Favourite Places

18th March 2013

Word of the Day: Outdoorsy (adj)

Recently a few of our members including myself took part in a mountain climbing expedition of Mt Kinabalu in Sabah, Malaysia. Along the trek, I started to think about my other travelling experiences and what made my list of favourites. They all had three things in common. First is charm. A place needs personality, quirky characteristics makes a place unique and memorable. Second is friendly people, helpful locals who share with you tidbits of their home make you welcomed and third, clean toilets. Clean toilets are particularly important as when you’re travelling, you’re using different bathrooms every time. There is a place that encompasses all three and you don’t have to travel very far to get there and that is here at Hong Kong Toastmasters Club which just happens to be my favourite place every alternate Monday night.

Our Toastmaster of the Evening is someone who is charming and friendly, someone who’s always willing to give things a go. Edwin Lui took the role as the evening’s MC.  Helping facilitate the meeting was timekeeper- Vanessa Lau, ah-counter- Tim Chung and grammarian- Aparna Sachar.

Starting with our prepared speakers we had two new members delivering their ice breaker speeches. Levina Poon took the stage first with her speech titled, “About Myself,” and we got to know how she’s progressed in her career and how she’s found a job which combines business with charity work, truly inspiring. Levina also divulged a secret but you had to be there to know what that is. She also shared her life motto which is “Determination, passion and being patient.” Our next member to deliver her ice breaker speech was Gladys Chan who told us why she’s “The Unique One,” after being born the second child and getting all her sister’s hand-me-downs. There is something that she never got second hand though, and that was toys. She also let us in on a secret, networking can be done by copying other students homework at school. If you’re in need of travel tips, Isabella Hii could offer you hers. Isabella gave her CC2 speech, “The Rule of the Road” where she spoke about the importance of safety and drinking enough water. Also, ladies, when you’re in desperate need of a toilet when you’re in a remote area, an umbrella can be your best friend. Our tech savvy speaker, Alan Kwong introduced to us what we need in a world where the internet and mobile phone are at the top of our basic needs pyramid in his CC8 speech- My Favourite Mobile App. What you need is “Evernote,” a note taking application used to make your notes more organised.

Best Prepared Speaker Isabella Hii

Best Prepared Speaker Alan Kwong

Table Topics followed where Paul Wong our Table Topics master dished out the first question, “What is your favourite holiday destination?” which was answered by Martin Wong who told us about his recent trip to Fuzhou. Ernest Mak took on the next question of ‘Disneyland or Ocean Park?” Ultimately, Ocean Park beat out Disneyland due to its larger size and aquatic theme. Favourite places can’t just be limited to physical space especially in the 21^st century, we must also include cyberspace. New member, Maggie Lee shared with us her favourite website, one which has all the answers and its name is Google. Propelled by the adrenaline of her first speech, Gladys took on a Table Topic as well telling us her favourite places to eat which usually depends on her companion. 

Best Table Topics Speaker Ernest Mak

Evaluators are our teachers in the club. They are the ones who guide us through giving us constructive feedback and first up was the very experienced Asta Lee who evaluated Levina and told us about using the most powerful position on the stage. Philip Ngan, advised on Gladys’ speech and summarised her speech’s clever use of language, his excellent listening skills enables him to remind us of Gladys’ witty words. I evaluated Isabella’s speech tonight where feedback was given about how Isabella’s confident stage presence and projection of voice easily pulls the audience in. Michael Boynton evaluated Alan’s speech according to the objectives of the speech which is to select visual aids which are appropriate for the message and audience. Alan not only used the projector, but a flip chart too easily transitioning between the two. Ai Ai Ong evaluated our Table Topics section and gave us some very useful tips on how to structure an impromptu speech. We were taught three different strategies in how to keep an impromptu speech structured.

Best Evaluator Asta Lee

For weeks we’ve been trying to get the very popular Roberto Fong, president of ALE Toastmasters Club as our General Evaluator and tonight he was finally able to make it. Hurray! Well the wait was certainly worth it as evaluators and facilitators were given invaluable advice with examples.

There is no place like the Toastmasters Club home on a Monday night. Hope to see you at the next meeting which will be on the 15^th of April.

 

Sandy Chan

President 2012-2013

Hong Kong Toastmasters Club