Bukit Panjang Bilingual Club - Angela's Winning Evaluation on Language

The best thing about the ribbon is that Bukit Panjang Bilingual Club writes their club name and the date on the back of the ribbon in gold pen.

2/3/2016.

The club meets on the first and third Wednesday every month. That reminds me which club I visited, how long ago I visited the club, and the day it meets.

When you win your first ribbon you can remember which club and where.

By the time you have been in Toastmasters for ten years you have several ribbons and want to be reminded what you said to whom and when.

Why did I win? Was it just because I was a new face? Or an English speaker at a bilingual club where many speak Mandarin as their first language and English as a second language? That could have helped.

But it's worthwhile for me and others to remember the advice I gave.

I was evaluating a speaker who had reached the project on Vocal Variety. Word of the day was extol.

I said:

I must extol the speaker for her excellent vocal variety as well as wonderful gestures and research. Her speech, Water is Precious covered three aspects of her subject. We started with why we need water, then the impact of rivers in three different countries, finally what we can do to conserve water. She used great gestures to hold our attention and count off numbers.

Now let's consider how the subject fitted the manual project vocal variety. When you do a speech, you can approach it either of two ways. You can write a speech on a subject you like, then try to fulfil the objectives of the project, vocal variety.

Or you can pick a subject which enables you to practise vocal variety. I've completed this manual twice. The first time I contrasted different languages. You might contrast your language and another, such as Singlish and English. Or Indian English and English. (Or American English and British English).

The second time I used family conversation to contrast different ways  of speaking: a (loud deep-voiced) angry father; a scolding, tutting mother; a quiet pleading, shy child.

The speaker fulfilled the project objectives of correct speech. If you ever evaluate a speech you'll find three columns which you tick to say the speaker did well, average, or could improve. I ticked did well for all the categories, including sufficient volume and use of pauses.

I noted only two words which could be pronounced differently. One was the word tibetan. The speaker swallowed the middle syllable, pronouncing it as tibb(y)-tan. It's an extension of a word emphasising the second syllable ti BET.  So the word becomes ti-BET-an.

Angela Lansbury, B A Hons, CL, ACG, English teacher and author.

Clubs Attended 2016 UK and Singapore and lessons learned

2015
UK
Harrovians
HOD

Singapore

January 2016
Monday Jan 18 to Sheraton Hotel SCS Spoke in topics
Tue 19

Wed 20 Bukit Panjang (around an oval table, I was given a welcome ribbon signed on back by president with name of club, and best speaker for my topic.

My topic subject was: one swallow does not make a summer.

I said:
Swallows in the old days used to predict Seasons
In the old days you could tell the seasons by the birds which flew into (seasonal) countries (like the UK) for the summer. But with Global warming the seasons are less predictable. We have longer, warmer summers. Yet in England which has cold winter, we get shorter but less predictable shifting snow intervals, no longer white Christmas but often White weeks with whiteouts in January, February or even March.

How does global warming affect birds? In England we have a bird count in January organised by the RSPB, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. That day volunteers all over the country count birds in their gardens. If you don't have a garden you can count in the nearest park. Even a windowsill if you put out bird food.

You don't count birds flying across, which are hard to identify accurately, only those which land.
You could have birds flying away and coming back. The same bird might be counted twice or ten times. So you only count the numbers you see together. I saw four magpies and two crows o ravens.

I wondered why we counted in January. The leaves fall so it's easier to see birds in the trees or on the end of the lawn, not hidden from view by overhanging branches. The idea is to compare each year with the next year, to find out whether birds are increasing or decreasing. And which birds? More robins? Or fewer?

Swallows and birds flying in for the summer are not native birds and are outside our control. One swallow does not make a summer was originally a saying about birds, although we now use it metaphorically, when I do the bird count I take it literally. You could probably do the same bird count in Singapore, but the saying would not be a swallow but another bird. Yes, I agree, one swallow does not make a summer.

What I learned:
Bilingual Cards With Proverbs
(I would like to know which bilingual cards have the sayings in both Chinese and English - are they from Toastmasters or another organisation?)

Thu 21 Bukit Batok speakers club meeting at Bukit Batok CC (Community Centre) beyond the West Mall beside Bukit Batok MRT (and bus station). (Bukit Batok, alliterative, could mean hill of Javanese coconuts ; or Batu-stone in Bahasa Malay for coughs/explosives at nearby Little Guilin lake).
In an upstairs room we sat around a large o v a l table.
At break time we had k w a y  t e o w, flat rice noodles in mystery sauce, cockles and prawns, been sprouts; char away teouw with sausage. Chinese carrot cake (neither carrots, nor cake, some kind of vegetable stew) bananas and grapes.

What I learned:

Fri 22 ..

Sat
Sun

Mon Jan 25 Tanglin Club's Tanglin Restaurant
Lunch saw Shan who told me about her business selling gluten free products.
Dinner 6 pm. See Catherine Lim. (Take book for signing.)

Bukit Gombak - hill + bunch or collection

My Topics (table topics - impromptu speeches)


My Ribbons:
B i s h a n  (I had to insert spaces because autocorrect changed the name to Bison.)
I used the word Exquisite as Language Evaluator.
I won the table topics ribbon. My topic was?

Saturday Jan 30th 2016
Club Officer Training.
(I saw Alvin, Gibson, Ivy, Samantha)