Publicly Speaking

Arthur Ting took First Place in the District 80 International Speech Contest in Singapore on Sunday.

Arthur's speech entitled "Three words, Four Syllables" delivered a very simple yet powerful message: that we should practise saying "I'm sorry".

Arthur beat seven other finalists from Hong Kong, Singapore and Thailand to be crowned District Champion 2008. Judges included Past World Champion of 2006, Ed Hearn and Anne Barab, DTM and Accredited Speaker from the USA.

Arthur will go on to compete in the Inter-District contest in Calgary, Canada on 12 August 2008. The winner of that contest will compete in the World Championship.

This is the second consecutive year that a Hong Kong Toastmaster has walked away with this coveted prize. Last year, Eddie Lee, went to Phoenix and took second place in the Inter-District.

We are all very proud of Arthur and support him all the way to the World Championships.

I am sorry to hear of the passing of one of the best of us, Christine Lau, who passed away peacefully yesterday, after a brave fight with cancer.

Christine was as passionate about Toastmasters as it gets. She was a regular contestant and champion.

Our condolences to her friends, her immediate family and her extended family including her students and Toastmasters friends.

Christine, we'll miss you. Rest in peace.

Just days after David Brooks' excellent workshop, we had another workshop by DTM and Accredited Speaker, Anne Barab. Tootin' all the way from Texas, Anne's workshop was entitled 'So You Want to be Funny'.

The punctuation problems in that title should have been a warning.

A lot of what Anne delivered was valid. Some of it was humourous. But almost none of it was applied. By that I mean, the content was very theoretical. She had a colour handout with bullet points under headings such as 'Rules for Using Humor', 'How to Deliver Humor' and '10 Humor Tools'. She explained beautifully what each point meant. She just forgot the examples and the application.

She ended with a too-long story which was, I presume, intended to impress us. We were supposed to be blown away by her speaking skills. We were supposed to be envious of her style and panache. We were not supposed to be thinking 'What's for dinner'?

These last three sentences adhere somewhat to the 'Rule of Three' which was so much a feature of the presentation that we were all asked to stand and sing some inane song about it to the tune of the 'chicken dance'....twice!!!

A nice lady, I'm sure, but this workshop missed the mark for me.


http://www.annebarab.com/indexreturn.html

Roughly a hundred intrepid Honky Toasties ventured into Admiralty yesterday to hear the 1990 World Champion of Public Speaking, David Brooks.

How was it? Allow me to quote a fellow member. Her email sums it up nicely:

"The talk was GREAT. It was enriching and inspiring and practical... Most of all, it made me realize that public speaking is not just about techniques and skills and delivery. There's a lot of science, psychology, life experience, and above all, it's a great avenue for personal development."
I've seen David Brooks before. He's one of about five world champions that I've seen present and they are all exemplary. We have so much to learn from them.

David's website has a lot of great resources. He studied journalism and also teaches writing skills. Since I do that too, I read his blog on the written word with interest. Most of what he says is spot on. Some is just for Americans. That stuff on further/farther is not correct, in my book.

If you'd like to know more about writing well, get in touch!