#128
This project comprises giving a speech, applying the feedback to another speech (could be the same one too), and evaluating someone else's speech.
Initial speech - Scrabble as a way of life
Script:
You've often heard people describing how their passion becomes a way of life for them. For some, it is music, for some it is sport while for some others it is photography. For me, Scrabble is not just a game, it's a way of life.
Fellow toastmasters and guests, a very good evening to all of you. Today, I would like to share with you all how the game of Scrabble has instilled in me valuable life lessons.
When I was young, Scrabble was merely a fun filled board game played with family and friends. I remember the first time I saw that colourful board, filled with reds and blues and greens, containing phrases such as double letter score and triple word score. I started out at the age of five, by playing at home with my father and grandmother, learning the nuances of the game and strategies to balance my tile rack. I then moved on to playing tournament level Scrabble, where I was made familiar with the very first life philosophy - what goes around comes around.
We've all heard several stories about karma. Similarly when playing multiple games over the course of 3 days in a tournament, you may get great tiles in one game and disastrous ones in the next. But what you have to keep in mind is that your opponent will go through the same phase. So, instead of fretting over picking up a series of unpredictable tiles that won't help you score much, you can patiently wait for the tables to turn soon enough.
Life philosophy number 2 - risk-taking. In Scrabble you'll sometimes have to make a tradeoff between playing a move that opens up good spaces for the opponent versus playing it safe but losing out on scoring well. In life too, I've faced such dilemmas. It's easy to say high risk high reward, but if that risk doesn't go in your favour, you lose out on a lot.
One such example is when I decided to go mountain biking in a place called Lavasa. I was in sixth grade at that time, and I thought it would be cool to don a helmet and ride a bicycle on jagged terrain. The uphill journey was pretty smooth, pun intended. But on the downhill path, I lost my balance on a steep slope and fell head first on the slope when my bicycle toppled. Boy I'm just glad I had my helmet on, because the fall was so hard, my helmet cracked! Luckily, I suffered no injury other than bruising my wrists and lived to tell the tale. Coming to the plus side, I have experienced high risk high reward in one area - and that is toastmasters. From being a person who refused to go on stage and if forced, I would talk feebly and hold my knees to prevent them from quivering incessantly, to someone who is able to tell herself you can do this, you've got to do this, I think I've come a long way by taking this risk of exposing myself to speaking in public and having other people watch me. The payoff of course is huge, since I have become braver in tackling uncomfortable situations at work and dealing with conflicts.
The third valuable life lesson Scrabble has taught me is actually contradictory to the first point I mentioned earlier. This one is 'patience pays...but not always.'
In Scrabble, when you make a play using all 7 tiles on your rack, it is called a bingo and you receive 50 additional points on top of your word score. Everything counts…
So, while it's good to wait it out in anticipation of probable bingo tiles on your rack and end up scoring peanuts while forgoing good moves, you can't keep up that charade for too long while your opponent progresses in leaps and bounds. This lesson is also one of the reasons that pushed me to join toastmasters. I thought if I kept waiting, I would somehow be able to talk better, portray more confidence, and become a better leader. Wishful thinking, right? But I kept nudging myself to face reality and just sign up to be part of one club somehow by the end of this year. As they say, better late than never!
The final philosophy I'd like to share with you all is on being humble. In Scrabble, just when you think you might want to break out a celebratory winner dance because of being 70 points ahead of your opponent on the last turn, they get a last-chance what is called the golden bingo, finish with that, *and* worst of all, win with a tiny margin of 2 or 3 points over you. This has happened with me so many times when I'm playing Scrabble with my husband, who is actually a chess champion. I introduced him to the game of Scrabble just a couple of years ago, and he picked it up so quickly! Many times when I start gloating about how I'm going to win, he swoops up with the golden bingo and takes the lead.
So fellow toastmasters and guests, you can see what all Scrabble has taught me, and this is true for other games like chess too. I've only just started learning chess from my husband now, and there are even more and deeper philosophies to be learnt from it, but that's a story for another day. Thank you. Over to you, TMOD.
Evaluation:
- You grabbed attention of audience right from the start. When you spoke about music as a way of life, it took me back in time and brought back memories.
- You beautifully moved on to tell about scrabble and there was a good transition into the body of the speech.
- You spoke about the lessons learnt by using vivid imagery and good vocabulary.
- You also had good quotes like what goes around comes around.
- You then moved on to various stories about patience and risk taking and humility.
- One recommendation I have for you is to make your conclusion also powerful.
- The opening was great but your conclusion was not as powerful as the opening. Try to tag it back to the title. You spoke about chess in the end. Instead, summarize the lessons you talked about. This is all I have to say. I wish you all the best in your future endeavours I am sure you will rock.
Implemented the feedback to apply to another speech:
Updated script - Scrabble as a way of life
You've often heard people describing how their passion becomes a way of life for them. For some, it is music while for some others it is cooking. For me, Scrabble is not just a game, it's a way of life.
Fellow toastmasters and guests, a very good evening to all of you. Today, I would like to share with you how Scrabble has instilled in me valuable life lessons.
When I was young, Scrabble was merely a fun-filled family board game. I remember the first time I saw that colourful board, filled with reds and blues and greens. For a curious wide-eyed girl like me, this was immensely fascinating!
I started out by playing at home with my grandma from when I was 5 years old, learning the nuances of the game. I then moved on to playing tournament level Scrabble. There I was made familiar with the very first life philosophy - what goes around comes around.
When playing in a tournament, you may get great tiles in one game and disastrous ones in another. But what you have to keep in mind is that your opponent will face the same.
So, instead of fretting over picking up a series of unpredictable tiles that won't help you score much, you can patiently wait for the tables to turn.
Life philosophy number 2 - risk-taking. In Scrabble you'll have to make a tradeoff between playing a move that would help the opponent versus playing safe but losing out on scoring well.
It's easy to say high risk high reward, but if that risk doesn't go in your favour, you lose out on a lot.
One such incident in my life is when I decided to go mountain biking in grade 6. I thought "okay. Let me prove my mettle and see how adventurous I can get!" "let me ride my bicycle on unwieldy terrain". "genius decision right?" The uphill journey was still okay but on the downhill path, I lost my balance.
My bicycle toppled, I toppled, my confidence level also toppled, and I fell THUD on my head. Fortunately, only my helmet took the brunt of that fall but I was left with bruised wrists and a bruised ego.
Coming to the plus side though, I have experienced high risk high reward in one area - toastmasters. From being a person who refused to go on stage no matter what to someone who is able to tell herself you can do this no matter what, I think I've come a long way by taking this "risk" of speaking in public. The reward of course is that my self-esteem has received a tremendous boost.
The third valuable life lesson Scrabble has taught me is slightly contradictory to the first point I mentioned. This one is 'patience pays...but not always.'
In Scrabble, when you make a play using all 7 tiles on your rack, it is called a bingo and you get 50 points added to your score. So, while it's good to wait until you get bingo tiles on your rack, you end up scoring peanuts while your opponent scores in leaps and bounds.
This lesson is also one of the reasons that pushed me to join toastmasters. I thought if I kept waiting, I would somehow be able to talk better, portray more confidence, and become a better leader. Wishful thinking, right?
I kept nudging myself to sign up to be part of one club anyhow by the end of this year. As they say, there is always a first time for everything. Saying yes to new beginnings and new opportunities will definitely pay off in the long run.
The final philosophy I'd like to share with you all is on being humble. In Scrabble, just when you think you might want to break out a celebratory winner dance because of being 70 points ahead of your opponent,
they get a last-minute last-chance bingo and win with a *tiny* margin of 2 points over you. I learnt the hard way, it’s better to remain grounded till the end rather than watching your expectations come crashing down.
So dear friends, you can see what all Scrabble has taught me. Apart from these philosophical lessons, there are also technical things you can learn like math for example.
You need to practice adding and multiplying super fast. Why so? Because in a tournament, only after you play your move and announce your score, you can press the clock. I’m sure you wouldn’t want to lose out on points just because you can’t do elementary math in a short time.
Another thing is that there are hundreds of words that you need to memorise so that you have different options to play different words.
Here you can actually tap into your creativity and come up with cool sets of mnemonics to help you remember words. And it’s not as easy as it looks.
There are 124 2-letter words in Scrabble. I’m neither joking nor exaggerating. Don’t ask me the meanings, but the words range all the way from AA to ZO. Let me share a simple mnemonic on how to remember all the 2-letter words starting with U.
Just. Remember. Phantoms.
Every consonant in that word forms a valid suffix with U
UP, UH, UN UT UM and US
Simple! That’s it!
So to summarize all the lessons, I can say that I have been taught to take risks by making the right tradeoffs at the right time, taught to be patient but then again, not for too long, taught the art of humility and last but not least is that what goes around comes around. I have extrapolated these lessons in my life too.
For instance, I have learnt to be patient with my efforts when learning something new and not expect that I become a subject matter expert within a day. I have learnt via karma to be kind to others because one good turn deserves another. And being humble goes a long way especially when you move up the ladder in your career. I'll always recollect this quote my uncle used to tell me "be nice to the people on your way up because you will meet them on your way down."
With that, I can once again emphasise that for me, Scrabble is not just a game, it is indeed a way of life.
Thank you. Over to you, TMOD.
Evaluation:
What went around as your speech is now coming around as evaluation
I will highlight 3 positives out of the many I observed.
1. Energetic opening
1. Infectious smile
2. Bubbling energy
3. Wide-eyes - could connect when you said it
2. Oozing light in a dark room
3. Organization of speech
1. Scrabble - experience, lessons, 4 lessons
Recommendations: 2
I don't know about Scrabble, could have chosen a simpler game like Chess or Ludo
I guess you had good hand gestures - guess because I couldn't see them fully - partly covered because you were seated
Stand up and deliver so you can gesture well
Video:
Initial speech: https://youtu.be/XkqHuIV3ZPU?t=1562
Speech after feedback: https://youtu.be/6A_MHeTCEFU?t=799
Notes:
I also got to re-deliver this speech in one of the JTPs - judges training program. I reached out to my mentor, who gave excellent suggestions on how I can reduce the content so as to allow for more pauses.
You've often heard people describing how their passion becomes a way of life for them. For some, it is music while for some others it is cooking. For me, Scrabble is not just a game, it's a way of life.
Fellow toastmasters, good day to all of you. Today, I would like to share with you how Scrabble has instilled in me valuable life lessons.
When I was young, Scrabble was merely a fun-filled family board game. I remember the first time I saw that colourful board, filled with reds and blues and greens. For a curious wide-eyed girl like me, this was immensely fascinating!
I started out by playing at home with my grandma from when I was 5 years old, learning the nuances of the game. I then moved on to playing tournament level Scrabble. There I was made familiar with the very first life philosophy - what goes around comes around.
When playing in a tournament, you may get great tiles in one game and disastrous ones in another. But what you have to keep in mind is that your opponent will face the same.
So simply wait patiently for the tables to turn in your favour.
Life philosophy number 2 - risk-taking. In Scrabble you'll have to make a tradeoff between playing a move that would help the opponent versus playing safe but losing out on scoring well.
It's easy to say high risk high reward, but if that risk doesn't go in your favour, you lose out on a lot.
One such incident in my life is when I decided to go mountain biking in grade 6. I thought "okay. Let me see how adventurous I can get!" "let me ride my bicycle on unwieldy terrain". "genius decision right?" The uphill journey was still okay but on the downhill path, I lost my balance.
My bicycle toppled, I toppled, my confidence level also toppled, and I fell THUD on my head. Fortunately, only my helmet took the brunt of that fall but I was left with bruised wrists and a bruised ego.
Coming to the plus side though, I have experienced high risk high reward in one area - toastmasters. From being a person who refused to go on stage no matter what to someone who is able to tell herself you can do this no matter what, I think I've come a long way by taking this "risk" of speaking in public. The reward of course is that my self-esteem has received a tremendous boost.
The third valuable life lesson Scrabble has taught me is slightly contradictory to the first point I mentioned. This one is 'patience pays...but not always.'
There will be times when you end up scoring peanuts in anticipation of a high scoring move while your opponent scores in leaps and bounds every chance.
This lesson is also one of the reasons that pushed me to join toastmasters. I thought if I kept waiting, I would somehow be able to talk better, portray more confidence, and become a better leader. Wishful thinking, right?
I kept nudging myself to sign up to be part of one club anyhow by the end of 2020. Saying yes to new opportunities will definitely pay off in the long run.
The final philosophy I'd like to share with you all is on being humble. For instance, wait till the game is over before starting to celebrate your possible win.
So fellow toastmasters, you can see what all Scrabble has taught me. Apart from these philosophical lessons, there are also certain tiny technical things you can learn like math. Calculating your score quickly will help you save time. Another lesson would be to come up with creative mnemonics to help you remember hundreds of words that you learn while preparing for tournaments.
In conclusion, let me summarize all the lessons this board game has enlightened me with.
One, I have been taught to take risks by making the right tradeoffs at the right time, taught to be patient but then again, not for too long, taught the art of humility and last but not least is that what goes around comes around. I have extrapolated these lessons in my life too.
For instance, I have learnt to be patient with my efforts when learning something new and not expect that I become a subject matter expert within a day. I have learnt via karma to be kind to others because one good turn deserves another. And being humble goes a long way especially when you move up the ladder in your career. I'll always recollect this quote my uncle used to tell me in this regard "be nice to the people on your way up because you will meet them on your way down."
With that, I can once again emphasise that for me, Scrabble is not just a game, it is indeed a way of life.
Thank you. Over to you, TMOD.
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