The evening began with our President Alan sharing two stories of how the course of two peoples lives were changed - in one instance by failure to tackle the fear of public speaking and in the other case by success in improving public speaking.
The first story concerned Alan's friend Dave who was studying English at University. Part of the course involved public speaking. Despite his wish to be a teacher, Dave just couldn't face speaking before an audience. He eventually dropped out of the course and for many years has worked as a barman. Sadly his dreams to be a teacher remained unfulfilled.
If only Dave had taken action and joined a supportive group such as toastmasters - his destiny could have been completely different. His dreams of being a teacher could so easily have become a reality.
The second story concerned an ex-Harrovians member - Sholom. Sholom was a rabbi. After regularly attending Harrovians the course of Sholom's life began to change. Many members of his congregation commented on the amazing improvements in his public speaking. Soholm applied for a prestigous job at the University of Detroit and his application was successful! He now has his dream job and all because he took action one evening and decided to come along to toastmasters.
The evening's table topics session, was hosted by Kimlesh and Harrovians took advantage of the chance to air their views on the current affairs of the day. Indra told us about his understanding of the large Hadron Collider experiment. Maneesha explained why she believed that class is no barrier to progression in modern Britain. In her words “ballsy people just go for it”. Linda discussed fashion and why we should all be comfortable about what we are wearing and enjoy being either in or out of fashion. Shirley had an eye for a bargain particularly at the jumble sales at the scout hut at the end of her road.
There were two excellent speeches this evening.
Bookworm Kieran shared his love of reading with us in a fantastic Speech No 2 (Competent Communication Manual) . As he put very appropriately “mankind’s greatest invention is the written word”. Kieran had actually brought in his favourite books by authors such as Stephen King and Lewis Carroll amongst others. It was wonderful to learn his opinion about certain books, how they impacted upon his life and what they meant to him. The speech also made us think about why we may choose to read certain books at different stages of our lives.
Super Mandip’s Advanced Speech was entitled “The Entrepreneur Child” This speech reminded us that by changing our own mindset we can help our children to see a different life path other the 45 year plan that the Government wants us to follow.
Illustrating his point in a chart, Mandip enthusiastically explained that the challenge was to move from the Employee/Self employed section to Business Owner/Investor area. His speech provided us with the inspiration to believe that this was possible and that our children can share our journey.
Well done to everyone who spoke this evening! See you all at the Humorous Speech Contest on the 29th September!
This evening Harrovians had the opportunity to improve their performance during table topics thanks to a highly entertaining and informative training session hosted by guest speakers from Athenians - Paul Carroll – assisted by Pam Bennett.
Through a series of special exercises Paul persuaded several hesitant table topics speakers – Amit, Kamlesh and Linda - to deliver a short table topics style speeches on topics such as their favourite film, book or holiday destination.
Paul gave us the following tips:-
Long Term:
- Keep up to date with the latest current affairs and challenge yourself to speak about a subject from a certain point of view.
- Treat all questions as table topics questions – so that you start to think in the order of introduction, body and conclusion.
- Watch the professionals in action by listening to/viewing Prime Minister’s questions, Question Time, Newsnight, Any Questions (Radio 4), Just a Minute (Radio 4).
Medium Term (on the day of a table topic session) Glance at the news of the day – a good source of information would be the Metro newspaper (handed out free at tube stations).
Short term (during the table topics session)
- Speak on the first subject which comes into your mind
- Don’t worry about the length of the pause before you begin speaking as this always seems longer to you than the audience.
- During the session formulate answers to all the table topics questions in your head.
After the break we heard two fantastic speeches from Angela Lansbury and Jo Hallas.
Angela’s speech entitled Restaurant Etiquette – Tips for Diners opened our eyes to the many differences and possible misunderstandings which can arise when dining around the world with people from different cultures. Angela used a wonderful array of props and great humour throughout.
She finished her speech with a quote from Abraham Lincoln “If this is coffee, please bring me some tea but if this is tea, please bring me some coffee”.
Jo’s speech entitled “On boarding Tarka” began with a quote “Dogs are not our whole life but they makes our lives whole”.
Her speech highlighted the many considerations and practicalities that need to be borne in mind before deciding on a dog as a pet and the life enhancing qualities that a dog can bring to your life. She also shared her own personal experiences of getting her first dog – Tarka a golden retriever.
Thanks to everyone who spoke this evening including Maneesha for her stunning premier performance as Toastmaster, Indra for evaluating the table topics training session, Warren for his Olympic themed general evaluation, Sanjay our Grammarian and Timekeeper – Kamlesh.
RSS Feed