UTC - UEH ISB Toastmasters Club Training Workshop

University Toastmasters Club (UTC) - UEH ISB - Body Language & Vocal Variety

I started writing this blog 2 years ago, but got incredibly busy with work! So now, we’re BACK! I’ve got loads to share, so many speaking events and exciting happenings!

Let’s roll it back to October 2023. I was invited to the UTC Toastmasters Club to do a 2 hour training on Body Language and. Vocal Variety.

Now, I could easily do a 2 hour workshop on both of these topics. But, combining them both into one was a little bit of a challenge. It’s a lot to cover in a couple hours, especially with activities for the Club Members.

BODY LANGUAGE

One of the most important thing about training workshops is getting the attendees involved and getting them to interact!

We had a blast, especially with the Body Language Gestures activity: How many different ways can you express the emotion of love?

In this next photo, I was trying to impress upon the Club Members the importance of standing with a confident but casual posture and get them to avoid covering themselves up!

So many times, speakers end up putting their arms in front of their mid-section, covering their precious areas, in a subconcious defense mechanism.

Here I am demonstrating how some speakers tend to overdo it with gestures!

Clearly I look a little too locked into the physicality of gesturing.

Maybe too much? hahaha

VOCAL VARIETY

In the second half of the training, we talked about how to vary up your voice for a more interesting speech experience. We call this Vocal Variety.

We talked about 5 different ways to vary up your voice during a speech:

• Volume

• Pace

• Emotional Tone

• Pitch

• Pause

The best part about training workshops is the relationships you form. This young man is a legend, phenomenal leader in his community, Thai An! And a speech contest winner too, btw.

I was incredibly thankful to see some of my friends from Hot Cool Milk Toastmasters show up for the workshop as well! Much love to HCM TM, including the legendary Panda Le!!

Foster Vietnam Workshop

Last November, I was invited to deliver a workshop for Foster Vietnam. Foster offers a variety of platforms targeted at Vietnamese youths who want to develop their concealed abilities and most importantly, make their voices and opinions on current problems heard.

Read more about Foster here.

One of the guys that I coached in the ISB Gavel Arena Contest earlier in the year, is one of the organizers of Foster Vietnam. Ngô Minh Triết, aka Triet (to me with my Viet English), is a fantastic speaker and also a great leader!

Here’s Triet running around before the event.

The event Reas-onate and was held at the prestigious Hoa Sen University with the average age of the attendees ~17 or 19. Mostly high schoolers, with some university students.

I love the challenge of working with the youth and trying to inspire them to find their voice. I am really impressed with the younger generations here in Vietnam, because they are fiercely driven!

Culturally, they tend to be very humble and even a bit shy. This is a great combination for being coachable. They know they need to gain confidence speaking in groups and they are very receptive to feedback.

This crowd was a total blast!

At first, I shared some of the things I know about the psychology of speaking in public.

And, then I spent a good amount of time focusing on how easy it is to construct a speech with a piece of paper and a simple outline. This method was taught to me by my late mentor Peter Bunce:

1. Fold the paper in half, twice = 4 quadrants.

2. On the top left quadrant, write down your topic and specific purpose, “What do you want to audience to get from the speech?”

3. On the top right quadrant, write out a short introduction, 1-3 sentences

4. On the bottom left quadrant, list out 3 bullet points, that represent the 3 sections of the body of your talk

5. On the lower right quadrant, write out your Conclusion, 1-3 sentences

THAT’S IT!

This simple method will allow you to craft a speech, presentation or talk in a very short amount of time. This technique focuses on creating an outline, not writing a full script. First, you need to choose your topic. Second, identify your exact purpose. Write your Introduction completely, 2-3 sentences.

Super simple. No need to write a speech completely. If you choose a topic that you are knowledgable about, you should be able to deliver a speech from this simple outline.

Check out my YouTube video which shows the step by step instructions:

And then, we moved into some more interactive group play, mostly centered around body language, facial expressions and vocal range.

The last third of the meeting, I invited the audience members to sign up to give a speech, based on the outline and organization we practiced in the first part of the meeting. I was expecting only a couple of brave souls to stand up and present.

But we had at least 8 students who wanted to speak!

I love that type of participation! Usually, it’s like pulling teeth trying to get students excited to practice public speaking. I think that just proves how bold and brave the Vietnamese youth is!

At the end, I was presented with a great gift from my good friend Triet, and the folks at Foster Vietnam!

It was an honor and a pleasure to share some of my experience with this group and I would do it again in a heartbeat!

If you are a Vietnamese youth, I highly recommend checking out Foster Vietnam! This group is a fantastic organization that provides a ton of value for its members!