On 21st October 2019, I was at
Clarity Toastmasters Club as Project Evaluator, my 95th club visit
on the 113th day of the Toastmaster year. Clive Chng served as Sergeant-at-Arms. Ang Ming Song served as Toastmaster of the
Day. Gary Tsu served as Timer. Florence served as Ah Counter.
Why Impromptu Speaking Deserves the
Emphasis
Vernon Lim, DTM, gave a short
presentation on why people should join Toastmasters, expounding on the need to
speak impromptu. Brandon Ng continued
the theme in his opening address, segueing into the club’s branding and chapter
mission. Impromptu speaking is, without
dispute, the hardest discipline the entire Toastmasters programme teaches,
since there is no script to lean on and no rehearsal to fall back on. Two speeches opening the meeting by making
that case, rather than assuming it self-evident, gave the guests in the room a
clear reason to stay for the rest of the evening.
A Cautionary Story, Told as an
Inspirational One
Calvin spoke on his own weight loss
journey, citing Christian Charles Philip Bale as an inspiration. Bale’s transformation for his 2004 film The
Machinist is a matter of public record: he dropped from 173 to 110 pounds
on a daily diet of a single apple, a can of tuna, and black coffee, becoming
too weak to climb a flight of stairs.
Bale himself has since described the experience candidly, and the
account is worth citing honestly rather than romanticising. It made for a striking performance. It was also a medically dangerous,
unsustainable method used to inhabit a fictional character for a few months of
filming, not a template for lasting personal health, and Bale regained the
weight for his very next role. Calvin’s
own journey, whatever form it took, deserves credit on its own terms, separate
from the extreme example he chose to reference.
A Name, an Ambition, and a
Cosmopolitan Choice
Nao, who is Japanese, explained the
meaning of her name and how she came to live in Singapore. Since childhood, her ambition was to travel,
and she chose Singapore for its cosmopolitan blend of East and West and to master
English. A decision weighing culture and
language together rather than choosing a destination by convenience alone
reflects genuine planning behind what most people treat as an impulsive move
abroad.
Stereotypes, Compared Across Two
Contexts
Ernest Tung spoke on discrimination and
stereotypes, recounting his own experience of being stereotyped for his Chinese
ethnicity while overseas, and drawing a comparison to the situation minorities
face within Singapore itself. A speaker
willing to hold his own experience of prejudice abroad alongside the prejudice
minorities encounter at home, rather than treating only one direction as worth
discussing, produced a more honest speech than most treatments of this subject
manage.
A Difficult Passage, Read Well
Garen Tee gave an interpretative reading
of a section of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince. It is a challenging book, built on
deceptively simple language carrying genuine philosophical weight beneath it,
and it was a challenging passage.
Reading Saint-Exupéry aloud well requires resisting the urge to perform
it as a children’s story, since the text itself was never written as one.
The Evaluators and Results
Brandon Ng, Ang Ming Song, Quek Li Lin,
and I served as Project Evaluators. Best
Speaker went to Calvin. Best Table
Topics Speaker went to a guest. A
meeting spanning method acting, cross-cultural identity, ethnic stereotyping,
and French literary philosophy gave this room a genuinely wide range to work
through in a single evening.
Terence Nunis, DTM | Division Advisor, District 80 Division M | Club Advisor, AIA Toastmasters | Past President & Founder, Awesome Toastmasters
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