Language evaluation at SP Jain Toastmasters Club

I went to SP Jain Toastmasters Club April 9th 2019. I was language evaluator. I asked President Theo to write the word Oxymoron on the board and to come back later when I gave examples during my description of the uses of the word of the day.

I said to the audience:
"I am delighted to be your language evaluator, although you are a small crowd. That phrase, small crowd, is an oxymoron and my word of the day is Oxymoron. Hands up if you know it?

For the benefit of those who don't, it's a combination of the greek moron, slow, and the word oxy which is sharp, two contrasting, contradictory words, creating an absurdity, an ambiguity, a contradiction, a new idea.Oxymoron.

I've asked your club president, Theo, to write the oxymorons, the pairs of words, on the board, because he has the neatest handwriting, he claims."
The audience laughed. 

"He's going to write them on the board to remind you to use them. The oxymorons you'll find easiest to use are:
small crowd,
act naturally, and
seriously funny.

For example, you might start your speech with,' you are only a small crowd but you can make a big difference'. 
Or you might say in your evaluation of a speech, ' the speaker acted naturally but was seriously funny'.

I learned from my friend, the Singaporean author Catherine Lim, the phrase
Howling Silence. I went to one of her book signings and she said she wanted the title of her book to be an oxymoron so people would find it surprising and memorable, and you can use oxymorons to make your speeches exciting and memorable.

Other oxymorons you may be
able to use are:
Artificial intelligence, or
military intelligence

At breaktime we might be able to eat jumbo shrimps.

In addition to the word of the day, I shall listen for interesting things you say such as alliterations. These use the same initial letters in two successive words. For example, you could start, Terrific Tuesday, and please welcome Wonderful William and Cheerful Chia, and you might end with, Thank you, Theo.

I shall also look for assonance. Similar sounds. Often at the ends of rhyming words, by occasionally in the middle of words or both the middle and end.

I shall listen for your interesting phrases, as well as strange sounding phrases, Americanisms, which are fine, but tell people that you learned English in America aor from American movies, or an American teacher. But I shall remind you of the equivalent British phrase. the same applies to use of Singlish phrases such as cannot. We have an English alternative which you might like to know about. So you'll here from me again later, Over to you, thank, you Theo."

At the end of the meeting I said:

"Thank you, Theo - that's an alliteration. I would like to praise you all for using so many oxymorons, although you are a small crowd."

Table Topic
I won the ribbon for best speaker. My topic was the slogan from IBM: THINK.

I said, 
Think, I like to think that I think, and think enough, but a friend once said to me, You think too much!
 He meant: you think in advance about a problem, like preparing a speech, then keep worrying about it during the speech, then worry about it again afterwards.

However, you can think and worry in advance which saves you worrying later. I believe most of our daily problems can be solved by thinking in advance. For example, sometimes I wake up tired and can't decided what to wear. Should I wear the black shoes, and the black skirt, and the matching black top, but that's all too somber. So what if I wear red shoes and - but I could have solved all this last minute thinking and worrying if I had thought in advance and put my clothes out the night before.
So, to conclude, think about problems in advance, then you will have less to worry and out think about later.