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Date: 24 Feb 2017
Written by: Chai Pei Shan, ACB, ALB 

The mega blockbuster speech contest was launched on 24 Feb 2017 at our Tai Seng home. Like the “Oscars” of Speech, our flagship club contest, “International Speech and Table Topics Contests” was a grand one and attracted an overwhelming response with over 70 members and guests attending!
Unlike the “Oscars”, every single detail of the event was smoothly executed without a glitch by the Organising Chairman, Desmond Yam, Contest Chair, Adelin Lim, and his team. Special thanks to Chief Judge, Jenny Au who has brought a delegation of judges to help our club find the best champions that evening.

Once you stepped into the hall, you can feel the atmosphere – starting from the sumptuous spread of the dinner; you can hear the exciting  voices, occasional giggles and conversations that sparked off between strangers; and the eruption of laughter as Toastmasters and guests gathered at the event to welcome one another and catch up. It was a splendid reunion!

Contestants were clad in professional wear, confidently rehearsing their speeches, testing the stage, or speaking to friends and supporters to share with them about our club and the contest.

Visitors and appointment holders were clamouring with curiosity to find out more about the speeches and the awesome culture of Money Mastery that they heard about. During my interaction the guests and appointment holders, I realised that they were mostly first time visitors and was curious about what inspired the name of our club and the culture embedded within us that kept us united over the years –  they came from all parts of Singapore and heard about the greatness of the club through the recent District80 newsletter that featured our club, or was invited by Chief Judge, DTM Jenny Au or by friends’ referral.

The Organising Chair cum VPE, CC Desmond Yam and the Exco team were busy as bees organising the spectacular show. Rika, Inge, Aaron, Abbas, Raymond, and Pamela and other “unsung heroes behind the scenes” were ensuring that our event was well executed, and top-notch after months of curation.

The atmosphere in the hall is intoxicated with enthusiasm as the climate of competition started to build up. The entire hall was swamping with guests and friends of contestants. As a non-contesting member who was serving as a mentor and IPP this time, I spoke to some first-time contestants and my mentees,  Lim Sweehoe and Jovin Ong to encourage them, and club members, Arva, Bei’an, Janty, Shawn, Zhang Yuan who were  contesting to calm their nervousness and share contest tips.

Language is not a barrier. Several appointment holders from Mandarin Toastmasters community came to learn more from our excellent speakers and support our club: Joanna Jia, Club President of SCCCI, Nancy Cheng and Latt Latt from Toastmasters Club of Singapore and Singapore Mandarin Toastmasters Club served as appointment holders.

Before we knew, the time has come and the block buster speech contest was ready to start with the hall filled with audience. The Contest Chair Adelin Lim, emerged on stage
with an air of authority to kick start the annual contest.

All six contestants (photos below) delivered their international speeches with inspiration, dedication and with humour. Judging from the large doses of laughter from the audience, they were certainly entertained by the wit and eloquence of our members who participated. Shawn Lee and Lim Swee Hoe were  the only male contestants this round and both were dressed suavely for the occasion. Both spoke about their poignant yet precious relationship lessons from friends and “Daddy”. The female speakers, Arva, Janty, Karen, Zhang Yuan were oozing with elegance as they speak on their inspirational themes centred on hope, courage and perseverance. The speakers mesmerised the audience with their personal stories, rich vocal charisma and body language that captured the hearts and minds of the judges and audience.

The Table Topics was a gruelling yet exhilarating experience for our line up of eight speakers. The thought-provoking philosophical Table Topic question was,”Do you make decisions based on the needs of others?”

Some of them debated on the topics furiously, some told a story to engage the audience, some convey memorable lines or deliver a key message – all of them did their best and spoke spontaneously to persuade, and connect with the audience.

Unity in Diversity:

Congratulations to all our members who participated at this contest:

Special thanks to all our appointment holders from supporting clubs like IPA Toastmasters, TMCS,SCCCI, Mandarin Toastmasters Club and especially to our Chief Judge DTM Jenny Au.

The results of the contests were finally announced. Our female speakers bag the loudest applauses and biggest accolades for this evening!

The winners for International Speech Contest are:

3rd place winner: Zhang Yuan

2nd place winner: Arva Rangwala

Champion: Karen Lim

The winners for the Table Topics Contest are:

3rd place winner: Karen Lim

2nd place: Chandran Kanapathey

Champion: Arva Rangwala

Congratulations to Arva Rangwala, Karen Lim and Chandran Kanapathey for representing our club at the Area D3 contest on 1 April 2017 (no, it ain’t a joke!)

Come and support our club champions!

See you there to cheer them on in our MMTMC style!

Written By: Tan Qinglin

9 Dec 2016 – Friday

WATAHHH!!!

As the year is coming to a close, warriors of Money Mastery Singapore Toastmasters Club gathered in the astounding hall in 21 Tai Seng Street, for our final showdown of the year. Every year, our warriors put themselves through a series of intense battles, fuelled by their hunger for growth and dedication towards excellence. They have each earned their rights to step into the Dojo of the (Toast) Masters to proclaim: “I had a GOOD FIGHT!”

Just as you first step into the Dojo, you would be pleasantly surprised that it is not the smell of burning essence that fills the room, it’s something better – mmm… Nasi Lemak! For perpetually hungry warriors like you and me, nothing captures our culinary sixth sense like the smell of freshly fried chicken wings and fragrant coconut rice cooked in pandan. Our warriors gathered for their feast, as they chit-chat with their extended family to do their routine fortnightly catch-up.

Ding Ding Ding! The Sergeant in Arms (SAA) rang the bell to command attention from the crowd. It was akin to how the Sergeants in Army would start a countdown out of a sudden, putting pressure on the recruits to fall in. But of course, in a civilised setting like Toastmasters, the countdown was done on the projector instead. Guests fall in… to their seats shortly.

The SAAs, Arva and Ingewati started the meeting with a beautiful smile. “Good Evening District Officers, Club President, members and guests…” The guys in the room immediately softened their stance, falling for the charm of these beauties – something that their masters have tried so hard to warn them against. As the Chinese saying goes: Even heroes have a weakness for the charms of a beauty.

Just as they thought that they could let their guards down… “BAM!” the SAAs caught them off guard with an impromptu question: What was your greatest challenge of the year? The answers vary from trying to survive a dreadful engineering degree, coping witsh challenging times in the army, to breaking a girl’s heart politely – our warriors sure come from very diverse backgrounds!

After going through one round of Q&A, and getting to know the new faces in the Dojo better, the baton was passed to our Toastmasters of the Evening (TME), Michell and Aaron. It was as if somebody flipped the TV to a Hong Kong channel as the dynamic duo explodes into a fight on stage, aptly accompanied by their martial arts outfit and… Hong Kong accent!? As the fight rages on, an unexpected intervention by a ninja whiteboard broke the tension, making way for the meeting to continue.

The hall roared as the Language Evaluator (LE) for the night was in introduced. Dressed in a crisp white suit, Master Saddiq was here to show us his Crane-Style language evaluation – with sentences as crisp and direct as his suit. “’Celebration’ was the word of the day!” Saddiq proclaimed, as he went on to give a brief description of the word and encouraged everyone to use it that night. He returned to his seat in style.

There were 5 challengers lined up for the prepared speech segment that night. The first being a new addition to the Dojo, her name was Su Yi. This young warrior shared with us how she felt nervous as this was her maiden speech, but the way she stepped into the arena with confidence and deliver her blows little hesitation left many masters in the room nodding their heads in contentment. She talked about her fears in public speaking, and how she seeks to overcome it, as her personal story resonated well with the audience.

Soon, she was followed by the next few challengers, Joyce, Jones and Qing Lin. These slightly more experienced warriors each showed off their moves, with the basics they have picked up from the Dojo as well as their Masters. Joyce fought hard, for the case of flexible work schedule; Jones shared about what is the right fight to pick, in order to create a life worth living; while Qing Lin talked about the fights you would regret not having before you die.

Last but not least, we had a master’s display of skill in the arena, as Raymond stepped in and did his advanced project speech – inspire the audience. Raymond garnered the energy of the crowd as he steer them towards the common goal of making Money Master Singapore Toastmasters Club the best in Singapore. The warriors were at first hesitant, but by the end of the speech, the energy of the audience response was filled the room!

After a short break, the warriors prepare themselves to come face-to-face with the Masters, who will evaluate their speeches in the arena. The evaluation kicked off with a satisfied evaluator, Raymond Ho, praising Su Yi for her performance in her ice breaker speech. Following which was a display of girl power by Nora, evaluating Joyce, as she emphasised the point Joyce made that people who works with flexible work hours are not necessary slackers – she herself is a financial advisor. Then, with a gentle tone, evaluator Janty went on to praise Jones’ choice of topic, commenting that it was apt.

Meanwhile our next Master, Chandran, decided to take on a different approach that he liked to coin – ruthlessly compassionate. After assuring Qing Lin on his basics, he down to the details on what are the areas of improvement for him. And lastly, between the Masters, Jeffery went down hard on Raymond. It is one of those interactions between the pros that newbies like us can only watch in awe.

The warriors listened intently as the Masters shared their views. After the more serious evaluation session, it’s time for the warriors to loosen up and have some fun with some light-hearted Table Topics (impromptu speeches)!

The Table Topics Master (TTM) for that night was a fun-loving duo, Zhang Yuan and our new member, Andrew. The session started off with a burst of energy, as Andrew went up on stage to hype up the atmosphere. This was followed by Zhang Yuan’s seamless blending of her sense of humour into the situation. Much like kungfu, in order to utilise public speaking skills well, you’ll have to be able to think fast on the spot.

The topics were arranged uniquely according to certain characters who said the quote, where warriors had to take a pick on who’s quote would they like to talk about. In this session, warriors let their imagination lead them, as they started to talk about things from bullying, how we should react to uncivilised behaviour, to a terrifying experience on getting stuck in a lift. However, it was Ingewati’s topic on gender inequality that stood out the most, as she won by popular vote to claim the ‘Best Table Topics’ award (Yayy!).

After the award presentation by the Principal of the Dojo, Candrika, the warriors gathered to snap a worthy photo together. The next time these warriors meet, it would be in 2017. New fears, new challenges, new stories. They bid farewell as they each went their separate ways (except for those perpetually hungry warriors who likes to eat supper together).

Until next time then!