 3 best friends were wonderful bakers and would frequently whatsapp pictures of their culinary feats. And the worst thing? They would tell me how easy it is. How many of you here think baking is easy? Exactly my point! How can baking be easy? To prove her point, my friend Sharon gave us a hands-on demonstration at her house to bake Japanese light cheesecake. Her experience and deftness in measuring, sifting, beating sure made it look easy! 

I still had my reservations but I didn’t want to give up. A toastmaster never gives up! How else can you become a DTM? You must be Determined. I remember a quote by Henry Ford,

If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right.

So I was determined to learn baking. I decided to make a cake that did not require baking. Did you even know there was such a thing? Amazing isn’t it? I embarked on my ‘baking journey’ by making a no bake cheesecake.  I googled for recipes and watched some youtube videos, went out excitedly to buy all the ingredients and equipment and I was ready to go.

Crush some biscuits and mix with butter to make the base, put it in the fridge to chill. Make the filling by beating cream cheese with some condensed milk, vanilla essence and lemon juice together. Pour onto the base, put into the fridge to set for a few hours and viola, I have just made a cheesecake! It was life transforming!

Now I could eat as much cake as I wanted, whenever I wanted. Of course I also shared the bounty with my family members. I am happy to report there were no instances of diarrheoa or food poisoning. My success spurred me on and I volunteered to make a cheesecake for my brother-in-law’s birthday.  I made an oreo cheesecake which received raving reviews. After that, I made another one for my niece’s birthday. It started to have a snowball effect.  

mini chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese frosting 

Later I moved on to baking cakes and cupcakes using cake mix. After I was comfortable with using the oven to bake, I started learning how to make cupcakes from scratch.  Tonight, I am delighted to share with you my handiwork.

This exciting journey in baking reveals how our attitudes affect our actions. Do you believe that you can do it? Then you can. You will do whatever it takes to make it happen! If you believe you can become a DTM, then you will become a DTM, because you will work hard to make it happen. I want to urge all of you, believe in yourself and you will become what you believe.

Is there is a mountain you want to climb? Go climb it. Is there is a marathon you want to run? Go run it. Is there is contest you want to win? Go win it! Don’t allow your fears, your doubts and your self-limiting beliefs to hold you back. If you don’t succeed the first time, try try again.

When I first became a toastmaster, I never thought I could take part in speech contests and win. The speakers at the first club I had joined were very strong speakers. Every year they would sweep the trophies. Nevertheless I kept taking part in contest every year until one year I was finally placed 2^nd runner up. A small victory.  Many years later, many contests later, and many small victories later, I emerged as champion at a club humorous speech contest, beating the strong speaker who has been winning every single year ( he was my mentor!). It was such a sweet success to savour, it’s not every day that you get to surpass your mentor. 

Now when club members tell me they don’t want to take part in contests because they are not good enough, I always tell them, To start, you don’t have to be good but to be good, you must start!

There are inspiring examples all around us, of people who have overcome the odds to achieve great things in their lives, Mother Teresa, Gandhi, Nelson Mendela, Nic Vijucic, because they believed in themselves, they didn’t give up.  We too can become what we believe. All we have to do is start somewhere. It doesn’t matter if it’s something as small as baking a cake, or as big as changing the world, just believe in yourself and start somewhere.

One flower at a time, a garden is created.

One brick at a time, a house is built.

One speech at a time, a toastmaster is shaped.

One contest at a time, a champion is born.

In Search of Beauty

The ideas had been brewing in my head for a while. I completed the script last night, rehearsed and timed it, edited it this afternoon and rehearsed it a few times. And I was good to go. I did worry about forgetting my lines though.

Here is the speech that helped me win the champion trophy tonight:

In search of beauty

Once upon a time, there was a sweet young thing. She was so sweet that she attracted many suitors.  Her suitors lined the streets from her house all the way to JB, and some even say Batam!

But as the years rolled by, the sweet young thing got married and had babies and suddenly she wasn't so sweet anymore.  She became a yellow face wife. And believe it or not - that sweet young thing was (dramatic pause) me of course.

During my first pregnancy, I ate like an elephant and ended up looking pretty much like one, having put on 20 kg. After disgorging the baby from my rotund belly, I still had 10 kg of excess weight. From an M size, I became XL!

Once when I visited my friend, one look at me and her mom's jaws dropped. Her eyes were as round as saucers as if she was witnessing something incredulous from Ripley's Believe it or not. She exclaimed “WA YOU HAVE BECOME SO FAT! SO FAT!” If she were a student in my English class doing show and tell, I would have given her an A+ for expressiveness, excellent vocal variety and body language.  But since she wasn't, I could only give her an F - failure for being tactful.  No woman wants to be told the cold hard truth about their girth!

Her callous words wounded my fragile ego so deeply that it ignited an obsession with weight loss.  Pre pregnancy I had a shapely pear shaped figure but post pregnancy I had become an out of shape pear! All my old clothes could no longer fit. My entire wardrobe had to be overhauled. In desperation, I tried dieting, exercising and slimming treatments, slimming pills, slimming gel, anything I could get my hands on but I could not get the desired result due to inconsistent effort.

Two years ago I signed up for a gym membership. Good idea right? Only thing was I could feel my stiff bones creaking in protest. Some moves were so hard I could hardly keep up. And there in front of me was a petite lady with white hair, in her 60s, prancing and moving with so much gusto that she completely put me to shame.  The sessions were always energetic and enjoyable but I eventually stopped going due to my part-time studies and exams.

Recently I was helping my 7-year-old boy to wipe himself dry after his shower. I was squatting next to him. You know how when you sit or squat, your thigh muscles will relax and spread out. Well, my son was staring intently at my thunder thighs and he suddenly asked me, “Mommy, why your leg so giant?” I almost frothed at the mouth and fainted.  But I quickly regained my composure, thanks to my Toastmasters Table Topics training and told him , “Well, God gave me strong legs so that I can carry you around!”

Seriously, a woman can have so many hang-ups about their physical appearance. My hang-ups are innumerable: small boobs, big butt, thunder thighs, belly fat, freckles, pigmentation, eye bags, dark circles, crow’s feet, and the list goes on.  I have searched for beauty in vain.

Last week I went for a makeover. I was so well made over that my son did not recognize me. As for me, I could not stop staring at my reflection in the mirror. I was unbelievably, unimaginably and irresistibly beautiful, like I was 14 years ago on my wedding day. But the magic of make-up is transient and illusory, when the make-up is removed, the magic is gone.

Then God spoke to me, (pause) not in person of course, but through the Bible. I was reading a story in 1 Samuel chapter 16 about God tasking the prophet Samuel to look for a new king for Israel. God directed Samuel to Bethlehem, to the household of Jesse, who has eight sons. When Samuel saw Eliab, Jesse’s eldest son, he was impressed by his stature and convinced that he must be God’s anointed king. However God said to Samuel, and I was sure He was saying it to me as well: “Do not look at his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”  

(I Samuel 16:7 NKJV)

Wow! That made me sit bolt upright with the realization that I have wasted so much time, money and energy on my physical appearance when it’s my heart I should be concerned with.  And the bonus? How can a woman who’s pretty on the inside possibly be ugly on the outside?

In the wise words of Eleanor Roosevelt, the longest serving First Lady of the United States: “No matter how plain a woman may be, if truth and honesty are written across her face, she will be beautiful.” 

Now that’s the kind of beauty I want!

Language Evaluation at AIA - May 2013

Word of the day:

riveting (adjective):
 - so interesting that it holds your attention completely

Some correct and commendable uses of this word:

• I was riveted by this show. (used as a verb)
• It must be riveting enough to keep us awake.
• He was rivetingly engaging.
• That was a riveting icebreaker speech.

RECOMMENDATIONS:

Vocabulary 

• It's an apocalypse show. =>It's an apocalyptic show.
• The speech that I will be doing. => The speech that I will be presenting.
• Sometimes life can be enjoying. => Sometimes life can be enjoyable.
• It was a life-changing career in my life. => It was a life-changing moment.
• There are some steps to do. => There are some steps to follow.
• Most of us are familiar of... => Most of us are familiar with ...
• too much topics => too many topics

Sentence structure

• She is today Ah Counter. => She is the Ah Counter for today.
• lawless rampant society  => lawlessness is rampant in that society.
• to foster us self-confidence => to help us foster self-confidence
• He told me something that strike my mind.  => He told me something that stayed in my mind.
• She has travelled the world, not many people does.  => She has travelled the world, but not many people have had the opportunity.

Pronunciation 

• preparatory pri-par-uh-tawr-ee
• menu  men-yoo
• impact  im-pakt  (note: don't drop the /t/ sound at the back)
• presentation  prez-uhn-tey-shuhn (note: stress on the 3rd syllable)
• alchemist  al-kuh-mist (note: /ch/ is pronounced as /k/)

COMMENDATIONS:

Alliteration

• clear, cloudy
• stubborn stain
• systematic and structured

Triads

• Cats are smooth, feline and adorable.
• I learned to adjust, adopt and adapt to AIA.
• A voice that is loud, clear, proud.
• 3 key areas: temperature, value and intensity
• colour, flavour and how you serve them
• drama, dialogue, engagement

Rhyme

• It's doable and possible.
• Do you empathize and sympathize?
• You're not riveting, you're inviting.

Contrast

• He is an introvert in an extrovert business.
• I'm happy and sad to be born on National Day.
• She was made in UK, the other two are local products.
• If words can't solve it, a bullet might.
• I lie on my bed, not under my bed.
• They slap you and then tell you they like you.
• Ladies first? No! Ladies serve.
• Laugh dying vs die laughing to the bank

Metaphors 

• My name is Charity. (beseeching speaker to donate to him.)
• Tsunami makes you think of a dam bursting.
• I name it (red wine) stubborn.
• I lost my singlehood.
• She was a branded child. (referring to the child 'made in UK')
• What a colourful speech!
• Your speech was a jigsaw puzzle with pieces that fit together.
• Inject more excitement in your speech.