July South Main Monthly

South Main Monthly Vol. 2 No. 1

South Main Speakers, District 56, Club 8609

July 2007

The mission of the Toastmasters club is to provide a mutually supportive and positive learning environment in which every member has the opportunity to develop communication and leadership skills, which in turn foster self-confidence and personal growth.

IN THIS ISSUE: *President's Corner *Anniversaries and Milestones Wei Zhang, Wen Zhu Brenda Thorne, Grace Hu Renay Jacob, Vivek Rajan, Vivian Li South Main Speakers Toastmasters Club Recognized as President’s Distinguished Club *Calendar of Events Education Session with Invited Speaker: Yolanda Bynum *New Member Spotlight Ronald Seo *Features “Dragon Boat Festival” by Jane Shen “A Word (or Two or Three) to the Wise" by Renay Jacob “In Praise of Dictionaries” by Annie M. Ballatore *Ask the Master How do you make your speech more interesting?

The South Main Monthly is a monthly publication of the South Main Speakers Toastmasters club. We meet every Sunday at 1:30 p.m. in 10305 South Main Street (Houston Chinese Church), Room 411. For more information, please visit our website at: http://groups.msn.com/southmainspeakers If you have any comments, contributions, or suggestions concerning this or future issues, please send them to [email protected]. Thank you for reading! -Judy Yan & Vivian Li, Editors

President’s Corner Way to Go, South Main Speakers! By Vivek Rajan We achieved the President's distinguished club status, 10 out of 10, four years in a row! This is an outstanding achievement, and my congratulations to all of you! The success of our club is a direct reflection of the success of our club members. Our club is raising standards every year, and we need to push it up a notch. For all the new comers, I encourage you to work on achieving your Competent Communicator and Competent Leader awards. And for the veterans, I urge you to work on achieving the advanced communications and leadership awards. In August, our club will hold our biannual club contest, and this is a great opportunity to take your speaking skills to the next level. The two categories that you can compete in are: Humorous Speech and Speech Evaluation. Contests are challenging, fun, and a great way to grow. Toastmaster contests are not about winning; they are about improvement. So I encourage everyone to participate in the contest, especially our new members. Compete and see yourself grow!

Anniversaries & Milestones

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Congratulations to Wen Zhu and Wei Zhang who celebrate their first year anniversary with South Main Speakers this month! ********

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Congratulations to South Main Speakers for achieving the highest Honor, President's Distinguished Club for the 4th year in a row under the great leadership of Annie Ballatore! ********

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Congratulations to Brenda Thorne for winning the award of President's Distinguished Division Governor!

July 15: Education Session

Yolanda Bynum, who is the 3rd place winner at the regional level for International Speech Contest this year and the 3rd place winner at the district level last year in the Humorous Speech Contest, will talk about her experiences in contests and especially how to inject humor into our speeches to prepare for our club's Humorous Speech Contest in August.

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Congratulations to Grace Hu for winning the award of President's Distinguished Area Governor! ********

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Congratulations to Renay Jacob for earning his ACS (Advanced Communicator Silver) award, Vivian Li and Vivek Rajan for earning their CC (Competent Communicator) awards.

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New Member Spotlight Please give a warm welcome to our newest member, Ronald Seo! In his own words to the club: “I'm a born and raised Houstonian and after graduating from the University of Texas at Austin, I lived in Hawaii for almost 2 years. It's great to be back home, and I'm looking forward to making the most of my time here. I'm teaching Middle School Science during the day and attending law school part-time in the evenings. Being a great public speaker is helpful in both fields so I'm dedicated towards improving my skills in this area.”

fifth lunar month. Gradually, the Chinese Dragon Boat Festival became a significant festival, and people have been keeping this tradition for over 2,000 years. Also, boat races in the shape of dragons became the most important and exciting activity of the Dragon Boat Festival. Dragon Boat Festival by Jane Shen June 19 is the Chinese Dragon Boat Festival this year. This festival is celebrated on the 5th day of the fifth month of the Chinese lunar calendar and was derived from the story of Qu Yuan, who was a great poet about 2,300 years ago. He did much to fight against the corrupt officials, so they hated him and pressured the emperor to exile Qu Yuan. Finally, he committed suicide by drowning himself in a river on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month in 277 B.C. As he was so loved by the people, fishermen rushed out in dragon boats, beating drums to scare the fish away, and throwing rice dumplings to feed the fish so that they would not eat Qu Yuan’s body. In order to commemorate this great poet and patriot, people row dragon boats and eat rice dumplings every 5th day of the

Rice dumplings, the traditional food for the Dragon Boat Festival, are made of sticky rice with different fillings, wrapped in a kind of special bamboo leaves. The fillings can be eggs, red beans, walnuts, meat, or a combination of them. They are generally boiled in water. Basically, they are in pyramid shape.

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accidue (ăk'sĭ-dü) 1. (n.) Small pieces of broken glass, metal and other debris that remains at the scene of an accident for months after. calorosity (kăl'ə-rŏs'ĭ-tē) 1. (n.) A desire while dieting and eating out to see the dessert menu and still possessing the willpower to not order dessert. Since the Dragon Boat Festival is around the beginning of summer, when diseases are likely to strike, people also wear talismans or hang healthy herbs on the front door to protect them from evil and disease for the rest of the year. ************

A Word (or Two or Three) to the Wise by Renay Jacob, ACS What with millions of words to choose from, you wouldn’t think the English language needs any more. You’d be wrong. Here are a few new ones that dictionaries should start making room for. Here are my favorites from unwords.com: abdicake (ăb'dĭ-kāk) 1.. (v.) To give up the last piece of cake to someone else. Example: Is anyone going to eat the last piece of cake? I was but I'll abdicake in your favor.

flabbygast (flăb'ē-găst') 1. (v.tr.) To be over come with astonishment that despite excessive dieting you haven't lost a pound. 2. (v.tr.) (adj) As if struck dumb with astonishment that you haven't lost a pound after a rigorous diet. manorexic (măn'ə-rĕk'sĭk) 1. (adj.) Characterizing a male who eats an extremely large amount of food and yet gains no weight. Example: Renay ate that whole pie and he is still manorexic. nostralgia (nŏs'trăl'gə) 1. (n.) A reminder of one's past brought on by a familiar or more recently unfamiliar smell. plaquack (plăk'wăk) 1. (n.) The one mysterious dentist out of five who doesn't provide advice such as recommending sugarless gum for his patients who chew gum.

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English is my second language and my pronunciation gets a bit shaky at times! Every morning I sip my coffee with my friend Merriam-Webster, savoring the Word of the Day. Today's Word of the Day is "unbeknownst" which has a challenging spelling:

In Praise of Dictionaries by Annie Ballatore, ACB, CL At four years of age, I would sneak to my brother's bedroom, grab his prized dictionary and spend a wonderful time looking at the pictures in it. My brother's dictionary was marvelous: each letter of the alphabet had its own page illustrated with plants, animals and objects starting with that letter. I used to spend many lovely hours guessing the names of the different items. When I was seven, Santa put a fantastic present in my little shoes under the Christmas tree: my very own illustrated dictionary! Its glossy pictures had bright vivid colors and I loved to read the explanations underneath. I read with avidity the biographical part, wanting to know the lives of the famous people. I devoured the geographical section, fascinated as I was by the foreign lands. My love of dictionaries had started at an early age because, at my father's house, dictionaries were valued companions. We had one in the kitchen, one in the living room. We even had one in the bathroom, for Dad was the pioneer of multitasking. It is no wonder that the web site I enjoy the most is Merriam-Webster online (http://m-w.com/). There I can find easily the meaning, roots and pronunciation of any word. No need to decipher the obscure phonetics anymore: just click on the red audio symbol and listen to the correct pronunciation. What a plus for me as

unbeknownst • \un-bih-NOHNST\ • adjective : happening or existing without the knowledge of someone specified Example Sentence:Unbeknownst to Clarice, we had been planning a surprise baby shower for her for weeks. I find looking up the Word of the Day a great way to increase my vocabulary, instructive as well as enjoyable. After the Word of the Day, I move on to the Game of the Day: Citation tests my encyclopedic knowledge. The Spelling Bee is excellent to sharpen my listening and spelling skills. I love the Dictionary Devil who has disheveled the dictionary and mismatched words and definitions. Today's game is my favorite one: Syn City which deals with synonyms. Every day I find something new and exciting on the Merriam-Webster site. What a way to start the day! By giving you a glimpse of my love for dictionaries, I hope that I have aroused your curiosity and that you are all running toward the Merriam-Webster online! Have fun! ************

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Ask the Master Dear Master, How do I make my speech sound more interesting, and not so dull and bore people? —Seeker of New Ideas

Dear Seeker, There are certain steps that storytellers follow. They select a story appropriate to the occasion, interests, and age of the audience, commit it to memory, prepare the audience by sitting them in a circle, and begin the tale. Professional storytellers generally memorize seven stories a year and have a repertoire of about 20 stories handy at all times. If you are an inexperienced storyteller, look for short stories with repetitive phrases. Choose tales that you like because Beavers can sense when you aren't keen on what you're telling. You want stories that build up suspence to a good climax, preferably tales where characters speak for themselves rather than straight narratives. Length is important - never more than 20 minutes for Beaver-aged boys. Leave them wanting more. Generally, children's magazines are not a good source of stories because the material is meant to be read by the child, not out loud.

When you've chosen the story, you need to memorize it. It will take a few hours spread over time. First, read it silently and try to see the story in your mind's eye by visualizing it as a series of pictures. Then learn it by reading it aloud repeatedly, enjoying the words and the sound of the phrases. Think about words that may be new or unfamiliar to your audience and incorporate their meanings into the story so that you won't need to interrupt it during the telling to explain. Time yourself when you read the story aloud. After you have memorized it, time yourself again. If you use less time, you are either telling it too fast or skipping parts. If it takes much longer, you are telling the story too slowly. Tell your story to anyone who will listen. Before going to bed, read it aloud again. If you can, tape or videotape yourself telling the story. Once you've memorized the story, you are ready to tell it. These points will help you do it more effectively. Smile and make eye contact with your listeners. Vary the pitch of your voice and use facial expressions and hand spirit of the story - unless you do, don't tell it. In choosing stories it is a good idea to select a theme for the hour, week, etc. (Honesty, courtesy, loyalty, safety). Be sure to read the story out loud first because some are better read than told. Don't be afraid to use high and low tones to impersonate characters. Be sure of your sequence of events; then practice out loud, in front of a mirror if possible, until you are used to the sound of your own voice and gestures. These gestures should be very simple - if used at all.

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Be sure your facial expression interprets the mood of the story. Your eyes are most important - use them. Atmosphere can make or break a storytelling period. Be sure it is quiet, secluded, and that there will be no interruptions once the story begins. Try some of the tricks used by experienced storytellers - a "story hat", which goes on when the story begins and comes off when it ends, or a mascot such as a teddy bear, doll or hand puppet to tell the story to or take the part of a character. This is a simple device for taking your mind off the listening audience if you are a little shy. And the opening sentence! Don't always say "Once upon a time..." Why not try:   

"Once, in the long, long ago and very far away..." "On the very highest mountain in the whole world lived an old man..." "Those were the days when mighty beasts roamed the jungle..."

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