Toastmasters' mentoring system
第二次线下会议，讲述我和Mentor之间的故事。
演讲稿如下：
Good evening, everyone.
Raise your hands if you think compared to body language and interaction with the audience, you are better at writing up a speech? Thank you.
Raise your hands if you think compared to writing, you are better at body language or interaction with the audience? Thank you.
What we have established so far is that we have generally two types of people in this room, people who are good at writing, and people who are good at body language. And we know that a good speech needs to have both good content and good delivery. Now, what if I divide you all into three groups. First group with only people who are good at writing, second group with only people who are good at body language, and the third group, a mix of both. Which group do you think have a better chance of delivering a good speech in the end?
Yes, the third group. Because people in the third group can learn from each other what they are not good at.
For myself, compared to delivering a speech, I am better at writing it up. I can imagine in my mind how to have conversations in the speech, where to put my hands, etc.; however, I just couldn’t bring myself to do it.
When I joined Toastmasters around this time last year, I was fascinated by all the speakers. They were so confident on the stage, moving around with appropriate gestures and I was like, “God, I wish I could be like them!” So when I was assigned a mentor, I couldn’t be happier. She is very good at body language and interacting with the audience, and later I discovered that she is also good at telling stories, which were what I needed the most at that time. She is always energetic on the stage, a potential fashion designer, a poet, can you guess who she is? Yes, Flora.
I remember for my first speech, I was like this, “hi, everyone, my name is zhuzhu. Hmmm.” So many problems in that speech, too many ah-words, too fast, no pause, no interaction with the audience, no body language. To overcome all those problems, for the next few speeches, with Flora’s help, I set up the goal to slow down my speed, reduce ah-words and add more pauses. After I made progress on that, Flora focused her suggestions, especially recently, on rich vocal variety and interactions with the audience.
I remember for my last speech about Africa, I planned to open the speech with just a picture of the movie Lion king. Flora suggested that I play Hakuna Matata on the phone at the beginning and to hold a cup of coffee when I talk about Ethiopian coffee.
I took her advice, but then I thought, “emm, good suggestion. But maybe I could take it to another level.”
So as some of you know, in my speech, I sang the song Hakuna Matata myself.
Looking back at the last year in Toastmaster, I felt so grateful to Flora. It is through her encouragement and support that I improved and became the better me that I could not or maybe take longer to achieve myself.
Everyone at Toastmasters has a mentor, but how to make the most out of mentoring.
First step, set up your goal; second step, be open to your mentor’s feedbacks and suggestions; third step, for areas that your mentor might not be able to help you, reach out to other members. Last but not least, be grateful for your mentor’s time and support.
Now everyone, close your eyes and think about how have you progressed by standing on their shoulders, how their support and guidance have empowered you to walk further and faster, and say thank you to that person.
