Who Am I?

Last week on Toastmasters Motivators, our theme was “Who Am I”, in which we dug deeper into ourselves and questioned whether we know ourselves for real, or not.

Lia was the TOM and she read a poem titled “Who Am I”. She also asked 15 questions to the audience. Here are some of them:

1. Are you more worried about doing things right, or doing the right things?

2. If happiness was the national currency, what kind of work would make you rich?

3. What one thing have you not done that you really want to do? What’s holding you back?

4. Are you holding onto something you need to let go of? When will  you address it? Now or never?

5. How patient are you? Do you push the elevator button more than once?  Do you really believe it makes the elevator faster?

6. If not now, then when?

7. If you haven’t achieved it yet, what do you have to lose?

8. What is the one thing you’d most like to change about the world?

9. Decisions are being made right now.  The question is:  Are you making them for yourself, or are you letting others make them for you?

Try answering these questions, you’ll know yourself better.

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Medya won as Best Table Topic Speaker!

Our Table Topic Master was Arya.

The hilarious guy is getting more talkative, clearly growing more comfortable in our club. He seemed to talk to everyone before the meeting started, filling the room with his voice. 

Surprisingly, as a Table Topic Master, his questions were thoughtful, making us relate and also wanted to answer, although we’re not one of the speakers he called. Well, I guess the saying “A man gotta do what a man gotta do” is true. The jokemaster-to be could turn serious when we need him! Great debut as a TTM!

We had a series of speakers, coming from different clubs to add color to the night.

Praba, a new member from British Toastmasters Club, visited Mots for the first time to deliver her BM2. She told us about her thirst to travel, never settling down in one place for long. She had traveled most of South East Asia, Europe, Australia, and many more.

She worked as a psychologist for a few years, and then decided to travel again. She once stayed a year in Japan to teach English. The job that finally could make her stay long enough was as a lecturer in Australia, teaching foreigners. She said it’s the next best thing, even if she couldn’t travel, she still could meet people from other countries.

She finally found a job that combined teaching, helping others, and fun in Jakarta. So here she is, living in our city and loving it. Prabha taught us to do what we want, when we want it. Life is short, so why should we wait? In the future, it’s the things that we didn’t do that will make us regret, not what we did.

Be crazy and follow your heart. Because you won’t live forever.

Imam was Best Prepared Speaker of the night!

Our own member, Imam, presented his fourth speech, BM4, making us all laughed with his funny story about dating, heartbreaks, and getting back up on his feet again. The speech was made to entertain, fictional yet hilarious. This is a brave effort, since his previous three speeches were serious. There is definitely an improvement with every speech, and we’re happy to see Imam grows in English fluency and confidence. Can’t wait for his BM5!

Okta from Mets delivered her BM6, telling about the unique traditional languages in Flores and Surabaya. Flores language sounds really unusual, like nothing we’ve ever heard before. Surabaya’s traditional language is also one of a kind. For example, “Fish” in Surabaya doesn’t only mean fish. Every food that is not a vegetable, whether it’s meat, chicken, shrimps or oyster, is also called, “Fish” there. “Fish” means “Lauk” in Surabaya, not only “Ikan”.

We always learn something new in Toastmasters, don’t we?

Susanna, the president of JTC, graced Mots again with her presence, this time to deliver her first project in Storytelling Advanced Manual. You can deliver Advanced Manual speeches in random order. Susan delivered her first project of “Folk Tale” as the last one, because she found it the hardest. She had no inspiration for a long time, and had to deliver the other ones first to keep progressing.

She finally decided to retell the story of Malin Kundang, the folk tale from Padang, about a son who pretended not to know his mother once he became successful and rich. Susan’s speech reminded us all to love our mother, as “Heaven is under her feet”.

In the case of Malin Kundang, the mother sent his son off to travel, praying for him to reach his dream. But, when he became wealthy, he was ashamed of his mother because she looked poor in shabby clothes.

Let us not be like Malin Kundang, who forgot where he came from and broke his mother’s heart.

Yoshi, the VPE of British Toastmasters, also chose Motivators to be the place where she delivered her first advanced manual of Story Telling, exactly the same like Susan, about Folk Tale.

She told us a story of “The Grateful Crane”.

One day, a poor merchant saved a crane from harm. Not long after, he met a beautiful lady and married her. This lady had a rare specialty. She could weave a cloth so beautiful everyone would want to buy it.

She would weave a cloth everyday, and give it to her husband, asking him to sell it in the market.

He managed to sell all of it in a very high price.

This repeated for several times. His wife kept weaving pretty cloths, and he kept selling it in an expensive price.

Only one thing was making him curious. She forbid him from peeking while she was weaving in a closed room.

He had promised he would do that, but his curiosity increased with time, especially because she always looked exhausted whenever she finished weaving.

One day, he couldn’t contain his curiousity anymore and chanced a peek.

His wife was not inside the room.

The one who wove the cloth was a crane, using her feathers as the thread.

Afraid, the merchant ran outside.

His wife then approached him, looking as beautiful as usual, saying, “I’m the crane that you saved. This is how grateful I am to you. However, since you’ve seen me, I can’t stay here and must leave you”.

She left and the merchant was alone again. Richer than before, but losing his wife.

Yoshi delivered an interesting speech, with an interesting story. She used pictures to make the audience got the idea of the cranes she was speaking about, and managed to gain our attention to the end.

Bahtiar won as Best Evaluator :)

Bahtiar from JTC also entertained us in his jokemaster’s session. He gave witty jokes, and when you laughed, you felt smart. That’s what his session made us all felt. An accountant whose passion is to be a stand up comedian, he taught us to really enjoy every minute of speaking in front of an audience. Much thanks to you, our friend!

Our meeting tonight will be about “The Shocking Moment”. Watch how our members learn to improve themselves by delivering speeches, taking roles, and evaluating. Dinesh will also visit and have a special session. The topic of his session is still about public speaking, but I can’t enclose the details here. You must come tonight to know, of course!

It’s Wednesday, it’s Mots Day. Come and join the fun!