How to be a Professional Emcee

Ever wanted to brush up your emceeing skill? Wanting to improve your speaking ability in front of public?

Still not too late to purchase tickets. Workshop is open for both toastmasters and non-toastmasters. Cheapest workshop you can find. 

Please contact me suhanasidik@gmail.com to purchase your tickets.

DDYPC TMC Meeting #25 - 18 June 09

This would be my last write up as the VP PR of the club, and I am happy to end my term with a blast. Why? Well, let me walk you through the meeting last Thursday, 18 Jun 2009.

We were honored to have the presence of the very pleasant TM Soo Loon Teo from Exact TMC to be the General Evaluator of the meeting. In fact, the President of Exact, TM Seow Yung Gan also attended the session as the Evaluator for another guest that we have, TM Azlan Supian from Maxis TMC.

The line up of role players were as follows:
TMA: Newly elected VPE Tunku Indra
Grammarian: Outgoing President Azlan Mohaideen
Timer: Guest Azeela from GSCM TMC
Ah Counter: Incoming Secretary Muaz
Speakers: Azlan Supian, Suhana Sidik
Evaluators: Seow Yung Gan, Mas Rizal

TMA did a wonderful job explaining the meeting practice to 20 over attendees, of which half of them were first timer to a toastmaster meeting. By the time he handed over to our Table Topic Master, El Faraoug, everyone was excited to embark on their very own toastmaster experience.

Our first volunteer, Andrew wowed us with his salesperson ability of promoting a device called a emotional recorder (a creative detour than describing about what a headphone does. Well done!). Then our guest TM Azlan Supian was next with the topic of 'If I had an Extra Hour' but cleverly talked about having an extra day, week or month to spare. Our incoming secretary, Muaz was up next with his philosophical idea dwelling on what his Best Days in School were. Overall, all the speakers did very well!

In the assignment speech slot, 2 speakers bravely faced the audience with speech manual of CC#8 and ACB#3.

The first speaker, TM Azlan Supian planted the scenario of having the attendees acting as school children while he educated us on his work as a Geoscientist. I was pretty much intrigued with the many interesting pictures of rocks formation he took and his great passion while describing his profession. What most appealing to me was the many places he travelled either for work or while attending forums and workshops!

I was up next giving my ACB#3 titled ‘Seringgit’. I have to admit that it was not easy trying to craft a speech with the intention of persuading the audience especially when it was only done at the very last minute (not advisable!). I tried my best to persuade the audience to refrain themselves from giving their money away to beggars, and I guess, it did appeal to half of the audience when I was named the Best Speaker for the day (talking about ending the term with a blast!).

Our guest, Azlan Supain was named the Best Table Topic Speaker (and at the end of the meeting, convey his interest to join our Toastmaster Club). Bravo!

Our highlight was of course the evaluation given by our General Evaluator, TM Soo Loon Teo. He never failed to impress me with his candour assessment of our meeting and his smile that never seems to fade at every sentence.

Thank you all attendees, and we hope to see you again next time! And let’s welcome the new VP PR, Azlan Mohaideen with his bi-weekly report of the meeting next time.

Cheers all.

Signing out
Suhana Sidik
Outgoing Vice President of Public Relation
DDYPC TMC

Meeting #25 Best Speech - 'Seringgit'

Speech Title: Seringgit

Speaker: Suhana Sidik, CC

Any of these sights looks familiar? What about the certificate bearing the Jabatan Kebajikan masyarakat logo? Have anyone approached you with these certs as a supporting document?

What I like most about my country Malaysia and what I must be proud the most about being Malaysian is the fact that we may be skimpy on paying the tolls, parking ticket, that extra tips to the waitresses or some (ehem) even resort to stealing the papers and magazines from the office, but we always have the extra seringgit to give away (show money).

But why do we do it?

If you ask any girls in the room, our answer may be too simple. It is what we call ‘Right at Your Face’ syndrome. We are just a fragile creature with a generous soul. We can’t bear the sight of a blind pakcik, or kids in shabby clothing or those poor souls who lost an arm or leg. It just melts our heart away. Besides, we spend more than 1 ringgit to buy chocolates anyway, so why not do something good with it?

But what’s the excuse with guys?
Wait. Have you noticed that beggars don’t normally go and approach a group of boys, especially the smokers type. These people would rather save that 1 ringgit on 2 more cigarettes than actually give you any money. But that is not the case if you approach a group of guys with a pretty lady in the group. Ok, beggar alert from 50 m away. You know boys tend to be competitive right? Out they compete to see who can reach out fastest to their wallet in the hope that she would go ahh at the sight of your kind generosity to help the disadvantage. Ladies trust me, some boys are just a show off!

And there are just tonnes of reason why I think Malaysian is a generous bunch!

So yes, we are trying hard to eliminate the so called ‘Poor-Index’. In our heart, everyone wants to try and be a super hero. So yeah, if we don’t have Hiro Nakamura’s power, let’s reach into the wallet and be our very own modern Robin Hood. We steal from our very own pocket in order to give other people what we think they deserve.

But let me tell you here that it doesn’t work that way.

The beggars that you see here in Malaysia is no ordinary beggar. Instead, they are intelligent beggars or what I would call ‘intgar’. These ‘intgar’ would offer you tissues, stickers and tonnes of other things in exchange for your seringgit. And why do you have to give in to their demand at all times?

Do you notice that the more you give, the list of ‘intgar’ multiplies rapidly. Have you noticed that if you have lunch in Wisma Central for example, within that 1 hour, there would be 2 ‘intgars’ coming to your group screaming for seringgit. Sometime, you would ease your way reaching into your wallet and at times, you would nod and shooh them away. And here I am, recommending that ALL of you present here to do the latter.

Nowadays with the many ‘intgar’ in Malaysia, how do you differentiate between an ordinary beggar with disadvantage, with another intelligent beggar?
And if you are really a generous bunch, why don’t you go through the proper channel? That would probably be a more tax effective way of donating your money away.

Have you ever imagine the irony of these ‘intgar’ and their guide. Their so-called job of an ‘intgar’ is to beg for money, and the guide is to bring these ‘intgar’ around from tables to tables. Look at the condition of the guide. These guides are those perfectly normal human being much like you, with two perfectly working eyes, hands, legs and at times, they look more healthy than you are. Yet, they are working for another lesser capable human being, the pakcik buta as the boss. Just imagine how much the blind pakcik or makcik is earning to be able to pay for the guide, and still make enough money to support his/her own lifestyle.

And for lifestyle, I do mean A LIFESTYLE. Some is capable enough to earn thousand of ringgit to even afford a Honda Civic to drive home everyday. Some would walk with a limp using their cane to Hartamas, and leave away with a brand new Honda Civic everynight with their leg suddenly perfectly healed (yes, true story seen with this very own eyes). Well, that’s how seringgit help improve their lifestyle ... by a mountain.

Imagine this. Seringgit in 2 minutes per table equal to thirty ringgit in one hour. You beg for five hours a day and you get 150 ringgit per day. Multiply that with 20 working days and you get 3K per month, and that is just the basic so called ‘salary’. And you’ve never accounted for the extra overtime, and multiple seringgit per table and etc2. It does sound tempting actually, a probable business venture.

But let’s inject common sense into it.

Please don’t fall into the seringgit scheme, which is much like a Ponzi scheme. Use the legal channel to donate away your money. Seringgit, though maybe small to you may accumulate to a lot more if there are even 10% of the people in this room are guilty of donating their money away. Do not support this seringgit business. Say No to these Intgar.

So L&G, now, what do you do if the ‘intgar’ come and approach you? :p

DDYPC TMC Election - Office Bearers 2009/10

They say leaders are not born overnight, but I beg to differ. Election does just that!

DDYPC TMC held its election on 21st May to choose the 7 officers to take up the stewardship of DDYPC cum this 1 July 2009. It was a tough contest as all the seats had at least 3 nominations to the post, and at times, the members were asked to re-vote as they could not reach a majority consensus.

It gets more interesting as the members also had the opportunity to listen to the nominees’ quick 2-minutes speech, and their eagerness to serve the members.

Alas, we are proud to bring you the new club officers, as follows:

President: Stefanie Khaw Sui Lynn (PED/ PEC)
VP of Education: Tunku Indra b Tunku A Mutalib (PMU/ PRD)
VP of Membership: Ivan Pei Lai Hung (XD/XPG)
VP of Public Relations: Azlan Mohaideen (DD/ DPG)
Treasurer: Khairul Fadhli b A Kassim (PMU/ POM)
Secretary M Muaz Azman (DD/DFE)
Sargeant-At-Arms Mardhiyah bt M Bakir (R&T)

Congratulations all.

We can all expect a great year ahead of us with these credible people to lead! Our big THANK YOU to the outgoing committee for your effort and hard work to ensure the club’s success. It was not easy to become a charter committee, but all of the officers have done well in building up the momentum of the club.

But all the hard work would not have paid off without the support from the members. YOU can make it happen! Let’s strive towards achieving a SELECT Distinguished Club this year, and a PRESIDENT Distinguished Club the year ahead!

Kuching 2009 Toastmaster Convention

The Kuching convention was definitely a big success!

Myself (Suhana Sidik) and Azlan Mohaideen (the beloved President) were the only two representatives from DDYPC to the District 51 Annual Convention which officially ended today in Kuching. The three days convention starting from 17 August were held in Riverside Majestic Kuching with about 500 toastmasters from all over Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia attending the glorious event.

The annual event which was hosted by Azam Toastmaster is held with the theme ‘Act to Inspire and Motivate’. The event line up includes the International Speech and Table Topic contest for all the Divisional winners, as well as the anticipated inspirational session by the MAS CEO, Datuk Seri Idris Jala.

The event kicked off on Friday for the District Council meeting with the ultimate objective of choosing the 2009/10 District Council members. There was a tough fight for the Lieutenant General of Marketing (LGM) post which was conquered by Francis Ng, DTM who undoubtedly delivered the most forceful 2 minutes speech for the election. Our Division P also saw the contest of two strong candidates, Dr Carren Lee from Premier Advanced TMC and Ron Low Chye Seng from the Ukay TMC. Ron, who was nominated by the floor did not managed to surpass the enormous votes already received by Dr Carren Lee who has executed an excellent election campaign leading up to the District Council meeting. The line up for the top District posts are as follows:

• District Governor (DG) – Richard R Chong (Mas Mawar TMC)
• Lieutenant General of Education & Training (LGET) – Thannimalai Letchuman (YMCA TMC)
• Lieutenant General of Education & Training (LGET) D51 Rest – Mohamad Ariff Irwani (Azam TMC)
• Lieutenant General of Marketing (LGM) – Francis Ng (Money Mastery TMC)
• Lieutenant General of Marketing (LGM) D51 Rest – Mien Soenari (The Catalyst TMC)

But you must also be wondering who the new lineups are for the Division Area Governors, right! Let’s congratulate these toastmasters:

• Area Governor P1 – Hakim Hamzah
• Area Governor P2 - Sabariah
• Area Governor P3 – Choi San
• Area Governor P4 – Suhana Sidik (yes, yours truly)

For your info, DDYPC is under Area P4. So yes, we can expect wonderful result after this :D).

Later on that night, we were then entertained by the Convention Welcoming Dinner with the presence of Azam CEO, Datuk Aloysous, which also included the welcoming dance by the local dances from Petra, who were dressed in a cat(@Kucing) suit. The participants were then pulled to join them to dance to the tune of Pocho-Pocho at the end of the dinner.

The next day (Saturday) was the Run Off for both the table topic and speech contest. With the large no of divisions in the district (District 51 is currently the largest district in the world!), the contest were broken into 2 groups of semi finals. The Division P representative, Ahmad Fakhri Hamzah who was competing in both the Table Topic and Speech Contest had delivered exceptional quality of speeches, but lost out to even better speakers from other division! These were the quality that had both myself and Azlan at awe.

The afternoon did not just end there. Three Educational Sessions were organized with topics on the Aristotle famous ‘Three Musketeer’ in Public Speaking delivered by Prof Zaharom Naim from USM, followed by the ‘The Four Lesson for Success’ by Past D-51 District Governer, Datuk Adeleen DTM.

The Installation Dinner held that night was also an excellent Education Session by itself, with the inclusion of a 70 minutes sharing session given by Datuk Seri Idris Jala, a name who has made headlines over the past 2 years. He has managed to overturn MAS from the brink of a USD400 Million debt to generating profit of over USD 200 Million in less than one year! The Sarawakian felt at ease speaking at his hometown, that he was willing to share 6 of his successful business transformation which formulated the MAS success. The secret that he shared was:

1. Game of the Impossible
2. P&L Anchorage
3. Discipline of Action
4. Situational Leadership
5. Winning Coalition (Does this VERY sound familiar to the PETRONAS folks?)
6. Divine Intervention

Interested to know more? Come and talk to either myself or Azlan to find out more :D

The dinner ended with the installation of the new District Officers, and the presentation of the 24 clubs who managed to achieve President Distinguished Club as at 10 April. Indeed, this will be DDYPC’s ultimate goal to achieve!

The next day (Sunday aka today) was the highlight of the whole conference itself. The participants were entertained with wonderful speeches given by the top three winners emerging from the Run Off held the day before. The quality had indeed improved with the speakers seemed rather more confident than the day before, and it was even tougher to narrow down our selections for our Top picks of the day.

However, the winners were as follows:

D51 TABLE TOPIC WINNERS

• Champion: Palaniappa Subramanian (Silterra TMC, Division N)
• 1st Runner-up: Mary Barton (WIM TMC, Division W)
• 2nd Runner-up: Jeremy Teo (Nilai University Club, Division C)

D51 INTERNATIONAL SPEECH WINNERS

• Champion: Ong Swee Keat (Bayan Baru TMC, Division N)
• 1st Runner-up: Stephen Fernando (Hilton Petaling Jaya TMC, Division C)
• 2nd Runner-up: Saw Chin Bin (Penang Advanced TMC, Division S)

Some of the speakers had us laughing all the way throughout their speech while there are those who had us at tears with their story. One particular speaker, Saw Chin Bin started off with lots of humor injected to his speech before revealing to the participants about the recent death of his wife. In the end when asked about how he copes with the losing, his answer was simply the very last word that his wife uttered, ‘Move On …. I have’. Overall, district 51 is blessed with wonderful spakers indeed!

I am sure you would want to see all the speeches given by the speakers, so no worries! We will bring Kuching to you. A DVD copy of the 3 days event will be made available to participants who want to bring it back as souvenir and yes indeed, we have purchased one for that very reason. There’s a lot that we want to share with all of you, and you can indeed relate more when you watch the videos.

Right now, we are on the way back to Kuala Lumpur on a delayed Air Asia flight (I wonder whether Idris Jala is sending us a message here) with a bunch of other toastmasters who are taking the same flight with us. We made new friends, and have learn a lot from this very first Toastmaster conference. Indeed we are looking forward for the next Semi-Annual Convention which will be held in Genting Highland, and to be hosted by MAS Mawar TMC. Probably a good opportunity for you guys to come and join us, and start preparing yourself to contest for a humor speech! Yes, the Genting convention will host both the Humor Speech Contest as well as the Evaluation Contest. Probably this time, we will fly the DDYPC flag high …

Until later…10.59 pm, 1 more hour to destination.

(Picture of the Lutong TMC who will be holding their 2010 convention next year in Miri. Hurry, come and book your slot and it's a guaranteed to change your life)

DDYPC TMC Meeting #21: 2 April 2009

DDYPC TMC Toastmaster Meeting is back this coming 2nd April 2009!

It's gonna be pretty exciting this time, as we will be having an environment theme of 'One Earth Only', in conjunction with Earth Hour this Sunday!


Our very own VP of Education, Stefanie Khaw will lead us to an exciting afternoon, with a team of speakers as listed below:

#1 Our very own new member - Roziana
#2 Recent champion of Area P4 International Speech Contest (ISC) - Etty
#3 2nd Runner Up for Club ISC, 1st Runner Up for Club Table Topic Contest & our humoroous lady - Siti Aishah
#4 1st Runner Up for Club ISC & the ever energetic TM - Mas Rizal

(And did i fail to mention that Stefanie was also the winner of the Area P4 Table Topic Contest. Way to go VPE!!!)


Book this date in your calendar! A day not to be missed after all.


Note on Earth Hour: Earth Hour is an annual international event created by the WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature/World Wildlife Fund), held on the last Saturday of March, that asks households and businesses to turn off their non-essential lights and electrical appliances for one hour to raise awareness towards the need to take action on climate change. It was pioneered by WWF Australia and the Sydney Morning Herald in 2007,[1] and achieved worldwide participation in 2008.

Earth Hour will next take place on Saturday, March 28, 2009 at 8:30 pm, local time

DDYPC TM Club Meeting #20- 19 March 2009

DDYPC TMC meeting on 19th March saw 6 speeches being given away in our very own Toastmaster Speech Marathon special!

The supposed Toastmaster of the Day, Toastmaster Daniel Teh was not able to join the meeting due to the car accident he had earlier, but our very own President, TM Azlan Mohaideen took up the challenge and demonstrate the bold attitude to Courage and Conquer the audience when he rise up to the occasion as the Toastmaster of The Day, 30 minutes before the start of the meeting.

And you know what, he was indeed a natural speaker!

The other line up were as follows:

• TMA: Azlan Mohaideen
• Grammarian: Khairul Fadhli
• Timer: Almagfiro Pradana
• Ah Counter: Mas Rizal
• Evaluator: Ahmad Fakhri (Semarak TMC), Ashfaque (Semarak TMC), Wan Rohaidah, Siti Aishah, Mas Rizal, Azlan Mohaideen
• General Evaluator: Hakim Hamzah

The speakers in order were as follows:

• Farid Wahid – His first ice breaker speech and he revealed his childhood ambition of becoming a comedian! Looks like we will have our very own appointed Humor Master soon..
• Zainal Zikri – Passionately talked about his job in Dealer Management Unit, PETRONAS in his ice breaking speech and distributed forms and info on how you can set up your very own Petrol Station. Talk to him if you interested :p
• Almagfiro – Almo The Great was his title, and he really did inspire his with his ice breaking speech. Yes, if Gallileo can do it, so can Almo!
• Wong Lee Jean – She always seemed overwhelmed before, but not anymore. Jean delivered her 2nd speech, and she has improved leaps and bounds this time
• Khairul Fadhli – Went into great technical detail about how he modified his car, and definitely a car enthusiast (or a freak as some might say)
• Azlan Supian – Painted a picture what the world would be like if we do not change our ways and the effects of Global Warming

And the winner for the session, unanimously voted by the attendees was Almagfiro The Great! You hit the mark right on your speech first, well done Almo!

Thank you all who have attended and we hope to see you two weeks from now!

BEST SPEECH MEETING #19: Enemy, Stranger or Intimate

She certainly had the edge, and you can tell that she is a natural speaker. She has evolved well throughout her toastmaster experience, and i must say, we have always been impressed by her style of speaking, and the humor she injected to her speech. Congrats TM Siti Aishah. Way to go.
Let's look at her speech structure from the last winning

Note: TM Siti Aishah was the winner from DDYPC TMC Meeting #19.
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Enemy, Stranger or Intimate
A speech by Siti Aishah
Project Speech #5: Your Body Speaks

A man asked his wife, “Darling, where do you want to go for our anniversary?” It warms his heart to see her face melts in sweet appreciation. “Hmm... somewhere I haven’t been for a long time,” she said. He suggested, “How about the kitchen?” and that’s when the fight started.

Toastmaster of the day, fellow toastmasters and honored guests.

Creating intimacy or starting a fight is often just a matter of a few sentences and sometimes a word. In every conversation actually you can choose to fight with your partner and change them into an enemy or avoid you partner and change him into a stranger or to confide in them and trust them and change your partner into an intimate. The differences between these three approaches are enormous. So today, I will explain to you how you can use these three options in your life with your partner.

Option 1: the wife sat down on the couch next to the husband who was flipping the channels on TV. She asked, “What’s on TV?” He replied without even looking at her, “Dust!” Since in this option you want to change your partner into an enemy, you should start to shout. “You are the lazy one. You never help out around the house!” This will likely start a fight and it can ensure a hot and blazing arguments. Both sides are trying to win by either attacking or defending. It can become worse when you start to reach those innocent things around you and make them fly towards your partner. Thus, an enemy is created.

Now we move on to option 2. What is the first thing your mother taught you about stranger? Yes… do not talk to strangers. So imagine scenario 2. You are at your husband’s office party. It seems to you that your partner is spending a great amount of time talking to his new secretary. You were left alone next to the buffet table. How do you want to handle this situation? So, on the ride home in the car, be very silent. When he asks, “What’s wrong dear?” you can reply, “Nothing. I’m just tired” or totally ignoring him, look out through the window, pretend you do not hear the question and hum your favorite song! Now you have successfully avoided a conflict but you also turn your partner into someone who doesn’t know you really well, a stranger.

For option 3, let say you husband is having his guys’ night out be it watching EPL at mamak’s stall or playing futsal, it doesn’t matter, but he does this almost every night. You were left at home alone, feeling sad and lonely. So, when he comes home that night, what should you do? Remember this is option 3. You shouldn’t scream at him like “You always spend your time with your friends. Why don’t you marry them instead!” or you should not totally ignore him when he enters the door. What you should do is confide in them and tell them how you really feel. Something like, “I sat here feeling sorry to myself. I know you need your guys, but my social life isn’t as happening as yours right now. It can be really lonely. Can you spend more time with me?” Once you open up and tell your partner how you are really feeling, you actually turning your partner into a support system, an intimate.

After being married for almost five years, I know we must choose option 3. Actually I have applied those three options in different stages of our marriage. Since my husband also aware of these options, he sometimes says to me, “honey, please don’t use option 2” when I ignore him at times which I’m really good at. But I can assure you that option 3, to confide, trust and say how we feel is like the solution to all possible problem that may arise in front of you. In order to have this confiding conversation we have to trust that our partner will support us when we let our guard down and show our vulnerability. Also, we have to feel entitled to what we are feeling. We entitle to be jealous; we entitle to have someone to help around the house. If not, we are ashamed to reveal those feeling and choose to avoid or attack. Uncover your feeling, unmask your vulnerability and unravel your emotion.

So, as a conclusion, learn by heart if you want a great relationship with your partner, you got to choose. Are you going to start a fight, avoid the whole thing or take your partner into your confidence? Whatever you choose, you are also choosing the corresponding action – turning you partner into an enemy or a stranger or an intimate.

DDYPC TM Club Meeting - 5 March 2009

Another good toastmaster session concluded by DDYPC last Thursday, which saw the participation of approximately 20 members and guests, and moderated by Toastmaster Mas Rizal as the Toastmaster of the Afternoon.

The line ups were as follows:

• TMA: Mas Rizal
• Grammarian: Siti Aishah
• Timer: Azlan Mohaideen
• Ah Counter: Narayanan
• Table Topic Evaluator: CC Elizabeth
• Speech Evaluator: Ron Low, Siti Fatimah, Tunku Indra, Azlan Supian, Suhana Sidik

(Guests gigling away by the speech from the speakers)

The session kicked off with the energetic table topic session given by CC Suhana Sidik, with the theme of ‘States in Malaysia’. Attendees were encouraged to talk about their hometown, and promote it as a state of choice for holidays. The volunteers were as follows:

• Toastmaster Azlan Supian talked about his hometown Kuala Kangsar (or now we know as Kurang Satu), Perak,
• Toastmaster Siti Fatimah who shared with all her school days (with lack of clean showered day :p) in Selangor,
• The brave first timer Tyiara who talks about her days in America and lastly,
• ACB, CL Ron Low who then excited us by talking about the famous food in Penang.
  Congrats all for taking the opportunity to step up!

(Aishah nervously waiting her turn)

The speaker in order were as follows:

• CC, CL Marcus Chee – Educating us on the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) from his Manual #5 of ACB
• Azlan Mohaideen – Given us the reality check on Malaysian being the punctual bunch with the speech of ‘Don’t Be Late, Be Punctual’, from Manual #3
• Narayanan – A flavor of sales, from Manual #3
• Siti Aishah – Sharing her story as an experience partner (wife to be exact) and how to build a successful relationship with her speech entitled ‘Enemy, Stranger, Intimate’ from Manual #5
• Tunku Indra – The second Installment of his ever famous Silat knowledge entitled, ‘Hai Yak Vol 2’ from Manual #5

It was a great opportunity indeed to hear from these experience speakers. Well done.

The event was concluded by CC, CL Marcus Chee who was the General Evaluator. He commended on the marvelous effort by the members who had to willingly took the opportunity to double tasks on the day.

(Marcus Chee taking note for his evaluation. Thank you GE)

The winners were announced in the later part by the President. TM Azlan Supian were voted the best Table Topic Speaker, while TM Siti Aishah bag the Best Speaker award for the day.

All in all, another job well done!

HOW CAN NON-NATIVE ENGLISH SPEAKERS IMPROVE THEIR LANGUAGE SKILLS?

I think this is an interesting article. Happy reading!
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HOW CAN NON-NATIVE ENGLISH SPEAKERS IMPROVE THEIR LANGUAGE SKILLS?
by J.A. Gamache Third place Champion at the 2001 Toastmasters International World Championship of Public Speaking

Is English a second language for you? Well, it is for me! I live in Montréal, Canada, and French is my first language. So when I started to compete in speech contests, I had to improve the way I spoke English. To do so, I applied the three following strategies:

1- TAKE DICTION CLASSES
I had to learn how to pronounce English words in the proper way. My French accent was so strong that English speakers had a hard time understanding me even when I used the right words and proper grammar! The goal is not to make you lose your accent but at least to make you easy to understand when you speak.

2- READ ENGLISH BOOKS... OUT LOUD!
Diction classes are useless if you don't practice. I found that I could fast-track my learning when I read English books or newspapers out loud. At the same time, I learned new words, got acquainted with the grammar and started to correct myself when I heard myself mispronounce words.

3- CONVERSE WITH A FRIEND
I became friends with a woman old enough to be my grandmother. I met her once a week for lunch and we would chat for two hours. Every time I made a mistake, she would kindly correct me. It was a win-win situation. She had company and I improved my conversational skills. And, most importantly, we both developed a new friendship! Mastering a new language is a huge task.

You can improve your English skills quickly by simultaneously focusing on these three strategies: taking diction classes, reading books out loud and conversing with someone who has mastered the language.

Division P TLI COT(2)

What is Toastmasters all about? Why should everybody be encouraged to join Toastmasters? How shall a newly setup club ensure its continuous sustainability? How can an ailing club be revived to its previous glory? These were the key issues addressed at the Toastmasters Leaders Institute on the 10th of January, 2008.

Organized by Division P Area 51 Toastmasters Club at Universiti Putra Malaysia, the objective of this 2nd Club Officer Training were to remind office bearers of their duties and responsibilities, the functionality of existing diagnostic tools, networking and acknowledgements of past year’s achievements.

The programme began by TM Yip Ken Fei (ACB, CL), the MC of the day, calling the training to order at 2.30 pm. This was followed by an opening address by Datuk Prof. Dr. Wan Md. Zin, Advanced (TMS), CL, and LGET Richard Chong (ACS, ALB).

A briefing on the Diagnostic Tool, appropriately named Moment of Truth, was then led by Dennis Wee, (ACS, CL), to assess every aspect of the image portrayed by the club and its office bearers to the guests and its members. From first impressions, orientation of new members, importance of fellowship and communication, planning and recognition, we were taught the ‘do-s’ and ‘don’t-s’ before, after and during a
Toastmasters meeting.

Results of this reality self check revealed that 90% of the clubs present were excellent at recognizing accomplishments achieved by its members. Stunningly, an equally high percentage faced various challenges in maintaining their members’ interests and encouraging active participation in the clubs’ activities.

LGM Thanimalai (CC, CL) then provided several possible solutions in addressing these issues, including introducing variety in bi-monthly meetings, making it unpredictable and thus interesting. Another practical solution was to plan a meeting beforehand to avoid hiccups, anticipating the worst situations and brainstorming for back-up plans.

Dominic Joseph, ATMG, then stressed on the importance of mentoring within a club. Citing from experience, “Just by warmly greeting and taking a personal interest in newcomers, a hostile atmosphere can be altered into a positive, friendly and inviting environment,” he stated enthusiastically.

This was then followed by a presentation by Past District 51 Governor, DTM Low Yat Seow on the importance of speechcraft, a course which focused on the main areas of consideration when giving a public speech.

Awards and certificates were then presented to high achievers, which consisted of clubs and members, in the Division’s Hall of Fame ceremony.

The training session was then ended by a closing speech from District 51 Governor, DTM Joseph Gomez. Peppered with lively anecdotes and interesting punch lines, the audience was certainly enraptured by his enthusiasm for life and the global outlook of the future economy in years to come.

Stressing that the numbers on the charts were not mere statistics, DTM Joseph Gomez said, “The moment a person joins Toastmasters, a person is presented with an opportunity; The moment a person achieves a milestone, a person has once again been changed for the better. (sic).” Thus, reminding us, as office bearers, the importance of carrying out our duties earnestly and with a clear conscience.

All in all, this club officer training has been a very educational session. Time and time again, we were reminded of the true meaning of a Toastmasters club, which is to develop excellent communication and leadership skills in our members and the public. At the end of the day, we departed from the meeting with a renewed spirit in our hearts. Our desire to serve the nation and Toastmasters Club has been rekindled; once again bringing back our focus in steering the organization towards its commitment to bringing out the best in every one of us.

DDYPC TMC Installation Event

On the 8th of January, 2009, the Development Division Young Professional’s Toastmasters Club launched its first ever Installation Ceremony on the 40th floor of PETRONAS Twin Towers 1. To showcase the achievements of its current members and normal flow of events of a typical toastmaster session to the higher management and guests, a demo meeting was held prior to the ceremony to demonstrate.

Gracing the event with their distinguished presence were En. Azhar Noordin, Senior Manager of Development Division, En. Kamal Bahrin Ahmad, upcoming Senior General Manager of Development Division and several members of DD Management Committee. We also had the privilege of receiving other external guests such as Datuk Dr. Prof. Wan Zin, Toastmaster International (TMI) Division P Governer, TM Hakim Hamzah, mentors of DDYPC TMC from MCOBA Toastmaster Club (TMC), as well as toastmasters from surrounding areas such as MIM KL TMC, TMIKL TMC, Semarak TMC, Bintang ITC TMC and the first Malay Toastmasters Club from Pidato Perdana.

Representatives from various PETRONAS Operating Unit (OPU)’s Young Professional Club such as HYPE from Group Human Resource, NEXC from Exploration Division PCSB, EXCITE from PMU as well as its very own members from DDYPC PCSB were also present to show support for the first Installation event.

At 12.15pm, Toastmaster of the day, Tunku Indra, called the meeting to order, thanking all who were present for their generosity in accommodating this ceremony in their hectic schedules to attend this event.

Mas Rizal, Table Topics Master of the day, then gave everyone present a taste of giving a spontaneous speech, testing the wits and integrity of those who were brave enough to volunteer for a 2-minute speech on a topic disclosed only on the spot. The audience was entertained by Khairul Fadhli’s recollection and elaboration on the causes of road accidents, impressed by Nurashida’s opinions on the importance of words instead of actions, and sharing Farid Wahid’s strong support for the Manchester United team.

Siti Aishah, from Petroleum Engineering Department, a loyal member of DDYPC TMC, then gave her 2nd project speech entitled “Chocolate Heaven”. This confident engineer not only educated all present on the health benefits of chocolate consumption but also surprised some lucky souls with several bars of Cadbury chocolates.

Suhana Sidik, Competent Communicator (CC),

the 1st runner up for Area P4
Humorous Speech Contest in November 2008, then gave a demo speech entitled “Thank You”. Her aptly opening remarks, by firing up our pride in the achievements and success stories of our nation certainly caught the attention of everyone present. Gently steering into the topic of Malaysian courtesy, conducting a short self-evaluation, she ended her speech by reminding us to be true to our roots by practicing common courtesy at all times, just by a simple word of ‘thank you’.

TM Ahmad Salahuddin, champion of the Area P4 Humorous Speech Contest in November 2008, then embarked on this demonstration speech on 3 tips to keeping a marriage alive. Successfully injecting anecdotes, analogies and jokes in unexpected areas of his speech won him a strong round of applause from the floor whose funny bones were tickled ‘til no end from the moment he began, at the same time absorbing what he imparted with knowing smiles.

The demonstration session was then ended by TM Ahmad Fakhri, who gave an evaluation on TM Siti Aishah’s speech and commended her on her excellent element of surprise, which surpassed her speech objective, indicating her enthusiasm to excel in the area of public speaking.

The airing of a documentary video on the role play of a normal Toastmasters meeting and the major breakthrough one undergoes upon becoming a member then preceded the Installation Ceremony of the year 2008/2009 Office Bearers of DDYPC Toastmasters Club.

As Datuk Prof. Dr. Wan Zin officiated the installation of the officers by stating the duties and responsibilities of each office bearer, the incumbents proudly declared ‘I will’ and passed on the gavel from the Sergeant-at-Arms , Vice-Presidents and finally to the President. En. Azlan Mohaideen, President of DDYPC TMC thanked all present and stated his action plan and mission for the club. Tokens of appreciation were subsequently presented to the club mentors, sponsors and high achievers of the club.

At the end of the ceremony, En. Azhar Noordin, gave a closing speech and strongly reiterated his vision to see this club growing into a strong organization, which would build up the courage and spontaneity of PETRONAS employees, indirectly fulfilling the organization’s business needs and the individuals’, especially during negotiation with local hosts government internationally on all business dealings.

At 2.00pm, all present were then invited for a photo session at the hanging bridge of Level 42 to mark the beginning of the development of prominent individuals and a reminder of the strong community of support for this young club within the vicinity of Kuala Lumpur.

With continuous support from all levels, DDYPC TMC will strive to bring out the best in its members, spark enthusiasm in improving public speaking skills and take charge in inspiring desires to change for the better to face the challenging times ahead.

Therefore, let us all join a Toastmasters Club today. After all, nothing ventured, nothing gained. You have nothing lose, but everything to gain. Come and experience it for yourself and you will see the difference!

More Pictures are available at: http://photo.ddypc.org/installation_ddypctmc/

Area P4 Humor & Evaluation Contest

Our two very bold toastmasters, Stefanie Khaw and Suhana Sidik took the challenge of representing DDYPC TMC for the Area P4 Humor & Evaluation Contest held recently at Federal Hotel, Bukit Bintang. It was indeed a night to remember for both who were battling it out with the more experienced speakers in the Area.

Area P4 consists of 5 clubs from DDYPC, TMIKL, ITC Bintang, Ukay Perdana and Ministry of Information (MOI)

Our two Toastmasters made us proud when they clinched 2nd and 3rd for the Humor Contest and Evaluation Contest respectively. The results were as follows:

Humour Contest standings:
1) Lim Kah Soon (ITC Bintang): "Chicken Lim"
2) Suhana Sidik (DDYPC): "When Adam Meets Eve"
3) Elizabeth Xavier (TMIKL): "The Way We Were"

Evaluation Contest standings:
1) Dr Gurnam (TMIKL)
2) Ivan Chong (ITC Bintang)
3) Stephanie Khaw (DDYPC)

The Champion and 1st Runner Up will be contesting for the Division P Contest to be held in Menara Telekom on 18 October. Let’s come and show your support to them!

History of DDYPC TMC

The initiative of setting up of the DDYPC TMC was first mooted in January 2008 by the PCSB’s Development Division Young Professional Club (DDYPC)-Year 2007/08 with support from the Development Division’s Management to enhance and improve the overall communication and presentation skills of DD fraternity.

An introduction to Toastmasters International (TI) was organized to interested staff on 28 February 2008 with cooperation from MCOBA Toastmasters as the Mentor Organisation. The mock session received an overwhelming response, with more than 100 enthusiastic participants, some of whom had the opportunity of taking part in a “live” demo of spontaneous speaking.

Subsequently, the new committee for DDYPC TMC was set up with the first meeting held on the historic date of 2nd April 2008. Our greatest gratitude to TM Ganesh from Maxis TMC and TM Haji Anuar from MCOBA TMC, the duo who have been playing a crucial role in mentoring the club and helping us realize our vision to have the club chartered, effectively on 26 June 2008.

Meetings are held every 1st and 3rd Thursday from 12-2 pm. The club has since gotten overwhelming support from external guests who have has warmly grace us with their presence in every meeting. Our big THANK YOU.

What's Next?

After you attend a meeting, you can apply for membership (minimum age 18). At the meeting, ask for a membership application.

Membership is affordable:
- $20 new member fee
- $27 dues every six months
Dues may vary based on a variety of factors.

The club officer will send your application and fees to Toastmasters’ World Headquarters.
Your New Member Kit should arrive in the mail in about 10 days.

*Info complimentary of Toastmaster International

What is Toastmaster?

You might wonder how Toastmasters came about, so let us share with you some history of how Toastmaster International was established.

In October 1924, a group of men assembled by Dr. Ralph C. Smedley met in the basement of the YMCA in Santa Ana, California, U.S.A., forming a club “to afford practice and training in the art of public speaking and in presiding over meetings, and to promote sociability and good fellowship among its members.” The group took the name “Toastmasters.”

Soon men in other communities and states asked for permission and help to start their own Toastmasters clubs. By 1930, a federation was necessary to coordinate activities of the many clubs and to provide a standard program. When a speaking club in New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada, expressed interest in forming a Toastmasters club, the group became known as Toastmasters International.

Toastmasters International enters the new century as the undisputed world leader in public speaking training, with over 10,500 clubs and more than 200,000 members in approximately 90 countries. In the years to come, more people than ever will benefit from Toastmasters leadership and education.

We are in District 51 which comprises 3 countries namely, Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia.

Toastmasters International offers successful programs and gives its members valuable learning experience in communication skills helping them in turn to gain confidence in speaking in public.

The objective of DDYPC TMC is to ensure that members have the opportunity to learn communication skills that would turn them into articulate and eloquent speakers - and the only way to learn is to do it.

There are 3 main parts of our Toastmasters club meeting.

Firstly, the Table Topics Session, where members can practise their "Thinking and Speaking extemporaneously on their feet" skills. Table topic speakers have 1 to 2 minutes to speak.

In Part 2, which is the Prepared Speech session; we have members who will be delivering speeches based on the 10 projects from the basic Communication & Leadership Manual as well as the Advanced Manual.

In Part 3 our General Evaluator will preside over the Evaluation Session.

Do come to any of our session to learn more.