The Sixth Speech

The things that I have learned from JANGYU Toastmaster

Before giving my speech, I’d like to talk about how I’ve lived. My name is Jin kim and I live in Kim Hae. When I was child, I was not sociable person. I was so quiet. One day my teacher sent my mom a message and it said “I’m so worried about Jin’s future. Because he always gazes at the sky during class and he doesn’t like to do anything.” Furthermore he has no dreams. I hope your son can find something that he can do very well and dream. After that, I started to try many new things that I’ve never done before. One of the things that I tried was learning English. In order to learn English, I tried to memorize the pop’s lyrics and movie subtitles. Sometimes, I would chat with non-Koreans on OMEGLE which is a chat site. When I was 24 years old, I joined the English club called Toastmasters. I believe joining Toastmasters was not only the most memorable challenge but also the biggest chance to improve my English skills and have confidence. I was always disappointed by my English when I was a member of Toastmasters. But I didn’t give up and tried to overcome difficulties. Today, I’d like to talk about what I’ve learned from Toastmasters. 

Lesson 1 disappointing experience is the best opportunity to get to know myself.

My most memorable disappointing experience of my English was when I first met Jayson. I believe meeting him was like an accidental. The first time I saw him was his post on FACEBOOK. He said “Hello. My name is Jason and I live in JANGYU.” As soon as I saw his post, I decided to send him a message. After that, we met many times and started to do Language exchange. For me, that meeting was like a BBC hard talk. Because it was very difficult to not only understand Jayson’s English but also say what I wanted. The Most difficult thing about Jayson’s English was it too fast to understand.

I was very disappointed by my English every meeting and I did not feel confident enough to continue doing language exchange meetings. I started to postpone and I ended up canceling it. After a month, he sent me a message saying I hoped you joined Toastmasters which is a speech club. After that, I joined and became a member.

After two months, I gave an ice break speech. That speech was another memorable disappointing experience of my English. In order to give a speech, I tried to memorize the script and learn gestures from YOUTUBE and TED. On the day of my speech, there were six members sitting chairs. When I started to say the first sentence, I kept stumbling over my words and sweated profusely, because I was nervous. As soon as I finished giving the speech, I realized that I was completely drenched in sweat. Every member said it was a good ice break speech, but I wasn’t satisfied with the result and I was disappointed in my English. Sometimes I wanted to give up learning English and also attending Toastmasters. But I couldn’t do it.

I believe the reason why I decided to join Toastmasters again was because of my disappointing experience. Sometimes, this experience made me feel abandonment, but feeling abandoned made me think about myself again and attempt to do things that I gave up. I began to gain my confidence again.

Lesson 2, Do not avoid a situation that you’re not comfortable in

A couple of months ago, I had a toastmaster role. Unfortunately, three members could not be at the meeting due to personal problems. If you are a toastmaster, you MUST expect the unexpected. But I didn’t do anything. Because I wanted to avoid that uncomfortable situation and I thought that someone else would do something if I didn’t. After a few minutes, I saw YuJin who is a members of Jangyu toastmasters start to reassign roles. Furthermore I remembered her words. She said that “You’re the toastmaster today. You have to reassign roles.” When I heard that, I was ashamed of myself.

From this experience, I learned that I avoid uncomfortable situation, so I don’t seem weak to other. If I tried to conceal my weakness, so it wouldn’t too effect my life. Furthermore I learned that I couldn’t do self development if I avoided the situation that I was not comfortable in.

Truth be told, before joining Toastmasters, I avoided situations that I was uncomfortable in and didn’t try new things that I have now done, because I wanted to live without stress. Since I joined Jangyu Toastmasters, I could learn what my weakness point was and how to make up for it. Furthermore it was a good opportunity to try new things that I have never done before.

For me, joining Toastmasters was not only to improve my English skill but also to learn new things that I’ve never know before; as well as to know what my strength and weakness points are. Since I joined Toastmasters, I have given a speech five times in 2 years and I have no idea when my next speech will be. But the one thing that I know is I’ll try to learn new things that I’ve never known before and I’ll continue overcoming my weaknesses.