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Category: Sound of my mind
It is something in my mind. I am trying my best to put it down into text.
Toastmaster District 80 Singapore 2006 Annual Convention
Just back from Furama Riverfront Hotel, a place where the Convention was held.
It was a great one.
The Toastmaster District 80 includes 9 divisions in 4 countries and areas.
Singaore: 6 divisions
Hong Kong & Macau: 2 divisions
Thailand: 1 divisions
8 persons participated in the Table Topics Speech Contest. The topic was “Who do you love most in the world?” Although the topic was the same to every contestant, each contestant got to know the topic until s/he went onto the stage. S/he was required to think on their feet and have 2 minutes to deliver the speech.
These were very smart speakers. Within seconds, they could get the idea and start making speech. I was surprised that, though there were 8 responses, none of them was the same.
The results,
Champion: Benjamin Cheng
1st run-up: Ng Seng Chuan
2nd run-up: Laksha Metha
All were from Singapore.
In the International Speech Contest, Ramesh Muthusamy from division U Singapore beat the other 8 contestants and won the champion. His speech topic is Expectation. He cited his personal experiences and advised people to maintain a high expectation in their life.
It was an impressive speech. His speech skills were powerful and nature. People near me all believed he would go into at least top 3.
1st run-up: Donald Yee from Hong Kong
2nd run-up: Pradeep Kumar from Singapore
In fact, it did not need much training to tell who was a better speaker. So the results were not much surprise to the audient.
I heard some comments that a few contestants were over-prepared or overacted. Yes, I agree that the content and sincerity are the most important things to a speech. However, since most of them actually were talking about the same topics, so those exaggerated actions did capture my attention and help me sit through the event.
Interestingly, the most exciting moment to me was not from the contest.
Hong Kong is the host for the District’s 2007 annual convention. There was a marketing pitch for the Hong Kong event at the end of the convention. All Toastmasters from Hong Kong, over 60 people, went on the stage, waving the Bauhinia flag with the Chinese National Anthem reverberating across the hall. It really turned me on. It was the first time I heard this melody in a public place of Singapore.
The connection with homeland is hard to break, even for a cosmopolitan.
Jili-guru 5 (Fifth Malay Class)
Marhaini is our teacher in the Malay class. She is a very nice lady. We called her Mar. I was always late for the class, so I got to know her name until yesterday.
Mar always smiles. But once in a while during the class, she gave us problems.
“Please tell me how to say 6875908 in Malay.” She put a random number on the white board, and smiled.
We were all stunned, for 5 seconds, staring at the number, and broke into big noise simultaneity.
“Brrrr, brrrr. kkzzzz, ssssaaa, rrriii,…” counting the figure, searching on the cross table, reading loud in Malay/English/Chinese. Noisy indeed, we were really concentrated on this big challenge.
After 1 hour (I felt), we started giving the result, “Enum Juta Lapan Tujuh…”
I was very happy when I got my answer correct.
A primary 1 student got an big arithmetic problem solved.
But life became more difficult as we came to time expression yesterday.
We learnt how to say a time in Malay yesterday. That’s not that difficult actually, except we have to know how to express “pm” and “am” in Malay.
But Mar gave no simple problem. She asked us to do the whole time and date together in Malay!
“1.56pm Wednesday, 10th May, 2006”
We fainted this time. That included number, time, day, month, year… all we learnt in previous classes!
I substantially, concretely felt I needed some lubricating oil for my brain. I could feel it was rusted at that moment.
Anyway, here are the class notes for yesterday. Going to Indonesia tomorrow, hope I can use something I learnt from the class.
Duduk – sit
Tutup – close
Hari ini hari Rabu
Today is Wednesday.
Bulan ini bulan Mei
This month is May.
Marhani
Tahun Year
Year 1963
Tahun Sembilan belas enam puluh tiga
2006
Tahun Dua ribu enam
Today is Thursday, 26th July 2046
Hari ini Hari Khamis, Dua Puluh enam, Julai Tahun Dua ribu Empant puluh Enam
Today is Saturday, 15 October 1802
Hari ini Sabtu Lima belas Oktober Tahun Seribu Lapan ratus dua
Pukul – beat, hit
Pukul satu – 1 o’clock
Jam – Hours/clock
24 Jam – 24 Hours
Suku – quarter(15 mins)
2.15pm – Pukul dua suku tenghari (petang)
Setengah – Half (30 mins)
1.45pm – pukul satu empat puluh lima tengahari
4.05pm – pukul empat lima minit petang
Minutes below(include) ten, we use minit
Hadapan – ahead
Lepas – over
Musim – Season
Hujan – Rain
Sejuk – cold
Gugur – something which is attached and fall, such fruits.
Bunga – flower
Panas – hot
Hari cudi – Holiday
Jili-guru 4 (Fourth Malay Class)
I am seriously thinking of starting a systematic on-line Malay course now, because there are not many on the net. I just found one entry for Malay course in the Omniglot on-line language course list. Though I still have not had a schedule, I have a good name for it. 🙂
As for now, I continue post my class notes here.
We learnt days of the week yesterday. Here is the cross table:
| hari Ahad / hari Minggu |
Sunday |
| hari Isnin |
Monday |
| hari Selasa |
Tuesday |
| hari Rabu |
Wednesday |
| hari Khamis |
Thursday |
| hari Jumaat |
Friday |
| hari Sabtu |
Saturday |
Don’t be surprised that you find a people named Selasa in Malasia. Most possibly, she was born on Tuesday.
We learnt the months also. They are very similar to those in English. But some of them, such as April and Januari, have different pronunciations in Malay.
| Januari |
January |
| Februari |
February |
| Mac |
March |
| April |
April |
| Mei |
May |
| Jun |
June |
| Julai |
July |
| Ogos |
August |
| September |
September |
| Oktober |
October |
| November |
November |
| Disember |
December |
Other things we learnt:
Sudah makan?
Have you eaten?
5112
Lima ribu satu ratus sebelas
312968
Tiga ratus dua belas ribu semilan ratus enum puluh lapan
9432801
Semilan juta empt ratus tiga puluh dua ribu lapant ratus satu
Kuah lebih
More soup
Umur
Age
Datuk
Grandfather
Tepat
Exactly
Tahun
Year
Hari ini
Today
Anak
Child
Dalam
In
Kereta
Car
Ini
This / These
Hari ini
Today
Itu
That /Those
Ibu/ama
Mother
Membeli
Buy
Berat
Heavy
Berat badannya
Weight
Dia
He/She
Memandu
drive
Sejauh
Distance of
Rumah
House
Tingkak
Level/Floor
Terakhir
Last
Bapa
Father
Beri
Give
Hari
Day
Isnin
Monday
Hari ini hari apt?
What is the day today?
Hari ini hari Jumaat
Today is Friday.
Ialah
Is
Semalah
Yesterday
Semalah hari apa?
What is the day yesterday?
Esok
Tomorrow
Esok hari apa?
What is the day of tomorrow?
Nama
Name
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