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This page contains reports of our public programmes and other exciting events! View specific programmes only: All programmes & events: Dare To Speak™ Public Speaking Programme for Executives & Professionals We started off the year very well with the best ever programme so far, in terms of getting enough participants. 11 participants registered for the course. We're still loyal to Crystal Crown after having used their facilities for 3 years (since January 2009). Same course, same trainer, same venue... but with a fresh batch of participants!
After the opening session, we sailed full steam into unchartered waters (for the participants only, of course). The trainer Azmi Shahrin, always flexible with the flow of his delivery of the course contents, had chosen this time to talk about the 4 elements of body language and vocal variety under the heading of "dynamic delivery", before touching on speech organization under the heading of "critical content". As usual, after each round of short exposition, there would be a practice session where each and every participant had to go forward to speak.
With each round of practice, the participants' delivery improved noticeably. This went on for 2 days, so in the end they were all pretty good at it.
On the second day, we were left with 10 participants. The following photos were taken on the second day:
Before the course ended, there was just enough time to cover the module on correct English pronunciation. Those who wanted to delve deeper into this subject were encouraged to attend our full 2-day course on this subject. We ended with a quick certificate presentation ceremony and everyone had to "rush" home because we were 1 hour late in finishing! In short, this training programme had allowed the participants to catch a glimpse of and taste what it was like to speak confidently and interestingly before an audience. We very much hope that they would continue to practise and apply their new skills and achieve success. :) Reported by Sandy Tan
The last time we had this programme for primary school children was more than 2 years ago in 2009. Obviously we were pleased to do it again. This time, we used the "English Champ" premises at Taman Megah, PJ. It was a good move as the centre also helped us to recruit a couple of participants. In total we had 9 participants.
At the start of the programme, the children were shy and quiet. Not all were keen to attend the programme. Fortunately, the trainer Azmi Shahrin managed to break the ice by starting a conversation with them about why they might need public speaking. It got most of the children to speak up and thereby warm up to the fact that they were in a public speaking class. We went through the usual modules using the simplified workbook specially designed for the children. Among the main things they learned was to speak without notes, use hand gestures, stress certain words and stop using speech crutches (sounds like "ah" and "er").
All in all, the participants had 3 rounds of practice on the first day and several more rounds on the second day.
Mealtimes provided some relief from all the drilling. We used the pantry for tea breaks and lunch. For lunch, we had food from KFC and Pizza Hut on the first and second days respectively.
On the second afternoon, we had to prepare for the graduation ceremony when parents and family members would come to watch the children's final performance.
The final round went smoothly. The children did well. However, a few of them were a bit nervous due to the large crowd. With more exposure, they would continue to improve. 4 top prizes were given away.
Lastly, before we closed, we invited any one parent to speak on behalf of all other parents. The father of Tommy (1st prize winner) said a few words.
I believe that in the end all the children were glad they attended this programme. We will try our best to have more coming! Reported by Sandy Tan
For this round, registration was quite encouraging. In fact, 10 people registered (full house); however, only 7 made it to the class due to last minute job assignments. On the second day, another participant couldn't make it due to an emergency. We were left with 6 survivors.
As this was our 18th session, I thought I had seen most of it. In any case, there were always some small innovations thought up by the trainer Azmi Shahrin to liven things up (for himself at least). As usual, at the beginning of the class, each participant declared his or her "alter ego" - the name by which he or she wanted to be called for the entire duration of the class.
* The other 2 participants didn't want their photos posted. Of course, we covered the key modules such as body language (4 elements), vocal variety, speech organization and pronunciation. The course was action-packed till the end with a lot of drilling and practice. All the participants had interesting ideas and stories to share, besides improving their delivery.
The programme ended well, however, I wished that more participants had turned up. Congratulations to ProSkills Trainers for having conducted 18 sessions of the Dare To Speak™ Public Speaking Programme for Executives & Professionals without fail since January 2009 (once every 2 months). Now that the programme has quite a good reputation, we will work towards making the it even more effective and enjoyable. Reported by Sandy Tan
This time, we managed to recruit a respectable 8 participants who attended the training on their own accord i.e. they approached us to register without me having to ask first. This was certainly a welcome relief for me as the organizer. I believe the surge in interest was partly due to the new and more interesting course title replacing the old ambiguous title.
To start off the class, the trainer Azmi Shahrin showed and proved to the participants that they had been pronouncing many common words wrongly all this time. After making his point, he went into the lesson proper by recording each participant's reading of a chosen passage. Then, laying brick upon brick, Azmi took the participants through each module. The first morning focused on single plosives. We had pizzas for lunch (Domino's delivery) on the first day since it rained heavily and we couldn't walk to OldTown which was our usual lunch place. After lunch, the class continued in a more informal setting. We looked at double plosives and the "schwa".
On the second day, we looked at other elements of correct pronunciation including the "th", "z" and "v" sounds till the participants were a bit overloaded with the number of corrections they had to make to their usual way of speaking. Hmm.
At the end of the course, the participants read the same passage that they had read earlier and their readings were recorded again. However, we couldn't watch the videos there and then as there was some incompatibility between the video files and the sound system in the room (which was working fine otherwise). Anyway, I managed to upload all the videos to YouTube that very same night (since I'm using UniFI now) and the participants had accessed the "before" and "after" videos the next day to view their progress. After every good ending, we naturally hope for a repeat of the event. Therefore, we hope that we can conduct this course more often next year. Bonus photo:
Reported by Sandy Tan
True to our Ramadan tradition, we offered staggering discounts (60%) to Muslim participants for this round. As a result, 11 participants registered (7 of them qualified for the discount). However, only 9 turned up on the first day and 7 on the second day due to a variety of reasons. Most of them were not feeling well. Anyway, the show went on... The other challenge was the change of room. On the second day, we had to move to a smaller room because the bigger room was being prepared for a grand buka puasa dinner that night. As it turned out, the smaller room was actually more cosy and had better acoustics.
As for the programme itself, basically, we focused on body language and speech organization on the first day and vocal variety plus pronunciation on the second day. All in all, the participants had 6 rounds of individual practice including a "graduation speech".
Despite the challenges, we produced good results as always. After the graduation speech, when asked about the most important skill they had gained during the 2 days, one participant mentioned clear purpose in her speech and another the ability to speak impromptu based on a few main points (no need to memorize word by word). Another participant told me (earlier, over lunch) that the trainer Azmi Shahrin was nice, humble and to-the-point as he didn't use his "power" over the participants to ridicule them or tell his own stories (as he experienced many times in other training programmes). These are the 7 survivors who graduated from the course:
The next thing for me to do now is to prepare for the next programme in November. :) Reported by Sandy Tan
The last time we actually put on a programme for the college and university students was exactly 2 years ago. At that time, we managed to recruit only 3 students to join the class (and 4 adults who were roped in). In the 2 years following that, we'd always pushed the students to the adults class due to lack of numbers. This time, however, we got 14 students and had to divert 4 of them to the adults class held 2 weeks earlier. So we were left with 10 students. Maybe the tide is turning... and the importance of acquiring public speaking skills early in life is being realized...
At the start of the class, the trainer Azmi Shahrin asked the participants whether they volunteered themselves for the training or were "forced" by their parents to attend. The results were 50-50. In any case, all of them gave their fullest cooperation and participated actively in the training. The trainer took them through the usual steps, starting from learning to use hand gestures and the correct body language, right through to learning about speech organization, vocal variety and accurate English pronunciation, all the way peppering the core modules with additional advice on the side.
As was normal for students' programmes, we had an debate with the girls' team opposing the boys' team (except for one girl who had to join the boys' team due to numerical imbalance).
All these young people were leaders in the making. At the beginning of the programme, they were asked to select a character (real life or fictional) by whose name they would respectively be called throughout the 2 days. See what some of them chose:
We had so much fun that when the programme ended, we felt quite sad as we sang the theme song. Hopefully another class for another group will happen soon enough. Reported by Sandy Tan
Another successful programme concluded! Despite some initial problems, we managed to secure our preferred venue i.e. Crystal Crown Hotel and a full house of 11 participants. This included 4 college/university students who were transferred from the class on 16 & 17 July (for college/university students) which was also full!
On the first day, I did not have the opportunity to be present during the entire session as I had some errands to run. When I returned in the afternoon, I noticed that the participants were already much better than in the morning, especially in terms of their hand gestures and other body language. I also noticed that the trainer had modified his method slightly to accommodate the "large" class by reducing the length of his lectures and allowing more time for practice. On the first day, we managed 3 rounds of practice for each participant. On the second day, the trainer focused more on vocal variety and correct pronunciation while at the same time helping the participants reinforce what they had learned on the first day.
Some participants had a challenging time trying to enter the class:
We believe that in the end everything worked out optimally leaving no regrets to organizer, trainer and participants alike. After 2 "gruelling" days, the class ended beautifully and the graduates were eager to begin their new life of confidence. Reported by Sandy Tan
This was our 15th session since January 2009. We had 9 eager participants most of whom registered early. Among them were 3 college students while the rest were working adults in varous industries.
At the beginning of the programme, the participants were asked to name their "worst fear" about public speaking. By far the most common fear was "forgetting what to say". This problem was addressed immediately when participants were taught to speak sponteneously without using notes and wihtout memorizing. They were also taught to organize their content in an easy-to-remember format later in the programme. Besides this, the participants' delivery style had to be polished. Throughout the programme, the trainer "huffed and puffed" to ensure progress. The high level of energy emanating from the trainer also rubbed onto the participants.
I was surprised that we were the only group at the hotel on those 2 days. As a result, we were given a set meal for lunch instead of buffet on both days. The lunch and tea breaks provided an opportunity for us to rest and to chit chat with one another.
At the end of the programme, we had produced another batch of graduates who now had a brighter future thanks to possessing better communication skills. Congratulation to the trainer Azmi Shahrin and all the 9 participants! Bonus photo:
Reported by Sandy Tan
It's amazing how it could be so difficult to recruit participants at certain times, and so easy at other times. This round, the registration was encouraging from the start. In the end, we had 11 participants. This was after turning away several latecomers (12th person onwards) in order to maintain the effectiveness of the training.
What a group of students we had! On the first day, everyone was excited and arrived on time. Besides the high energy level, this group was interesting in a few other ways. The most obvious one was a high concentration of people working in pharmaceutical companies. 4 out of 11! 3 participants came from outstation - Ipoh, Kuantan and Seremban.
The class progressed smoothly, but not strictly according to the timetable; the trainer Azmi liked to “play by ear” based on the actual situation. Due to the large number of participants, he shortened the lectures to allow more time for practice. For one particular module, he didn't even lecture but right away drilled the participants on the required skills. To make the participants' progress even more dramatic, Azmi corrected each person's most obvious mistakes early on.
In short, all of us enjoyed 2 days of great and interesting speeches. Now that they "dared to speak", the participants unleashed their creative ideas in speech after speech! Witnessing this transformation made me feel glad to have organized this programme. Once again, the video of "I Have A Dream" by Martin Luther King, Jr. was played to provide the final touch before we closed with the presentation of certificates and "last words". So that's it, we did it again! Reported by Sandy Tan
This was our first attempt to resurrect this programme after not having conducted it at all last year (not as a public programme). The catalyst was 2 firm registrations that came in early. In order not to disappoint those who registered, we had to round up more people to make this session a reality. In the end, I manage to get 6 more people to attend including our 3 Associate Trainers. This course was to be part of their training as a trainer!
The class commenced as usual with participants reading a passage and having the reading recorded. Then the trainer Azmi Shahrin took the participants through each module starting with the plosives, moving on to the "schwa" and others. Some of the participants were quite incredulous that they had been doing the wrong thing all this time! For lunch, we walked a short distance to OldTown White Coffee on both days. It was a welcome break for the mouth and the tongue.
We managed to cover the entire syllabus. The only disappointment was that the sound system in the training room didn't work and the participants couldn't watch and compare their "before" and "after" videos on the spot. The videos would be made available to them after the class. In any case, it was clear that everyone made progress. In my closing speech, I remarked that even if the participants didn't get everything right immediately, at least they were now aware of their past errors. This would go a long way because much progress could then be achieved subconsciously. Bonus photo:
Reported by Sandy Tan
This was our 13th session since we started running this course in January 2009. Again, I faced some difficulties in obtaining a sufficient number of participants. Ten days before the class, we had 3 participants only! However, cancellation or postponement was not an option. Some last minute action saved the day. In the end, we had 8 participants. Since it was too late to book our usual hotel, we ended up at Shah's Village, which was not too bad!
The next challenge was I fell sick! As a result, I couldn't pay full attention to the proceedings. Anyway, the class was good and progressed as usual. The small number of participants helped. It was fun too. In the first round of practice, the participants had to choose a character (real life or fictional, dead or alive) and introduce himself/herself as if he/she were that person. I discovered that the participants admired a range of interesting people, some of whom I had never heard of (due to my lack of general knowledge).
And so during many rounds of practices with simple yet interesting topics, the participants were directly coached by the trainer to apply more and more of the public speaking skills till finally they could put everything together. On the second day, I had to leave after lunch. The trainer concluded the session nicely. Some of the participants later sms-ed me to say that the course was beneficial and that they would recommend it to their friends. I hope it works so that the future rounds will be easier for me to organize. A note of appreciation to the trainer and all participants! Bonus photo:
Reported by Sandy Tan
It's been a year since we last conducted a public programme for students. Perhaps due to the accumulated interest over a long period of time, suddenly, it was like everybody wanted to register. In the end, we had 15 participants, exceeding our self-imposed limit of 10. However, we managed to arrange for another classroom to be made available in order to break the participants into 2 groups during the practical sessions. It turned out very well. For each module, the "chief trainer" Azmi Shahrin gave the lecture/talk and then the participants broke into 2 groups - one group was handled by Azmi and the other by me (alternately). This shortened the waiting time for all the participants and we managed to have more rounds of speeches and practice. As a result, the participants learned very fast and everything was on schedule. However, the 2 groups were joined during the debate session at the end of the first day. The topic was "Women is the cause of all the problems in the world". Contrary to expectations, the girls had to propose while the guys had to oppose!
Then came the time for the participants to show off their newfound talents to their parents. At the end of the second day, parents streamed in some bringing along other kids. The classroom was almost too small to hold everyone in. This added to the "heat".
Despite the inevitable "stress" caused by a large audience, the participants overcame all obstacles, presented their final speeches and received their certificates. We also gave away 3 main prizes and 2 consolation prizes for the best speakers. The parents were pleased. Some of them didn't know their son or daughter could speak the way they did!
It was a satisfying experience. We hope to do more programmes in future. Reported by Sandy Tan
Due to the Deepavali holiday and long weekend, we didn't get many participants for this round. Despite the relatively large number of early registrations, eventually we had 6 people only including one person on holiday from Bahrain. Since we had paid in full to the hotel, I found a way to "rope in" my sister to attend the course.
As expected, the small number was beneficial to the participants as each one received much personal attention. The trainer Azmi Shahrin was in his elements too. The course progressed smoothly.
I guess the interesting thing this time was the larger number of speech topics to choose from and the passionate sharing by participants as they presented their respective speeches. As I was also roped in to speak, I shared about "my best holiday" to Sabah which I planned and managed myself from beginning to end, and during which I managed to see some fishes underwater and a huge Rafflesia flower. Who's to know, my sister selected the same topic and spoke about her trip to Alaska where she saw beautiful glaciers and exotic animals. (Obviously, the audience thought her trip was better than mine.) Another participant had a somewhat different experience in Sabah where he had to flee a hotel after being threatened by some natives with a parang. Anyway, the speech topics were only the means to an end, which was to allow us to apply all the public speaking techniques to good effect.
We ended the class by watching a video of the most famous speech of all time - "I Have A Dream" by Martin Luther King, Jr. Everyone was touched. All in all, the session was successful and achieved its objective. My sister said to the trianer: "I don't regret being forced to attend." I'm sure the rest also didn't regret. :) Bonus photo:
Reported by Sandy Tan
This session promised some peculiarities right from the start. First of all, it was to be conducted during the fasting month. Secondly, the dates were in the middle of a long weekend. As we could find no other dates, we had no choice but to go ahead. It turned out that many parents took the opportunity to send their children (college or university students) to attend the course, most of them taking advantage of the special discount for Muslims. Eventually, we had 11 participants, 5 of whom were college or university students.
There were other peculiarities. Firstly, the participants got more rounds of practice during the entire programme due to each speech being briefer than was normal. There were 2 impromptu sessions where each participant wrote a question or topic on a piece of paper for another to pick up (and speak on the topic). However, there was no debate session this time. In any case, the participants learned the same basic skills - how to overcome nervousness and speech crutches, how to use body language and hand gestures, how to stand, make eye contact, vary the voice, use correct pronunciation, etc.
Unfortunately though, 2 of the students didn't come back the second day!! I later learned from their mother that they felt the session was too serious and intimidating. My own view is that they hadn't reached the point (they were quite young) where achieving results in the shortest possible time would be a major concern (as for the working adults). Anyway, we'll be giving the mother a free seat to attend a future session. She should benefit better, so the problem is considered solved. In future, we have to advise parents that the training method is actually quite aggressive. Come to think of it! The trainer ruefully said it was his first failure in 9 years. Despite this minor hiccup, the other participants managed to graduate and I believe they were happy with the results! Reported by Sandy Tan Dare To Speak™ Public Speaking Programme for Executives & Professionals As wished for in my last report, we received a good number of early registrations and successfully moved back to Crystal Crown Hotel for this session. We had 9 participants including several interesting ones (all were interesting in their own ways). Some came from outstation (1 from Kuala Trengganu, 2 from Johor Bahru). There was even one who came from Kazakhstan! No, just kidding, actually she's been working in Malaysia for 3 years...
The course started and progressed in the normal way. The participants had to learn many public speaking skills and apply them one after another, or rather one on top of another. In any case, the trainer did a good job at pointing out errors early on so that the participants had more time to practise in the correct way even if the theory part of it came later. Practice is key! Basically, the participants went through all the modules from overcoming nervousness, to body language, vocal variety and correct english pronunciation. They learned very fast and became pretty good at it. One innovation this time was the impromptu speech session where each participant had to write a question or topic on a piece of paper and put the paper in a container for another to pick up (and speak on the topic). It was fun because some of the questions were very interesting.
For the group activity, we had a debate on the topic "Women are the cause of all marital problems" with the ladies proposing and the men opposing. Everyone enjoyed themselves speaking under fire (opposing teams were allowed to throw paper balls at each other). We also found the time to watch the video of Martin Luther King's famous "I Have A Dream" speech, considered the best speech ever delivered in human history.
The course concluded with a final speech from each participant and the presentation of certificates. In my closing speech, I noted that this was the 10th session we had had since we started in January 2009. This means that we have consistently conducted this class once every 2 months since that time! Should give myself a pat on the back! Ok, we look forward to more classes and helping more people. Reported by Sandy Tan View programmes before July 2010 View specific programmes only: |
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Mr. Kennedy, our first Mat Salleh student...
A peek from outside... 
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