Tampines Changkat Toastmasters Club Meeting & EXCO Installation Night - 2nd July 2009

Our Executive Committee 2009-2010 Club Officers' Installation

The President and Members of Tampines Changkat Toastmasters

cordially invites you

to attend the Club Officers' Installation Ceremony

to be held on

Thursday, 2nd July 2009, 7.00 pm to 10.00pm

at the Tampines Changkat Community Club

13, Tampines Street 11, Singapore 529453

We also have an invited speaker, Nick French, ACS, CL, to give us a Special Presentation - "It's Fun to be Funny!"

Do you yearn to be a more entertaining presenter by injecting humour into your speeches? Are you afraid to administer the needle – or perhaps don’t know how to operate the syringe?

Delivering humour is certainly one of the most difficult elements of speech crafting. Find out what it takes to have fun preparing and presenting humour while transforming an ordinary ‘simply static’ speech into one that is ‘stunningly fantastic’. Learn techniques in applying humour and develop a reputation as a confident, competent, and entertaining speaker.

About the Speaker:

Nick French was born and educated in Harare, Zimbabwe

He is qualified with a Master of Science degree in Metallurgy and Material Science and an MBA from the University of Cape Town, South Africa – longer ago than he chooses to remember!

His South African based career has spanned a number of sales and marketing positions in the industrial gas, base and precious metal industries and more recently, petrochemicals. He has extensive sales experience in Europe, South America , the Middle East and of course, the Asia Pacific.

He joined Sasol, a South African Energy company in 1994 and shortly afterwards was transferred to Singapore to establish the regional sales office. He is currently the Asia Pacific regional marketing manager for the chemicals division of Sasol, where his responsibilities require him to work across most Asian cultures.

Nick’s interest in Asian culture and etiquette inspired him to write a book on this subject – Asian Ways , (www.Asian-Ways.com) which was published last year.

He is a past president of the SIM II Toastmasters club and over the last three years has competed in a Division B and District 80 speech contests.

8 Steps to Your Successful Job Hunt!

Tampines Changkat Toastmasters Club is organizing a workshop on 8 Steps to Your Successful Job Hunt.

This workshop aims to help participants enhance their resume-writing and interviewing techniques to help them in their Job Search. This is a particularly useful skill during this period of time, and is always an important skill to have whether you are looking for a new job or not.

Details are as followed:
Date/Time: 4th July 2009 (Saturday), 1.30-5.30pm
Venue: Tampines Changkat Community Center Auditorium

Admission: S$2.00 (PAssion Member)/

S$4.00 (Non PAssion Member)

Some background about our speaker, Lee Jin Hwui:
He is a Human Resource (HR) Professional with more than seven years of experience, comprising various genres, including Policy Formulation, Resourcing, Benefits Administration, Job Analysis, Job Evaluation, Learning Needs Analysis, Curriculum Design, Training Delivery and Training Evaluation. He conducts training on various topics, including Performance Management, Service and Process Improvements, Resume Writing and Interviewing Techniques.

He is a Certified “Big 5” Psychometric Profiling Consultant, Certified People Developer Consultant, Certified FISH! Philosophy Trainer as well as a Certified Professional Resume Writer (CPRW) and a Certified Employment Interview Professional (CEIP). He is also a Certified Practitioner of the popular Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) technique, which he employs regularly during his training and coaching sessions. In addition, he contributes HR-related articles for various publications such as The Straits Times Recruit, JobStreet.com and The Port Officer – the official magazine for the Port Officers’ Union (POU). More details is in the flyer attached.

We truly believe that this workshop will benefit all the participants to build their resume-writing skill and more self-confidence during job interviewing for their ideal job.

Family & friends are welcome to this event.

Feel free to contact me by email or by Mobile at 97989595 for any enquiries or to register your interest.

Thank You.

ToastMasters Club - 19/3/2009

Today, I reached the club at 8.40pm... Waited for Bus 168 for 30min at Woodlands...
Another encounter with our Best Transportation System company.

Anyway, I presented my Project 9 today.
I felt I performed rather well. Although there were a little hip-ups at certain portions of the speech, still managed to return back to track after the hip-ups.

This is what I said:
Good Evening, Club President, Fellow Toastmasters & Guests.

Why did I learn Taiji?
I remembered 2 years back, I was looking for a sport; hoping that this sport could become a hobby that I can enjoy even when I am old. But I had set a few criteria’s for this sport. Firstly, it needs to be physical-intensive. I will like to exercise and to keep fit. And I enjoy this sport regularly basis. Secondly, I liked to learn basic self-defense techniques. With these 2 criteria’s, there are a few options. Silat, Taekonwdo, Aikido and Taiji. Knowing that I was 25 and not going to be any younger; I won’t be able to endure pain as I used to be; I won’t be able to recover from sprain and wound as quickly as compared when I was 18. I left with only 1 option, Taiji. And coincidently, there was a Taiji class poster at my void deck’s notice board. I enquired. Then 11th September 2007, Tuesday 8pm marked my first encounter with Taiji.

So what is Taiji?
Taiji is an internal martial art developed in China.
To direct translate Taiji into English, it means 'Supreme Ultimate Force'.
But in Chinese, Tai means Very while Ji means pole. POLE. Pole is the starting and ending point or turning point.. So Taiji means the very starting point or turning point of change. Taiji is the martial application of the art, the art of balancing changes.

Taiji consists of a series of slow and controlled movements which were derived from other external martial arts such as Shaolin. These movements helped practitioners to restore the normal flow of the body’s energy. The body’s energy is usually refered as “Chi”.

To explain a little about “Chi”. In Chinese philosophy and medicine, "Chi" is a vital force that gives life to the body. Tai Chi boosts the circulation of this "Chi" within the body and thus enhances the practitioner's health and vitality.

Common Misconception
After 18 months of practicing Taiji, I realized that there are a few misconceptions among people about Taiji.

1. Taiji is not a martial art.
The first misconception is that Taiji is not a martial art.
Taiji is a martial art. Same as other martial arts such as Silat, Aikido and Taekwondo, through practicing, it trained our reflexes to protect ourselves. Similarly, Taiji has basic dodge, block, punch and kick. What is different? The different is we do it slowly, gently and gracefully. The reason why we do it slowly is to reduce stress and tension, and at the same to smoothen our joint’s motion and function. By not doing it that slowly and gracefully, will result in hurting oneself while practicing. 1 very good example to describe the gracefulness of Taiji was the Taiji performance in Beijing Olympic 2008 opening. I believed many people in the room should be very impressed with the performance.

2. Taiji is for sick or old people
The second misconception is that Taiji is for the sick, weak or old.
It is, but not exclusively! I can only put it in a way that Taiji can be learned by a very wide group of people, from young to old, strong and the not so strong. The strong and young ones usually are suggested to bend their knees more while those that are not so strong or young will be advised to bend their knees slightly. This is to train our knees. In the exercise point of view, it will gradually and slowly it builds up our muscles and strength.

To conclude, why I learned Taiji.
I practice Taiji as a form of exercise and at the same time to learn self-defense techniques. I understand a lot of people are interested in Taiji, especially after last year’s Beijing Olympic Opening. But many were bothered by the misconceptions and were embarrassed to know more and learn. I hope after my presentation, I had clarified the misconceptions about Taiji and have encouraged everyone to open-up our mind to this gracious sport.

Thank You.
******************************************************************
Evaluations:
Strength:
- Sincere
- Confident & with Eye Contact
- Passionate

Room for Improvements:
- an more interesting opening
- instead of telling why u take up taiji, should hightlight the need why the audience should take up Taiji.
- could demonstrate some of the movements
- wear taiji costume for delivery

Time: 6min 19sec

Ah Counting: 2 'so's

hehe...
To be frank, I know my speech was alittle out of the objective of Project 9. But dont know how to persuade people. haha...

But in general, besides the objective mis-matched, i was rather happy with my performance today... hehe...

ToastMasters Club - 05/3/2009

Back Dated...
This meeting, we were having our International Speech & Table Topics Contests.
Initially was part of the contestant, but I didnt prepare, so withdraw on Saturday. haha...

But this meeting, I didnt expect it to be so fun. Really enjoyed the session. I love the humor of the speakers! Fantastic! Should be considered fortunate that didnt have to complete with them... haha... All the speeches were so good! The judges got a very very tough time man!

Still some takebacks:
- only mistake is not to make one.
- throw a fish out of water
- is not the years in ur life, but the life in ur years that count
- attitude determine the latitude
- life is indeed what u made of it
- stop-by & smell the roses
- fame in body

ToastMasters Club - 19/2/2009

Back dated...
As before, enjoyed the meeting alot.

I was the Ah Counter....
This time round, tried something new.
I tried to keep track of people's repetition words.
hehe... Pretty interesting.. hehe...
Maybe due to economy not good, the ah countings were very little. haha...

Word of the Day: Open

Phases/Words mentioned:
- certainly
- deposit into our vocabulary bank
- put into practice
- moving on
- love in quotes
- put our hands together
- prime example
- awesome
- collectibles
- dog tired
- speak on the spot
- speak for at least 1 min
- delightful evening
- first class example
- communicate gently

Toastmaster Meeting - 050209

Today, I was the Table Topics Master.
Didnt manage to find out why I was so nervous. Nervous to an extend where I started shivering while going to attend the meeting!

Kind of disappointed with myself, bei kao zai! haha...

Some mistakes that I realised:
1) Forgot to lead the applause
2) Shivering
3) Lost of words, unable to continue & dont know how to carry on to the next portion of the program
4) Forgot to greet the President & Audience
5) Almost left out the timing sequence. (Had to thank Susan for reminding me.)
6) Not well-prepared
7) Tongue still stick-out
8) Topics on Paper; Paper on my hands. (Could think of a better alternative to present my Topics, have to be more aware how other people managed this)
9) Distraction: -> back faced audience
-> Canceling movement of the white board (Need to think of something to make better)

Ah Counting:
- 2 ers
- 1 repetition
- 1 then


Word of the Day: Decision


What I learnt:
1) We are always not READY. Maybe thats why the GREATEST enemy is ourselves.
2) 1 coincidence to many
3) Learning is Growing
4) Readiness is the Best Protection.
5) Work too hard, see too little
6) Pet Shop Owner = a person that owns the Pet Shop
7) See an imperfect person perfectly
8) When giving assurance speech - speaks slowly
- heavier tone
9) "I am privileged to be here."
10) 'Flour' is pronounced as 'Flower'.
11) When we are saying the 'V' words, we should feel vibration at our throat & ears. (I cannot pronounce 'V' & 'R'! properly'. haha...)

Toastmasters Club Meeting - 09/01/2009

This was the first Toastmasters Club meeting for the year 2009 and I had done my project 7 - Research my Topic.

I was an enjoyable as before, learned lotz of good stuffs.

Quotes:

- New Year, New Beginning, New Start, New Opportunity.

- Everyone hols a key

- Walk to talk

What I said:

Coca-Cola is a carbonated soft drink sold in stores, restaurants and vending machines world-wide in over 200 countries. It is produced by the Coca-Cola Company in Atlanta, Georgia and is often referred to simply as Coke or Cola in the whole world.

Do anyone know what is the recipe of Coca-Cola?

As spelled out, Coca refers to coca leaf while Cola refers to kola nuts.

As Frank Robinson, Pemberton’s partner, felt that “2Cs would look better in advertising”, he changed the ‘K’ to a ‘C’ and named the drink Coca-Cola.

Coca-Cola was invented by a pharmacist, John Pemberton. John Pemberton was also the creator Pemberton’s French Wine Coca. Pemberton’s French Wine Coca was an alcoholic beverage mixed with coca, kola nuts and damiana. To side track alittle, damiana is a kind of flower that is used in herbal medicine to treat coughs,

constipation and depression.

French Wine Coca was marketed mostly to upper class intellectuals, afflicted with diseases believed to have brought on by urbanization and Atlanta’s increasing competitive business environment. John Pemberton claimed that the drink would benefit “scientists, scholars, poets, lawyers, physicians and others devoted to extreme mental exertion.”

But in 1886, when Atlanta and Fulton County passed prohibition legislation, Pemberton responded by developing Coca-Cola, essentially a non-alcoholic version of French Wine Cola. The first sale was on 8^th May 1886. It slowly gained its popularity in United States at that time due the belief that carbonated water was good for the health. Pemberton still claimed that Coca-Cola could cure many diseases such as morphine addiction, headache and impotence.

When launched Coca-Cola’s 2 key ingredients were cocaine and caffeine. The cocaine was derived from the coca leaf and the caffeine from kola nuts.

Cocaine is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. It is both a stimulant of the central nervous system and an appetite suppressant. Because the way it affects the brain, cocaine is addictive. The addictive properties of cocaine was only discovered in the early 20^th century. At that point of time, The Coca-Cola Company was forced not to use cocaine in the production of the soft drinks. Therefore, till today the company uses cocaine-free coca leafs for her soft drinks. Nevertheless, cocaine is used in medicine as a topical anesthetic, specially in eye, nose and throat surgery.

As for another ingredient kola nut. Kola nut is a genus of about 125 species of trees native to the tropical rainforests of Africa. As the kola nut contains caffeine, it tasted bitterest. In medicine, Kola nuts are often to treat whopping cough and asthma. Due to the caffeine in kola nut, it also acts as a bronchodilator, expanding the bronchial air passages.

There are lots of criticisms on Coca-Cola. The Coca-Cola Company has been criticized for its business practices as well as the alleged adverse health effects of its flagship product. A common criticism of Coke based on its allegedly toxic acidity levels has been found to be baseless by researchers; lawsuits based on these criticisms have been dismissed by several American courts for this reason.

Numerous court cases have been filed against The Coca-Cola Company since 1920s, alleging that the acidity of the drink is dangerous, no evidence corroborating this claim has been found. Under normal conditions, scientific evidence indicates Coca-Cola’s acidity causes no immediate harm.

Another famous criticism was the amount of calories in the soft drink. There are indications that “soda and sweetened drinks are the main source of calories of many people, most nutritionists advise that Coca-Cola and other soft drink can be harmful if consumed excessively. Studies have shown that regular soft drink consumers have a lower intake of calcium, magnesium and vitamin A. The drink has also aroused criticism for its use of caffeine, due to the possibility of physical dependence. A link has been shown between long-term regular cola intake, of which Coca-Cola is the most consumed brand worldwide and osteoporosis in older women. This was thought to be due to the presence of phosphoric acid and the risk was found to be the same in all colas, no matter for caffeinated, non-caffeinated or diet or sugared colas.

With this, I hope that everyone has a better understand ok Coca-Cola & consume moderately if love it. Thank You.

Time: 5min 48sec

Ah Counting: 3 repetitions

Evaluation:

- Easy to follow.

- Will be good if I could utitlise another 1min to talk more about the origin, evolution, when was criticisms started.

- Go without the notes

- Remember by pointers

Presentation Skill...

Today, there was kind of a debrief for the project.
I was a little disappointed in a way when the consultant said that my colleagues performed better as he felt that many times my colleagues could understand and relate better to what he said than I did.

Before I continued, I just want to literate that I feel that my consultant and my colleagues didnt do anything wrong and there wasnt any politics involved. I just like to share my reflections.

After hearing that I was a little surprised, because all the while I felt that my technical knowledge was better. Networking, UNIX, ability to relate to systems, I thought I scored better. As a result, I didnt.

I evaluated myself. Some possibilities:
1) I think too highly of myself due to over-confidence. Which most of the time fell on me when I got too complacent. Which I believe is also one of the factors that contributed to the feedback.
2) Attitude. By means, my joking way of talking. PR-ing, yeah... I may have done a great job. But up to actual working, sometimes I can feel that alot of people feel that I wasnt serious as I was akways happy and laughing.
3) Big picture way of viewing things. Maybe have been thinking to be CEO, so only looks at big picture... Realised that at my level, I should pay more attention to details. Because those are the stuffs that are really important. Points for me to score GOAL. And I feel that this was also one of the factors why I did not manage the Boot Camp project well....
4) Presentation skill. I feel that my colleagues has a better presentation skill than I do. I could see that he didnt understand the whole thing at times, but he could phase it very well. I can only blame myself, why cant I present as well??? I believed besides presentation skill, another factor is also my command of English. Although compared to primary and secondary school days my English had improved alot, it isnt enough.

Conclusion:
Add the following to my 2009 resultion:
- Suppress my complaceancy
- Be more details
- Improve in my English and Public Speaking skill

Just like to re-literate that I feel that my consultant and my colleagues didnt do anything wrong and there was no involvement in politics. Just like to share my reflections.

I will like to take this chance to tell anyone who is reading this posting that even one maybe very capable, but if he doesnt manage to present himself well, he will lose out. I feel that one way to improve is to join Toastmasters Club. If u ask me, join which club to join? I will tell u Tampines Changkat Toastmasters Club! In a nut shell, I believe as well as Toastmasters Club is concern, every clubs will try their best to help their members to improve and excel in Public Speaking skill.