Do You Know Of A Kid Who Can’t Speak Well?

This is the first time I’m doing an advertorial for my dad. LOL! He has been very involved with his MIMPJ Toastmasters Club for the past couple of years and one of the events he feels most passionately about is the Youth Leadership Programme.

He got me to write an article about it for R.age last year which is why I still have some photos from the past YLP sitting around in my computer. I remember he said one of his club members asked if they had to pay me to write. His reply? “Haiyoh, pay for her Rm200k to study dentistry should be good enough already lor.” -_-

As a child, my parents have considered sending my brother and I to drama and speech classes because we have this tendency to mumble and when we were younger, stammer. I sometimes still stammer when I am nervous and am unable to get my point across. My dad always says, “The both of you can express yourselves well in words, but why can’t you speak just as well as you write?”

Don’t know why lor.

Well, we didn’t go to those kind of classes anyway but dad has always tried to persuade Mervyn to be more active at the Toastmasters Club at his uni. Furthermore, as a future lawyer, speech is really important to him.

We all know of painfully shy teenagers who go through awkward phases of insecurities. I’ve seen more than a few and it takes quite a bit to bring them out from their shells.

I remember feeling like whatever I said would be brushed aside by my peers and therefore I chose not to talk a lot when I was about 11-13 years old. Meeting new people was a chore and basically I lacked self confidence. I’m very fortunate that I had a bunch of friends who allowed me to act like myself and from there we developed together to be the outspoken ( I don’t really give a damn about what I say now a days.. unless it’ll lend me in serious trouble lah of course. Haha. ) women we are today. You know who you are, babes. 🙂

But not every kid is as lucky to be influenced by noisy noisy friends who will stimulate you to feel uninhibited in your words.

Don’t get me on public speaking though. That’s the worse. I totally.. suck..at.. public speaking. Don’t know why people keep voting me as “Best Public Speaker” on the Comparison app on Facebook! LOL. And these are votes from people I’ve not even met in real life. @.@

The most painful incident ever was back in form3. I was quite gung ho about joining the english debate between my class and a neighbouring class. My facts were read straight out from the paper and when the opponent challenged one of my statements, I searched my paper…. kept quiet…(thinking hard) for a good …5 minutes. I’m not exaggerating. That 5 minutes felt like half an hour lah. Like people had time to listen to one whole song and I was still silent until the bell went off. HOW STUPID IS THAT!

I think if my dad made me join the Youth Leadership Programme back then, i would totally go for it because I know that one of my biggest weakness in life is public speaking.

The Youth Leadership programme nutures the participants on ways to express themselves and of course, how to speak in public with ease. On the first day of the programme, it was painful to watch these kids stutter and stammer. Must have been painful for them as well. But as the hours go and my dad and his Toastmasters colleagues guide them a bit more, you can really see the kids fluorish.

It’s a 3 day course and parents get to come and watch their kids speak in public effortlessly on the last day! My dad thinks it’s very rewarding because he thinks of it as instilling confidence in these kids.

Oh yeah, why I keep referring to them as kids is because this programme is only open to 15 to 19 year olds!

So if you have any siblings or friends that would fit the programme, do get them to join! 🙂 Public speaking is a very important skill so I think most kids can really benefit from this programme.

The next one will be in early June! Do check out the details here if you know anyone who might be interested.

Participants at the workshop.

They are being split into groups and they draft out their speeches together.

Most of them grew to be fast friends. I really wanted to be one of their buddies, but I was just that old fogey reporter from R.age who was too old to be cool. 😛

These are the best speakers of last year’s programme with Mr Hong, the president of MIMPJ Toastmasters Club.

I’m really bad with names so I can’t remember this boy’s name but he was very very matured for his age. At only 15, he was so expressive and he aced all the assignments given to them throughout the workshop. He wants to be a doctor when he grows up. He totally has the look already. 🙂

Proud parents seeing their kids take center stage and blowing them away with their awesome public speaking skills.

I can’t remember what happened here. But as you can see it was pretty happening. 😛

The kids were given a couple of hours to rehearse their speech. They were all a bag of nerves! LOL.

Do pass on the word!! 🙂