Advanced.

 

So after a year or so, I have completed my Competent Communicator (CC) manual at Toastmasters and I am recently beginning to work on my first advanced manual – the Entertaining Speaker. In fact I have already done one speech on that, covering on a topic that I am so familiar with – army. I enjoyed giving my first entertaining speech titled “Fatboy in the Army II” and I was fortunate to win the Best Speaker award that day. Today I gave my second speech in the manual, and to be honest, it wasn’t a comfortable experience.

To start with, I was cracking my heads to try to come up with a topic. The project objective was to make an entertaining speech using resources other than personal experience while trying to bring a message across. Many topics were turning in my head for the past two days (I only knew I was due up on Sunday) and when I finally found the topic, I was having some trouble to make it entertaining. The speech was about examinations and why we should do away with that. There were some spots which I thought were going to be funny, but that’s the problem – my audience didn’t seem to get those humourous spots. I hoped that someone would laugh, but it turned out that many actually didn’t even understand what I was trying to say. One example – in my speech I had a line that went:

“If knowledge is power, exam is the wattmeter.”

I thought it would be an interesting point because we use a wattmeter to measure power (unless I got it wrong in the first place). But it seemed to me that the audience didn’t see the linkage. Perhaps the audience didn’t know what is a wattmeter. Or perhaps they didn’t know the proverb “Knowledge is power”. To put it simply, I thought many of my intended humourous points got lost along the speech and I saw some puzzled faces in the audience. So maybe the next time I might need to find some other things for people to laugh about. In fact, I think my speech was a bit hard to understand, as I thought that even though I had a proper structure, I have some members of the audience telling me that they couldn’t catch my ending. I thought I had one, but perhaps it wasn’t obvious enough. I originally wanted to end the speech with a question to give the audience something to think about, but I added just one or two sentences after that to make it end with an action. I thought having a question to end a speech seemed a bit too abrupt. But it turned out that my conclusion to the speech still didn’t seem obvious enough. That’s probably something to work on too.

One issue that I also seem to struggle with is my voice. As a lot of people know, I have a loud voice. But somehow I just don’t seem to be able to adjust my volume according to the parts of the speech. Most of the time my voice is loud at the start of the speech, and it just stays loud. I thought I was playing with a bit of vocal variety today, but again, it wasn’t obvious. Anyone with any tips for me to control my volume?

And of course, the deadliest thing one can ever do is not having enough preparations. The past couple of days have been really busy for me as I was looking after many things – work, home, Toastmasters, etc. I just didn’t have time to write the speech properly, let alone prepare for it. And so it showed. After I gave my pretty dramatic opening to the speech (which I thought was the only part of the speech that I actually did well), I forgot an entire paragraph of the speech. I wasn’t nervous, it was just one of those shocking moments when I just couldn’t remember anything. Fortunately enough, I managed to keep going and ultimately dropping that entire paragraph didn’t seem to affect the speech that much. But I was still a bit upset with myself.

All in all, I thought this was probably one of the worst speeches that I have ever done and I’m still a bit mad at myself for not doing better. The last time I did a speech that I wasn’t happy with myself was about half a year ago, and I guess I would need to work harder!

Korea.

I’m back from a 7-day long holiday in Korea, and I know you guys must be wondering, do I not get bored of this country?  Well, the honest truth is that I am not.  The last time I went to Korea, I thought I left my heart there.  This trip was for me to find it back.

This trip was a bit different in a sense that I was always out meeting friends – both local Korean friends and Hong Kong friends who flew in for either work or holidays – so there wasn’t a day when I was left entirely to myself.  I initially thought that I would be able to sleep a lot during this trip, but it turned out that my body clock has been so well-tuned that I woke up practically at 7am Korean time every morning!

Even though I have been to Korea so many times, each visit gives me different memories.  I guess I won’t go through the trip on a day-by-day basis, but rather I’d just mention the biggest memories.

1. I find that my Korean has improved a bit.  Now I could string proper sentences with local Koreans, and many of them are very nice – they deliberately spoke in simple Korean for me to understand so that we could do the conversation in Korean.  Having said that, I think I still have a long way to go before I could speak like a native Korean.  But that whatever bit of Korean I could do was helpful, at least to my Hong Kong friends!

2. I completed the Competent Communicator (CC) Manual of the Toastmasters International’s education programme at COEX Toastmasters Club.  I think I have mentioned countless times that COEX Toastmasters Club was the club that got me back into Toastmasters, and I have always wanted to do my last project in the CC manual there – a place which I considered to have started the Toastmasters journey.  I know the folks at Victoria Toastmasters Club probably aren’t going to be impressed that I did that project there, but since I still have many more projects to do in the future, I guess they don’t have to be too concerned!

3. I am still thinking about getting a Korean girlfriend, and perhaps move to Korea in the long term.

4. It’s always nice to meet new friends and I was happy to have been able to do so.  For a single guy like me, having more friends does make that bit of loneliness go away.

5. It was also good to be away from all the mess, all the quarrels, all the fights and all the politics that are plaguing Hong Kong.  I didn’t have to hear those politicians argue on TV, and mindless radicals who thought they know politics making a joke of themselves.

6. On a more serious note – and I’m sure all of you are already aware – the ferry sinking accident happened on the day I arrived in Korea, and for the whole week, I was constantly seeing updates to the situation.  TV stations stop their normal programmes and were basically doing 24-hour updates to the accident.  Every night before I went to sleep, I would hope that the number of rescued passengers increase.  But everyday when I woke up, I only see the number for victims to increase.  Even on the streets the atmosphere felt somewhat strange.  People were still going to work, doing their daily routines.  They still laugh and have fun, but somehow it felt a little strange.  I guess that is what happens when a disaster strikes a country.

I guess I’ll be planning my next visit to this lovely country soon.  It’s hard to explain why I am so fond of this country, really.

Korea.

My memory of Korea (February 2014):
Mayday concert in KINTEX; My two beautiful friends Minjung and Erica; Marshal Yi Shunshin; Street band in Sinchon; My favourite Korean dish – the Budae Jjigae

So it was my seventh trip to Korea, and it was actually my most emotional trip to Korea ever.  How could a holiday ever be emotional, you may ask.  But for me, I went through many emotional ups and downs throughout the trip that even I couldn’t really believe it.

There was a main purpose for the trip for me, but, oh well, anyway.  It’s the kind of thing that I would only talk over chicken and beer.  Or maybe I just need some soju for this.  I could definitely do with a drink this weekend.

Another purposes of the trip was the Mayday concert.  And as I have said a few days ago, the concert was great.  But what I didn’t say was that it brought out the real emotional part of me.  I went to the concert alone, and honestly speaking, going to a Mayday concert alone isn’t always the best idea.  There were a lot of thoughts going in my head that day, and the songs that Mayday was singing really hit where it hurt inside my mind.  There were some things that I realized while watching the concert, and honestly speaking, while I’m glad that I realized that, it wasn’t a good thing to realize because it hurts more after realizing.

And then the other main purpose was to meet the folks at COEX Toastmasters Club again.  COEXTM has this special place in my heart, and it was all because of this Toastmasters club from Korea that inspired me to join Toastmasters again.  So it was brilliant to have been able to attend a meeting there again.  I recognized some old faces, and also got to meet many new ones.  The place hasn’t changed – it was still full of excitement and laughter, and I was just delighted to have been able to be part of that.  It was humbling to receive so many great comments after my demo speech – and I really appreciate all of them.

To make a long story short, I was really glad to have met my friends in Korea – some old ones, some new ones – and as I said over on Facebook, these friends in Korea are forming a very important part of me.  If my trip in February last year changed my life, this trip confirmed that the change was for the better.  Make no mistake, my friends in Singapore and Hong Kong are important to me as well, but the friends in Korea are giving me another perspective of things that I always find fascinating, and I am always grateful that I have the opportunity to meet them.  Korea is special for me, not because of the food, the culture, the dramas or the K-Pop.  It’s all these friends who are making Korea special for me.  And if only an angel could fly me to Korea every week to see them…

I have always maintained that I’m a really blessed person.  But of course, if some things could work out the way I want them to be…

Conference.

As a Toastmaster, going for a district conference is always something to look forward to.  And for a rather  newbie Toastmaster like myself, it was also very exciting.  I was looking forward to the competitions, looking forward to the workshops, looking forward to the keynote speeches, and of course, looking forward to meet Toastmasters from other parts of South China.  You could be surprised, but the way Toastmasters is developing in China is so quick that it was really amazing to see all these clubs springing up, and many of them are getting a lot prestigious recognitions from Toastmasters International.

The Conference itself was very fruitful.  The keynote speech by Dr Vikas Jhingran was a very enlightening one because he touched on things that I previously didn’t really think about – talk about inspirations from a world champion!  And then the workshops were also very useful and while some of them were giving me a lot to think about, I would say that I learned quite a lot through them.  These workshops gave me new perspective for my speeches in the future and I hope I could see improvements from my speeches.

And of course, what would a Conference be like without the competitions?  The evaluation and humourous speech contests were held during the Conference and I would think the results generally fell within my expectations with a couple of surprises.  But what I really felt strongly about was the level of English of the Toastmasters from Mainland China, as well as their competency in speech delivery, were just excellent.  In fact some of them were so good that they made a lot of us in Hong Kong look bad.  Of course it isn’t fair to compare like that, but I would really think that we in Hong Kong have a lot of work to do if we want to keep our level high.  And I am confident that with hard work and support from the Toastmasters community, we would be able to produce a world champion from Hong Kong!

One slightly down side about the trip was that besides the venue of the conference, I hardly had time to tour around Huizhou and it was pretty much straight back to Hong Kong after the end of the event.  I think perhaps the next time I would just take one or two days of leave so that I could have some time to walk around!

Decision.

I hate it when I have to make a decision between two things that I want to do badly.

There’s going to be a football match between Hong Kong and Uzbekistan tomorrow, which Hong Kong must win to keep its hopes of going to Asian Cup 2015 alive.  The two teams played to a goalless draw in February and there is a genuine hope that the team could get a result against the Uzbeks.  Being an avid Hong Kong supporter, going for the match seemed like a no-brainer.

But my Toastmasters Club is also having a very interesting meeting tomorrow.  It is going to be a joint meeting with another club and I have always wanted to try a joint meeting.  In addition to that, the theme for tomorrow is rather interesting and I’d really want to be part of it.  The worst thing is that there is a clash in time between the two, which means that I could only choose to go for either one.

I’m sure if I don’t turn up for the match, my mates would be upset with me and I might miss an opportunity to witness history being made.  But at the same time if I don’t turn up for the Toastmasters Club meeting tomorrow, I might miss an interesting evening, as well as an opportunity to meet new people…

I’ve got a little less than a day to decide.  Ah, decisions.

Korea.

I hear someone saying “not again!” – yup, I just came back from Korea on Monday.  And in case you were wondering, this was my sixth time.

Now of course you may ask, is there really so much to do in Korea, or is the place really that interesting that I have to go so often?  Well, sometimes I don’t think that question can be answered easily.  It’s like, if you like something you would want to do it very often, or see it very often… it’s something along that line.  Of course, this time round I was really there for the AFC Champions League final between FC Seoul, which is my favourite Korean team, and Guangzhou Evergrande, which is the team I am beginning to hate in the Chinese League – isn’t the whole script set for me to go Korea again?!

The match was actually really exciting – completely end to end stuff.  Despite a lot of those ignorant people who think that Guangzhou would walk all over FC Seoul, the match ended 2-2.  And if FC Seoul had capitalised on the opportunities, Guangzhou would have been going home with a defeat and not be in the good position to win the championship as it is now.  But the most important thing for me was the experience in the stands.  I was singing and cheering together with the die-hard FC Seoul fans and while I didn’t really know all the words to their songs, I still enjoyed myself very much.  When Dejan Damjanovic scored the equalising goal, I was either being hugging someone or being hugged by someone else – football should be like that.  That kind of feeling was just indescribable.

I’ve always maintained the point that my last trip to Korea (the one in February/March this year) changed my life, and I’m sure that was the catalyst for my increased love for Korea.  It’s not so much about the scenery, the food, or the K-Pop stars.  But it’s the people who are touching me.  The last time I went there, I had the chance to meet some new friends, and this time round, I met even more friends, but at the same time managed to meet up with the old friends that I’ve made.  And it has also given me a good opportunity to practice my Korean – which is still kinda bad.  The highlight of the practice was definitely that night after the Champions League game when I met 3 other friends – all non-Koreans – over chicken and beer, and for the entire night, the four of us were chatting in Korean!  I felt good to be able to do that actually, and I would be looking forward to be able to improve on my Korean.  My next target would be to chat with my Korean friends in half Korean and half English!

For this visit, there were also many unforgettable memories, and I will always be cherishing them.  The nice meals that I had with them, another great Toastmasters experience with the Gyodae Toastmasters Club, meeting a K-Pop star in person, and that unforgettable Sunday in Yongin City and Everland… thank you everyone for making this trip another memorable one.  You know what, the moment I said goodbye, I started missing you!  You made Korea special for me.

여러분 사랑해요… 내가 꼭 빠르게 다시 올게!

Toastmasters.

Yeah, I’m a member of Toastmasters now.

It seems quite interesting that after 10 years of first knowing about Toastmasters (TM), I’m finally joining as a member. Actually when I first got to know about TM, the image I had was slightly negative. Not that I thought TM was a bad thing. it’s just that the people whom I knew that were associated with TM then were not exactly ones that I enjoy knowing. Some of them seemed a bit too arrogant, some could only talk and could never get anything done, while some decided that TM could bring them to places and decided to ditch their old friends. So actually when I first knew about TM in Singapore, it wasn’t something that I held too high in regards. Besides, I was also thinking that I could talk in front of a crowd with confidence, so I didn’t think I needed that.

When I first returned to Hong Kong, I didn’t have many friends so I was hoping to meet a few. Somehow I thought about TM and thought that maybe that could be a place to start. I thought that the people in Hong Kong should be different from those in Singapore. I kinda enjoyed the experience then (which also quashed that previous conceptions about people associated with TM), but stopped short at becoming a member because I was beginning my Masters and I thought I might be hard pressed for time.

So how did it all come back? I have always said that my recent trip to Korea changed my life, and TM was one of the things that appeared during the trip. My Korean friend, Minjung, asked me if I would be interested to visit her TM club. Since I didn’t really have an itinerary for the trip to Korea that time, I thought it might be interesting to meet a few new people, so off I went and I really enjoyed the experience. The people were friendly and sincere, and I thought that was how TM should be!

When I came back to Hong Kong, I was in for another TM surprise – two of my seniors in the office were actually TM members before and told me a few things about their participation. So I decided to conjure up the determination again to try my hands on TM once again. I visited the Victoria TM Club and to be honest, initially I felt slightly uneasy because I didn’t know anyone, and no one really talked to me. However that disappeared quickly and I managed to know a few people, which I enjoyed tremendously. And from then on, signing up as a member became a no-brainer.

So much for the history of me becoming a TM member again, and perhaps I’d talk about my first speech, which I made a few days ago. I always knew what I was going to talk about, but to put it into a speech was something that I had to really think about. I wasn’t nervous, and in fact I was looking forward to delivering the speech. So off I went and started talking, after being introduced by the TM of the Evening. I thought I did OK, just that I had to cut a chunk off my speech when I saw the green card – must have got too engrossed with the opening part, I reckon! Luckily I still managed to talk about what I wanted to talk about, which I was happy about. At the end of the speech, I had other members coming to congratulate me on making the speech, and some of them told me that they really liked it. Some others came to me with encouragements and suggestions, which I found really useful. To say I was chuffed to pieces would be an understatement.

I guess from the positive experience that I’ve got with TM so far, I realize that people in TM are generally positive people who prefer to focus on the things you do well, rather than to dwell on things that you don’t do well. I think I like that. I really don’t understand why people nowadays want to be so negative and always focus on the bad things about others. And whenever they see things they don’t like, they say the meanest things ever to make you feel bad. The worst thing is, they don’t even think that there is a problem with that. Well, instead of hurling abuse, why can’t we give more encouragement? Instead of criticizing all the time, why can’t we give praise more?

Some say TM is a place where you’d learn how to speak, some say it’s a place where you’d learn how to listen. For me, it’s also a place for me to learn how to be positive. I hope people around me could also learn to be like that.