Vietnam Toastmasters' Club

 

Amelia Ching, one of the humorous and wonderful evaluators with her excellent stage presence

 

Some of the participants at the Vietnam Toastmasters' Club

 

Daniel, the creative Table Topics Master

 

"Dear Lord, if you can't make me thin, at least make my friends fat!" This is my secret prayer too!

One of my favourite clubs must be the Vietnam Toastmasters' Club, because each time I attend the club chapter meeting, I leave with renewed vigour and enthusiasm to continue with my toastmasters' journey. As the membership is quite big and many are keen to present their speeches, we have chapter meetings twice a month on Saturday morning.

Quek Geok Cheng, the current Division D Governor, was very kind to invite me to be one of the mentors of the club which she founded. Geok Cheng wanted to help me in this respect so that I could finally achieve my Distinguished Toastmasters' Award. I had at first thought of leaving it at that - completion of my Advanced Toastmasters' Gold, having completed 40 projects. I am the easily contented type, and perhaps need someone like Geok Cheng, to push me along the river of life. Seeing how passionate she is about the toastmasters' journey, I have also become more motivated.

Some visitors have shared that they thought it would be easy to evaluate since it is a club where the majority of the members would have Vietnamese Language as their mother tongue. However, many are impressed with the high level of English and presentation produced by the members. Most of the members are very diligent and passionate in what they do. You can see that they prepare their speeches with dexterity and are tenacious in their desire to present their speeches to the best of their ability. Most of them are young professionals working in Singapore.

During the previous chapter meeting at the SMU campus, I was the Language Evaluator. I noticed that the members have improved tremendously from the first meeting when I was their Language Evaluator some six months' ago.

I often enjoy preparing food together with Geok Cheng. If I had the time, I would cook. If the week had been a busy week, I would then order some food from my lovely neighbour, Helen. She makes excellent noodles and "lor mai fan" (glutinous rice) which the members like very much.

I shared with the members about the poster of the little baby which I placed outside my bedroom door. The baby pinches his little extra "blubber of fat" and the wordings read as "Dear Lord, if you can't make me thin, at least make my friends fat". This is also my secret prayer.!

Everyone laughed and it suddenly dawned upon them why I am like one of Macbeth's three witches who love to hang around the cooking pot! Happiness is seeing people enjoy the food I have prepared! I love attending toastmasters' meetings because there is always good food for the brain as well as for the stomach!

Gan Chau