wenxi - NUS Toastmasters Club

Get the Most Out of Your Time!

October 30, 2015July 20, 2017
by wenxi

As we progress through various stages in life, we might occasionally find ourselves constantly grappling for more time. We would have heard many amongst us remarking “24 hours is just not enough! And I need another day between Sunday and Monday!” However, no matter what, it is undeniably true that no matter how much extra time or leisure time we are given, we would never be satisfied. As a third year Economics undergraduate, I too find myself struggling to cope with my workload and trying to find some free time aside for myself. Nonetheless, it is definitely possible given that all of us practise good time management skills! Breaking down tasks into simple and more manageable tasks might be good and more beneficial instead of aiming to a complete such an arduous or big task within a single day itself. But, let us try to learn more tips from the Entrepreneur: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/219553

I hope these tips would definitely be useful for all of you and let us try to practise more effective time management skills!

Written by:
Keerthana Paramasivam

Chapter Meetings

How Scrupulous Could We Be in A Chapter Meeting?…

October 5, 2015October 5, 2015
by wenxi

As the word chosen as the Word of The Night, “Scrupulous” means “diligent, thorough, and extremely attentive to details”, and scrupulously and scrupulousness are two variations from this word.

On top of how I understood this word in the past, today my fellow Toastmaster upgraded my understanding about this word.

As the Toastmaster-of-the-Evening, Alicia had scrupulously prepared for her show tonight. She started off the chapter meeting by cracking a joke which she recently came up with, and defining a more lively way of handing over the stage: a hi-five, instead of a hand-shake. This creative opening instantly brought smiles across the audience. Then, she brought us into an entertaining learning journey of Toastmaster evening.
Her innovative linking between speeches, along with her enthusiasm and expressiveness had brought to the audiences a stupendous performance. She successfully lightened up and maintained the atmosphere each time she took over the stage.

Chinab, our table topic master, ventured into his creativity through his topic questions. He had scrupulously chosen 10 pictures to be displayed, and then tasked each table topics speaker to talk about anything related to the picture they choose to release.

Our Advanced Project 1 speaker, Andrew grabbed everyone’s attention through his storytelling project and left everyone in the room in awe. His scrupulousness was reflected through his great vocal variety, appropriate gestures and visual aid when delivering the Indonesian folktale, and he engaged the audience by asking questions at the end of his speech.

Not only Alicia, Chinab, and Andrew, but also everyone else had shown their scrupulousness in their preparation, be it as a speaker or an appointment holder. A scrupulous preparation by each person would make a chapter meeting a success.

This chapter meeting taught me the importance of everyone’s cooperation and preparation. I learnt how to create a comfortable ambience for everyone from our TME, Alicia, from the topic master, Chinab and from many others. Besides, I also learnt the importance of creativity for not only tabletopics questions but also speeches, for example, Andrew has taught me how to engage the audience. As a Language Evaluator of the evening, having listened scrupulously to all the uttered words throughout the meeting, I now truly understand the meaning of the word I proposed.

Written by:
Ardina, Su Yanping
Editted by:
Yu Wenxi
29th Sep, 2015

Educational Materials

Julian Treasure TED Talk: How to Speak So That…

September 16, 2015July 20, 2017
by wenxi

I’m a huge fan of both the NUS Toastmasters chapter meetings and TED talks for the quality of the speakers and the topics on offer. I always leave with a feeling of somehow having been enlightened. This particular speech, made by Julian Treasure is an absolute goldmine of knowledge.

I feel that this is a speech that every toastmaster should watch this video and internalise the easy to apply techniques offered by Julian, especially those looking to hit all the right notes in their P6: Vocal Variety. I wish I had stumbled across this great resource before I tackled my P6 several months ago, but it’s never too late to learn how to effectively manipulate vocal variety to enhance one’s message.

Julian embodies great confidence with his authoritative voice. His first few words, in a low register: “The human voice,” followed by a very quick summary about his speech objectives, draw you into his world. Setting the stage for a quick intro to the fundamentals of public speaking skills, which sometimes, the most advanced speakers forget to apply. Julian’s speech, peppered with appropriate humour, left me wanting more. He describes the human voice as a toolbox, with many useful gadgets that we have at our disposal. Such metaphors enhance learning by giving us a more visual image of what is being said and makes his message memorable.

Julian brought up many skills/keyword that we have all come across at some point in our live and explained them quickly, not going into too much detail. He was successful in covering a great variety of skills but I would have preferred to hear some of them in greater depth. He, however, was probably rushed for time and the number of topics he touched in ten minutes, and the way in which he emphasised their importance in delivering a message, was quite incredible. So, after watching this video, there is a definite need to do your own further research to enhance your understanding of each of these skills.

If there is one skill I picked up that really caught my attention, it would have to be the effective usage of pauses. Being a Toastmaster, the suggestion of eliminating the ums and ahs really struck a chord. Julian is an exceptional speaker and his sincerity and conviction in delivering a message show that he truly believe in what he is saying. I believe that every one of us in NUS Toastmasters has what it takes to achieve that level of inspiration, and that is something we should strive toward. And that,…as they say in the TED community, is truly an idea that is worth spreading.

The recommended TED talk by Julian Treasure on How to speak so that people want to listen can be found at https://www.ted.com/talks/julian_treasure_how_to_speak_so_that_people_want_to_listen?language=en#.

Written by:
Selvam Ramanathan

As a Toastmaster...

Finding my voice at NUS TM

September 14, 2015
by wenxi

When I joined NUS Toastmasters Club a year ago, I expected to improve my public speaking and leadership skills. Looking back over the past year, I have not only become a better speaker, listener and leader but also had an amazing experience beyond my expectations.

Even though the chapter meetings are held on Tuesday nights after a long day’s work, I am instantly re-energized by the energy and the enthusiasm in the room. It never fails to amaze me how every meeting is run in a systematic and orderly manner so that the members and guests can make fruitful use of the time during the meeting. I think it’s a fantastic idea to start the meeting with table topics which is both the most fun and scary segment. It succeeds in breaking the ice and setting up the stage for the rest of the meeting, with new members and guests often volunteering (more like being volunteered) to be the victims only to find out – ‘Hey it isn’t so bad after all’.

The passion with which the members deliver their prepared speeches motivates me to do better every time and put more effort into my own speeches. The evaluations segment is my favorite part of the meeting, I have realized that the best way to complement your own speech preparation is to evaluate more often and listen to more evaluations. The evaluations have helped me identify my traits as a speaker ( the good and the bad ), many of which even I was unaware of. I cannot stress enough the importance of taking on appointment roles such as TME (Toastmaster of the evening), SAA (Seargent at Arms), Timer, Ah Counter and many more, each of which helps you hone a unique set of skills that you can readily apply in other aspects of your life.

For me, the real benefits have come from being involved with the club beyond the regular chapter meetings. Seeing your fellow toasties give their very best at the speech contests is both inspiring and makes you feel proud at the same time. Being involved in bench-marketing and facilitating workshops pushed me out of my comfort zone and do something I have really wanted to do – share my Toastmasters experience with others and convince them to try it for themselves. It is great fun to convey to people that we are not a cooking club. Thanks to the very active PR committee, I was also able to visit a number of other clubs in Singapore and experience different club cultures (NUS TM tops them all obviously!!). The camaraderie and support among the NUS TM members is no joke and it creates a conducive environment for all the members to learn and grow together while enjoying every moment of it.

In NUS TM, there is a genuine and sincere effort to bring value to the audience (who chose to spend their time listening to you) and along the way, this attitude has triggered something unexpected in me. As I brainstorm for my next speech content, I tend to find a little more about myself and what kind of message I want to deliver to the audience. Through NUS TM, I am slowly finding my voice and learning how to own it. NUS TM is a great failsafe platform to be unapologetically you and try new things you have always wanted to, but never took the first step because you were afraid of failing or people judging you. I am grateful to all the members and especially to the EXCO for making my first year at NUS TM into something I will cherish for life. Looking forward to many such years, I will sign off with an evaluation of my NUS TM experience in true Toastmasters spirit – what was good, what could have been better and what was the best.

The good – A multitude of opportunities to improve any personal development skill you can think of.
The could have been better – Food…maybe.
The best – Amazingly awesome club atmosphere.

Written By
Sindhu Shetty
13th Sept, 2015

Educational Materials

Roseline Torres Ted Talk: What it Takes to Be…

September 14, 2015July 20, 2017
by wenxi

Dear fellow Toastmasters,

Are you aware that leadership is also a crucial key track in your Toastmaster’s Journey? During every chapter meeting, members do not just take on speech projects, but also take on appointment roles such as Timer, Evaluator, Toastmaster of the Evening and so on. These roles allow you to develop essential leadership skills such as time management, teamwork and effective communication. But, leadership definitely extends way beyond that! When we go to work, we might have to develop our potential further and encounter certain situations where we would have to lead a large group of people in a decision making process and so on.

Roseline Torres is Boston Consulting Group’s resident expert on leadership and even left her previous job so that she could study about the topic of leadership in greater details. She shares a 9 minute Ted Talk speech on what it takes to be a 21^st century leader. In this Ted Talk, she highlights that there are key differences in becoming a leader today, especially with the increase in the flow of ideas and communication. She rose up three effective questions in her speech on what it takes to be a great leader:

1) Where are you looking to anticipate change?

2) What is the diversity measure of your network?

3) Are you courageous enough to abandon the past?

Watch this short clip: http://www.ted.com/talks/roselinde_torres_what_it_takes_to_be_a_great_leader?share=13aade675f on how Roseline talks about the various characteristics needed for a leader to succeed today and come out from the past conventional ways!

Written by:
Keerthana Paramasivam

Educational Materials

Tips on Becoming a Better Public Speaker

September 8, 2015July 20, 2017
by wenxi

Public speaking is something each and every one of us has had to do in our lives. It is something we cannot escape from no matter how much we fear it. It is crucial to success in our careers, helps us improve our communication, become a better leader and communicate our ideas across to other people. Want to learn how to improve your speaking today? The following article highlights tips from professionals on how to become a better public speaker:

The recommended article Want To Be A Better Public Speaker? Do What The Pros Do.can be found at http://www.forbes.com/sites/susantardanico/2012/05/29/want-to-be-a-better-public-speaker-do-what-the-pros-do/. All rights belong to the original author.

Written by:
G. Vishua Priya

Educational Materials

Communicate Your Way To Success: Lesson Learnt from Big…

September 8, 2015July 20, 2017
by wenxi

Have you watched the movie “Big Hero 6” before?

If you have, you would agree with me that it was fantastic!

If you have not, it’s okay! I just watched it during the NUS Alumni Family Day two weeks ago.

One of the main protagonists in the movie named Hiro, was a gifted creator or robots. He had an older brother, Takeshi, who was as talented as Hero and attends the best robotic academy in town. Initially, Hiro built robots just for fighting purposes, but later, he was inspired by his brother to dream bigger and attend the so-called “nerd school”. In order to enter the nerd school, Hiro had to present his invention during the recruitment fair, and this is the part of the movie that I would love to share with you, let’s click on the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSkuzg7YCo8.

When I watched this part, Toastmasters was the first thing that crossed my mind. Notice that Hiro had a stage fright, and stuttered at first. The audience started to ignore him and left. However, after receiving encouragement from his loving brother and his friends, he presented stupendously and was offered a place in the academy!

“How you say it” is as important as “What you say”. Hiro’s speech engaged the audiences’ senses. Notice that when he presented, he did not only tell the audience what “microbots” were, but also demonstrated to them how they work. The perfect combination of excellent speech crafting and choreography enchanted his audiences and caught an investor’s attention. Regardless of who we are, a scientist, an engineer, a social scientist, an artist, a businessperson, or even a musician, all of us need to communicate our ideas effectively. Often at times, we come up with breakthrough and brilliant ideas, but we have trouble connecting with our audiences and delivering the ideas to them. Here in NUS Toastmasters, we have an education structure that will help you build your confidence and competence in speaking, one step at a time. We have the basic 10 Projects in the Competent Communication Manual, from “The Ice Breaker” to “Inspire Your Audience”. After completing 10 basic projects, you can move on to select up to 6 from a palette of 15 Advanced Speech Manuals, each having its own specialisations, to further polish your speaking skills in different areas of expertise.

Speaking in public may be scary, but the fear can be subdued with the support of your family and friends. In NUS Toastmasters, we are like a family. We encourage and motivate one another to improve, one step at a time.

Navigate around our website to get a feel of who we are and what we do. Enjoy the educational resources written and posted by our dedicated members. If you have any query, or if you want to know how you can be a better speaker, listener, thinker and leader, we welcome you to contact any one of our Executive Committee members.

Let us work together, Let us grow together, and together, let us achieve our dreams.

Written by:
Andrew Anthony Tjoa

Educational Materials

Secrets of Speaking Confidently

September 8, 2015July 20, 2017
by wenxi

As the top one fear in the world, the mental and physical challenges posed by public speaking are tremendous to many of us, especially for those who do not use English as their native language, just like me. The nervousness we experience on the stage not only affects our fluency in delivery, but also undermines our credibility as a persuader or convincer. Are there any way to make ourselves appear assertive and confident in front of audiences even if we do feel the butterfly in our stomach?

The answer is a firm YES! In the following article 5 Secret Looking Confident While Speaking in Public, Nikki Stone highlighted 5 useful tips which I frequently applied before making a speech. I would recommend you to really put these tips into practice, as no a milestone could be achieved and no barrier could be overcome without your persistent input of time and efforts.

The recommended article 5 Secret Looking Confident While Speaking in Public can be found at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nikki-stone/confident-public-speaking_b_4058830.html . All rights belong to the original author.

Written by:
Wenxi Yu

Chapter Meetings

25th August 2015: Best demonstration Meeting that is magical

August 28, 2015September 12, 2015
by wenxi

25th August Demonstration Meeting

It was an exciting day for NUS Toastmasters Club last Tuesday! The largest event for our club- NUSTM Demonstration Meeting.

More than 200 people filled NUS’s largest lecture hall, LT27 in order to find out more about NUS Toastmasters.In order to carry out this large scale event smoothly, our club has also engaged a lot of members in taking up appointment roles. Some of which included ushers, befrienders, speakers, emcees etc.

For me, I was helping out as a befriender, who keeps going around and making friends. It was very fun getting to know people from different majors and hear stories from different tracks of life. I had a great time, and I’ve actually recorded down a list of the people met! (Cos I’m bad at remembering names..)

Here it goes:
Ryan: our first guest! He reached about fifty minutes earlier!
Xien Dong: our second guest! He is a very interesting guy. haha
Jue fan
Vincent
Tian Yao
Bertrand
Amanda
Hui min
Valerie
Zhun song
Yida
Mabel
Collin
Xin Zhe (Derek)
Nicholas
Li Mo
Xue Jin
Richard
Johnathan

It was so cool meeting all of you guys! Hope that you’ve actually joined toastmasters, so we could talk more during chapter meetings. 🙂

After getting to know these cool people, the demo meeting officially started!

First our Sergeant at arms, Yunus, led us in following the toastmasters pledge, which is a tradition we uphold in Toastmaster clubs. I’ve never been a huge fan of traditions, but even I feel that this pledge is significant.

Next our emcees took the stage- Kang Rui and Elaine. They stirred up the energy in the lecture hall!

Following on, Darryl brought us through the Table topics segment. I couldn’t stop laughing because he’s always a successful humorous speaker. Also, 2 brave volunteers amongst the guests took the challenge to go on the stage, and experienced their first table topics! Congratulations to Richard and Jonta for stepping out of comfort zone!

Next up, our 2 toastmasters speaker Fuk kin and Jaysree delivered inspirational Speeches- project 1 and project 2 respectively, with experienced toastmasters Sergio and Huijuen evaluating them. The feedback and suggestions given by these two attentive evaluators will aid in the improvements of the future speeches of Fuk Kin and Jaysree.

We have also invited Distinguished Toastmasters, Crispin, to give us the language evaluation.
And of course, we cannot forget the Distinguished Toastmasters and our Club Mentor, Wekie Tay, who gave amazing and captivating speeches and taught us the importance of communication through entertaining stories. It was always a pleasure listening to his speeches. We not only got to enjoy ourselves and laughed, but also learned something meaningful and inspirational.

The Demo meeting really passed very fast, so fast that we did not realize that the end of the meeting was approaching. When all speeches were delivered, everyone headed outside for more networking during refreshments. It was a great evening, well spent.

If you could not join us for demo meeting but would love to learn more about NUS Toastmasters, come join us at our upcoming chapter meetings! Our chapter meetings occur every Tuesday 7-10pm. Admission is totally free 🙂 We have meetings in 4 rooms concurrently! Hence, do not hesitate to join us at Faculty of Engineering, E3-06-05,10,13,14 on September 1st and September 8th!

Come and find out how to be a better speaker, thinker, listener and leader!

Written by:
Meng Lu

Educational Materials

10 Ways To Engage the Audience

August 25, 2015July 20, 2017
by wenxi

Dear fellow Toastmasters,

I am sure most of us would love to have the attention of the audience on us the entire time we are doing a speech project. For instance, when we say something funny or incorporate humour in our speech, we would definitely expect the audience to laugh or at least respond to what we are saying. Even though we might have delivered a very well-rehearsed speech, it is nevertheless crucial that we engage the audience as well. Building a strong rapport with the audience forms the root of an effective speech. The laughter, the applause from the audience without any doubt would make us more satisfied with our speech! Do you have the ability to capture the attention of the audience or do you find that your audience happen to lose interest in what you are speaking? Here are 10 tips shared by Dorothea Stuart from Toastmasters International on how to build rapport and engage your audience effectively!

1) Putting your audience first – It is important to know as much as possible about your audience before starting on your speech project so that you can tailor your content of your speech according to the needs of the audience.

2) Find opportunities for humour – Humour is the most effective tool to engage the audience and one of the oldest rapport building techniques.

3) Allowing for flexibility in your content – Flexing your speech in response to your audience. Arrive early before your speech and talk to as many people as possible. Pick up interesting stories or anecdotes which you could use later on as well.

4) First Impressions count – Dress appropriately and form a good mental and physical state which communicates a positive attitude and energy to your audience. Be enthusiastic about your speech.

5) Have a strong opening – Make the audience feel as though they are good hands with your opening. Find an opening that grabs the audience attention and engage them immediately.

6) Manage the middle – Maintain and excite the audience’s interest at key points in your speech. (E.g. a humorous twist or shocking conclusions)

7) Using stories for emotional connection – “Make a point. Tell a story. Tell a story. Make a point.” We are more likely to remember the story that illustrates this structure even if we grasp the facts from a speech.

8) Use your voice with vocal variety – Varying the pace and volume at which you can speak. If you are telling a story about a fast-paced environment – pick up your pace. To engage the audience, your voice should match your content.

9) Give the audience time – Pauses are important in a speech for the audience to digest what you are saying.

10) Have a strong ending – Craft a clear, concise summary of your key message to end on. Have a specific call to action so that people know exactly what they need to do.

I hope these ten tips have been very useful for all of you and let us strive to become better and more effective communicators!

The recommended article Ten ways to build rapport and engage your audience can be found at https://www.trainingjournal.com/articles/feature/ten-ways-build-rapport-and-engage-your-audience . All rights belong to the original author.

Written by:
Keerthana Paramasivam