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Toastmasters International Speech #1: THE ICE BREAKER

Executive Summary

For your first speech project, you will introduce yourself to your fellow club members and give them some information about your background, interests and ambitions. Practice giving your speech to friends or family members, and strive to make eye contact with some of your audience. You may use notes during your speech if you wish. It is highly recommended Read the entire project before preparing

Objectives:

• To begin speaking before an audience.
• To discover speaking skills you already have and skills that need some attention.
• TIME: Four to six minutes.

Toastmasters ice-breaker… It was not that tough as I had imagined.

I would be writing down the speech as a combination of what I prepared and what I actually gave. Also, I would highlight the points in my speech prepared which I skipped while actually delivering in blue and similarly highlight the points I did not prepared and spoke at the moment in green.

I wish I could get it recorded, but since we did not had anyone completely free and not performing a role, I could not get it recorded.

We had a theme for the day – “Morale of story” (the part in speech highlighted in grey is the one I thought of speaking when theme was announced, but I somehow skipped it.!)  and the word of the day was – “Lamia” which means a mythical monster.

Here goes the speech …

Good Afternoon dear Toastmasters! 

wait for answers… Chances are, you would get sophisticated low voices. If yes, skip the below para… Or else go on

such low enthusiasm? Come on friend, show me you are quite excited…!!! Good Afternoon   

hopefully, a loud responsethis time

I would like to ask the same question our fellow toastmaster asked few weeks back- “what is the best investment? An investment which guarantees you 100% returns. And I do not want the same answer…”

The precious thing my friends is a smile. Even if you smile at a stranger, you may not get it back at the moment…. But some point of his time, the person would definitely widen his lips a bit thinking the worse he may think about you – “What an idiot! Smiling for no reason”. But, you have done your job! You got your return and above all, you made someone smile.

Now, when everyone is smiling, I would like to introduce myself, only good things about myself. Since the ball is in my court, it’s me myself who is talking, why miss the opportunity and let people know my bad- not bad, bit negative traits.

This behavior of myself reminds me one of my college incidents, when our gang of friends accidentally had roll numbers as well in sequence- which was a nightmare for poor teachers. We had our via and as usual the invigilator was irritated, he asked us, “Tell me yourself? What marks shall i give you good for nothing guys?”. We abruptly answered,”50 on 50!”. He was both surprised and even more irritated-“Do you deserve that?”. I answered, “Sir, when i have an option of choosing marks for myself, why should i ask less…”. Dear friends, we actually got not 50… 49 out of fifty. So i had a “Morale of the story” from that incident – “Take out the best you can…”.

Coming back to me as a person, i am a fun-loving, bit carefree, family oriented and sometimes sensitive person. I like reading – but i am bit choosy about what i read.

About my background, my papa is a ***, my mummy is a ***. I have a younger brother *** who is fondly called xyz. Xyz happens to be my best friend and my biggest critique. When ever I write something, Yes, I do write. I blog and very occasionally I also write poems. Whenever I write something and need finishing, i just send it to xyz and “BANG” I get a updated edition.

I have a gang of cousins who are always ready to get together and have fun on every other occasion. We are always ready to pick up the house on our heads and laugh out aloud for no reason and eventually end up getting scolded. I have 1 particular cousin who used to narrate horror stories at night and she always had a “Lamia” to talk about. At the end of conversation, we all would be holding hands and sleeping.

I married pqr 3 years back and though it was an arranged marriage, many of our relatives do not believe so. The reason was, when our families met and we were left alone for those awkward moments to get to know each other, we were chatting non-stop. Even today, sometimes, both of us wonder what we were talking about!!! We have a 1 year old son, who is getting naughty day by day and keeping us on toes.

Professionally, I joined satyam – now called Mahindra satyam as a fresher and since i was being transferred back to Hyderabad, being a family oriented girl, I came to Bechtel. I am here for more than 3 years now.

I aspire to be a person who may inspire others, whom people look up to. This aspiration became the strongest when while attending the annual day at Bechtel, the moment Mr. Ram lingam Raju stepped on dais, whole mass of over 5000 people were standing and clapping for him. I was not looking at him and thought – “Man! You got to have SOME fan following”.

I love to look beautiful. I am sure almost of us present here at some point of time have said “God! She looks beautiful. But the moment she begins speaking, the beauty fades away”. Friends’, looking beautiful is in my own hands, almost…. And i am working on the second part, to speak beautiful. I am sure, this platform – toastmasters club would definitely lay a strong foundation in building my communication capabilities. Guess what, I have a bonus! I also get to work on my leadership skills on the same platform.

In the end, i would like to go back from where I begun – “what is the best investment?”. 

wait for answers

BANG ON TARGET. Keep Smiling 🙂

Below is the picture of my feedback…:)

The evaluation went on like – .

Evaluator#1 –  

Positives:-

• Good start and end
• Audience involvement by question
• Used word of the day
• No notes
• smiling face

Negatives:-

• eye contact was bit limited
• Nervousness was showing
• Hand folded some times

Timer –5 minutes 30 seconds

Grammarian –

• I said “How much marks….”. It should have been – “How many marks…”.
• I said “does not comes…”. It should have been… “Does not come…”

Ah-Counter –

• ah – 7 times
• The repeater word “The” 2 times