On the 15th August, I visited Kebun Baru
Toastmasters Club, as a language evaluator.
This was my 29th club visit on the 46th day of the
Toastmaster year.
The Toastmaster of the Day was Sundari. The table topics master was Suresh A., who was
also the timer. The ah counter was Hamsapriya Selvam. The sergeant-at-arms was
Anand Ariyarathinam.
The president, Alvin Ho’s opening address was also his
project speech. He spoke at length on
how we judge people based on the way they dress. He cited a story by Mulla Naswr ad-Din, from
Persian Sufi literature, and the story of the dress. He also showed picture of luminaries of the
IT industry, and how they dressed at technology conventions. This was an interesting insight on how
different corporate culture can be from geek culture.
The second speech was by Vivian Wong Li An. She played on the theme of “neighbours” to
speak about her neighbours during the Chinese Seventh Month. It was a fascinating look into Chinese
mythology and beliefs, still prevalent nowadays, of spirits and ghosts.
Lisa Wong Pui Wan spoke about her time growing up, and how, coming
from a traditional Chinese background, she hated studying English, and did
poorly at school. This changed when she
had an English boyfriend. She then told
of how her father, in his forties then, worked very hard to learn English to
connect with his children and grandchildren.
The story went full circle, from fearing to lose their Chinese heritage
by learning English, to learning Chinese to reconnect with their culture, two
generations down,
Brahmakumar Balakrishnan spoke about his time
mentoring someone much older, a retired Lieutenant-Colonel, seeking to be a
better public speaker, even in his latter years, and how that inspired him as
well. This shows us how continuous learning
has no age limit.
Naveen Giri did a difficult project, managing a
difficult audience. We played the role
of that difficult audience. Naveen Giri
spoke of his friend, “Mike” and their misadventures trying to get a date from
their school years to their NS years to young adulthood. It was hilarious;
The evaluators were Riddhi Kukreja, Sophia Ngo Thi Van, Hamsapriya Selvam, Willie Loh Chung Wei, and Li Shan Shan.
Best Speaker: Brahmakumar Balakrishnan;
Best Evaluator: Hamsapriya Selvam; and
Best Table Topics Speaker: Julie Ong P. S.
