Katong Toastmasters Club

Our SAA for the evening Bruce Pei, pointed out that the meeting day was actually the 15th day of the Lunar New Year and invited everyone to share the highlights of their CNY celebrations. One member actually had to work on the first day of CNY, most went visiting, some spent valuable time with family while others had restful days just watching TV, sleeping and even surfing! Our Toastmaster-of-the-Evening Leena recommended the movie "The King's Speech". Club President Nik Chua drew a series of waves and used it to describe his life after he took on the role of Club President in July last year. He shared the highs and lows that he experienced and the valuable lesson he learnt is to enjoy the process. VP(Membership) Ben Xu inducted our three new members Zhuang Yan, Eric Zhang and Merry. Their mentors Benjamin and Elaine joined them at the lectern to confirm their commitment to help them grow. Joni presented a mini-workshop about the Toastmasters Program. She gave an o...

BRICKBATS: Grammar: (1) We don't have any relatives that we can go. We don't have any relatives whom we can visit. (2) ... a lot of thing to catch up to do a lot of work to catch up on (3) OK lah It was fine. / That's alright. (4) He was so impressive because I had so many days to do my practice. He was so impressed because I had many days of practice. (5) I was so nervous that I cannot remember anything. I was so nervous that I could not remember anything. (6) My mind went blank upon so many eyes staring at me. Seeing so many eyes staring at me, my mind went blank. Vocabulary: (1) Good evening guys Good evening, fellow toastmasters, ladies and gentlemen (2) It's very ordinary but still very impressed It's ordinary but heartwarming (3) ... even when life is giving you shit ... even when life presents you with insurmountable obstacles (4) We are going to continue on with ... We are going to continue with... (5) leave a deep and impactful in the viewers' mind leav...

We were delighted to welcome 3 visit ing toastmasters - Yen from Ulu Pandan TMC, Man oj and Agree Ferrer from Marine Parade TMC and 7 guests - siblings Zhuang Yuan and Keyi who are living in our neighbourhood, Merry, Zhang Jun, Amy , Daijian and Linda. Club President Nik Chua shared an inspiring story with the message: Our life is simply a reflection of our actions. If you want more love in the world, create more love in your heart. To read the entire speech, go to http://katongtoastmasters.blogspot.com/2011/01/presidents-opening-address-20-jan-2011.html Our in-house Language Evaluator Benjamin Gan gave us the Word of the day catharsis (noun) and cathartic (adjective) - which means the elimination or purification of a strong emotion through the process of writing, talking or acting. F or example, " Music is a means of catharsis for me. " or " Speaking about h er parents' death was a cathartic experience for her. " Leena Santore presented P2 Organiz e Your ...

Happy New Year and I hope you had a refreshing and revitalising break during the recent year-end festive period. During the start of a new year, it is an especially meaningful time to reflect upon what we have achieved during the last year and what we would like to accomplish in the coming year. While you are busy planning your new year resolutions, I would like to share with you this story: "A father was walking in the mountains with his 5-year old son. Suddenly, the son fell, hurt himself, and screamed: 'AAAhhhhhhhhhhh!!!' To his surprise, he heard a voice repeating, somewhere in the mountains: 'AAAhhhhhhhhhhh!!!' Curious, he yelled out: 'Who are you?' He received the answer: 'Who are you?' Angered at the response, he screamed: 'Coward!' He received the answer: 'Coward!’ He looked to his father and asked: 'What's going on?' The father smiled and said: 'My son, pay attention.' The man screamed: 'You are a cham...

SYNOPSIS FOR 9 DEC 2010 Once again, our annual joint meeting with Brilliant Advanced Toastmasters Club has come to fruition to mark our last meeting for the year 2010. Cynthia Koh opened the meeting with an ice-breaker activity that got everyone into a frenzy to find fellow toastmasters to sign on their friendship list with items such as 'has a pet', 'has been in Toastmasters for more than 3 years' and so on. VP Membership from Brilliant Advanced Nishant Kasibhatla gave the opening address and thanked Katong TMC for initiating the joint meeting. He looks forward to more of such collaborations in future. LE Joni Siah gave the word of the day 'ebullient' which means 'high-spirited or overflowing with enthusiasm and excitement', as in The audience was in an ebullient mood tonight. 1st speaker Yeo Choon Liang from Katong, presenting P2 Organise Your Speech, shared with us the benefits of swimming, using the abbreviation PSP, which stands for the physical, ...

Dear Katong members Breaking news... After four rounds of keen competition, Joni has emerged as the CHAMPION for the District 80 Evaluation Contest for 2010 . That is to say, she is the BEST Evaluator for the whole of District 80 which covers a total of more than 200 clubs in Singapore and Thailand. It is a beautiful dream come true for Joni. To win the championship for the district contest is indeed the dream of many toastmasters. Joni has not just brought the dream home to Katong and more importantly, she has demonstrated that with practice, perseverence, and passion, we too can achieve our dreams. Joni, once again, on behalf of Katong members, I congratulate you for winning the CHAMPIONSHIP and inspiring us in our toastmaster journey. Nik

“The difference between greatness and mediocrity is often how an individual views a mistake” I remember when I was in my primary school, making mistakes was a very embarrassing thing, to me. My classmates would laugh at my mistakes, and worse, my teachers would like to pick on me more in order to ensure I learn. Back then, my belief was making mistake was bad and had to be avoided at all cost. The result was that I stopped trying new things and stopped growing my potentials. Too often, we choose to settle for status quo because our fear of making mistakes and that has prevented us from venturing outside our comfort zone. But we failed to realize that not making mistakes is also a mistake. A person who has never made a mistake has probably never tried anything new. Yes it is safer to stay within our comfort zone and not to make any mistakes. But that would also mean we have to live uninteresting and unrewarding lives. We need to know that we are here to grow our potent...