Table Topics Contest Preparation

Our meeting last week was to prepare for The Table Topics Speech Contest. There were three speeches, one eduspeech about Table Topics, and a Table Topics session to practice the tips we learned from the eduspeech.

Trissia delivered her BM1, telling us about herself. She’s a marketing researcher who studied International Relations for Bachelor Degree, but now deciding to delve into political research. Trissia is originally from Padang, hates cats A LOT (she freaks out just by seeing cats pictures from our whatsapp group), and contrary to her slim and sweet figure, she eats SO MUCH. The first thing she seeks whenever she arrives to our club, is dinner. Trissia is really a cheerful addition to our Mots family.

At the end of her speech, Trissia reminded us that each of us is unique, and there’s only one person of us. So we should be grateful of that and be happy with our uniqueness.

Bambang’s BM3 speech was about reaching your dreams. In life, when you have a dream, there will be people who discourage you, saying your wish is too impossible to achieve. In university, he was chosen as an important event’s chairman. There were many people who became dream crushers, telling him it’s impossible he could do well. Yet he persevered and didn’t give up, he worked hard for the event. And it became a very successful one, exceeding what everybody thought of him.

You should protect your dreams against the dream crushers, and keep working hard to reach it. You will be really happy and proud if you don’t follow the negative vibes of people who tried to bring you down. Keep going forward!

Our Immediate Past President Praw delivered a Humorous Speech about “Firewalk”. In a group training, he had to go pass a path of fire on the left and right. It was really scary! The trainer motivated everybody by saying “You can do it! Yes! Yes! Yes!”. Soon everybody was repeating “Yes, Yes, Yes!”. This yell made everyone a little braver, and each passed the firewalk safely, though terrified at first.

Praw said he yelled “Yes, Yes, Yes!” to support his friends, but when it’s his turn, his voice and confidence faltered. Although the fire looked horrifying, he managed to pass it successfully too, in the end. There was a girl who was very afraid, and after postponing for a long time, the yells of “Yes, Yes, Yes!” finallymade her found the courage to pass it.

The support of our friends is really important. There are many difficult things that become easier with their support. That’s why, cherish your friends, without them, life would be a lot harder.

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Our Past President Tantia gave us an excellent eduspeech about conquering a Table Topics Contest. Here are the tips she gave:

When you lose your words:

1. Don’t panic! Try to breathe deeply to calm yourself. Stop thinking about the topic and think of the moment as your moment to shine

2. Be on the ground. Be real. Have a clear opinion.

3. To buffer, you can repeat the topic

4. Have a flow of speech. Make it into parts, and don’t rush. It will be a speech with a              purpose if you can do this

5. Say about a bad or sad experience and make it dramatic at the beginning

Basic Speech Strategies:

1. Past experience could be your opening, it’s the time when you state the conflict you experienced in life. Present phase, make the experience your body of speech, say what you learn of it. Finally, for the future, give a solution of the problem, the intention you want to take because you had the experience, and make it your closing.

2. Sometimes, the topic in the contest can be long. You only need to focus on one or a few words that mean more to you than the rest of the words, then improve it in your speech.

3. When you’re given a choice of A or B, pro or contra, you must have a strong stand. Don’t hesitate in between. Choose one that you think best and be firm in your answer.

4. Dive to your own feelings and experience. Make the topic your personal story.

Regarding personal memories:

Usually the topics given in a table topic speech contest are more or less about happiness, friendship, leadership, sadness, anger and disappointment, satisfaction, love, success, team work, or self development.

What we can do is to make a list of our personal experience regarding these topics, and use it for the contest. For example, if it’s about sadness, maybe you can tell about a family member who already died. If it’s about success, you can tell about your most successful project at work. If it’s about leadership, you can tell about Toastmasters. It all depends on your personal experience.

Don’t dry up or went blank in the middle of your speech

1.  Use pauses to think, but remember, pause with style, don’t look panic or scared!

2.  Use lateral thinking, answer and relate to your personal experience by telling the 5W and 1H of the experience

3. Use statistics (it’s ok even if you made it up, no one will know anyway)

4. Use quotes for your closing

Very important! You need to know when to stop, don’t ramble. Repeat the quote, and ANSWER the question given in the topic.

It will be great to signal your closing. Say things like, “In the end…...”, “In conclusion…..” or “Finally……..”

Hopefully with these tips from Tantia, everybody can embrace the Table Topics contest with excitement and high spirit!

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Don’t skip our meeting tonight, because there will be an eduspeech from Dinesh Vashwani about “International Speech Contest Tips and Trick”. You’ll miss a lot if you don’t show up!

There will also be a mix of basic and advanced speeches from our members, also a game session. Be sure to be there!