Aug 11th 2015 Theme: Crosstalk – Chinese Traditional Comedy

“Make happy those who are near, and those who are far will come.” ~~ Chinese Proverb

Welcome to the second meeting in August blog. Today, we had 2 guests attend our meeting. 

              Linda was our toastmaster of the day.

The GAT(e) team was: Grammarian – Dave, Ah Counter - Julie, and Sepideh as the Timer.

Jessica was our first speaker. She completed Speech#1 Ice Breaker from the Competent Communication Manual. The title of her speech was “Deep River – A Journey with History.” Her speech duration was 6 minutes.

Jessica started her speech describing in a very picturesque manner the place where she moved with her family at 7 which soon became her home – a small town called Deep River located near Connecticut River. She shared with us few historically significant facts about Deep River - the oldest and largest parade of fife and drum participants is held here and the Yale University (one of the foremost institutions of higher education in US) was founded in this small town.

As she grew up, she soon found her first love – history. She pursued a degree in history, became the president of 4 different organizations and at the time was also the youngest member of Deep River Historical Society. Her desire to study Chinese History brought her to Seattle. She is currently a student of UW, Seattle.

Towards the end, she mentions that her history is still a mystery. Deep River, her home town, instilled in her a sense of passion and curiosity and made her who she is today.

Jessica was voted the best speaker.

Barb was her evaluator. She congratulated Jessica on the very descriptive language, body movements, and gestures that she used while delivering her Ice Breaker – none of them expected in the first speech. Barb liked how Jessica had good eye contact and tonal variety throughout her talk. She mentioned though Jessica looked a little hesitant at first, once she came up to the stage away from the podium, she did very well.

Barb was voted the best evaluator.

Our second speaker was Alice. She offered her Speech 7 from the Competent Communication Manual– Research Your Topic. The title of her speech was: “Fear Inside Out”. She completed her speech within 7 minutes.

After mentioning how humans in general tend to avoid pain and unpleasant feelings, she described how sometimes when she signs up for a speaking role, questions start popping, fear starts talking from within and tries to find reasons and excuses for not attending the meeting.

She took the example of the movie Inside Out in which human emotions are simplified and created into characters. Through the book “Inside Out” she and her son had a great learning – whatever fun and adventurous things fear says not to do, instead of listening to fear one should do the thing.

Pointing to the advantages that fear provides, she mentioned that fear could be considered as an indicator to the path to follow, it could be our ally if used correctly and can transcend to joy if one tackles a challenge long enough.

Naser was her evaluator. He complimented Alice on how well she took the common topic of fear and turned it into an interesting talk. He appreciated her stage movements, gestures and the pleasant smile throughout the talk. He especially congratulated her on the summary that she provided where she clearly explained how one can use fear constructively for our advantage. As a suggestion, he encouraged Alice to use more gestures and vocal variety.

Amritha was our Table Topics Master today. She chose few pictures of products and services from magazines. The speakers had to try and sell them.

Robert tried to sell us a trip to the Tropical Hawaiian Islands. He mentioned it is a treasure trove of mountains, volcanoes, beaches etc. He suggests it is adventurous to take a ship to Hawaii, plan ahead, and make sure one takes enough money.

Naser tried to persuade us to get geico insurance. He involved the audience by asking them if anyone was interested in saving money and why. He mentioned that by switching to geico one could save money and get that dream vacation.

Julie spoke about being a tropical girl and asked others if they wanted to be one. She shared with us what was it that she liked best being a tropical girl.

Dan Dan tried to sell us a ticket on an airlines. She spoke about how airlines enables us to travel from one corner of the world to another and see various places. She mentions that for people living far away from their home country travelling in airlines is both economical and time saving.

Naser was voted the best table topics speaker.

Robert was our humorist today. While an elderly couple were out for a walk in a park, a pigeon flies over the wife’s head and leaves a deposit on her head. Feeling disgusted, she screams for a toilet paper for which the husband replies “Why now? The pigeon is probably a half mile away.”

Our members attending numbered 15 and were:  Alice, Amritha, Andrew, Barb, Dan Dan, Dave, Devi, Jessica, Julie, Jung, Linda, Naser, Pauline, Robert and Sep.

We had 2 guests attend our meeting today and were: Jan. and Yasmin.

Our active membership total currently is at 35.

Respectfully Submitted,

Amritha Imandi, Secretary

Public Speaking Northwest #9406