ISC Post-mortem

It's not over yet.

Somehow, having my microbiology finals just before the international speech contest was a little too much. I did write the speech 5 days beforehand but never did I polish or refine it til the night before. Neither did I get to practice it at least a few times. Well, I found out just how much I had to improve AFTER giving that speech. I had a lot of feedback from a lot lot lot of people. After the competition, I attended the Winning Speech Forum by Division W; watching 4 world champion speakers really evoked a lot of emotions and motivation for me to recraft a better speech.

Thank God I have another chance at Area C1 in March.

Anyway, here's my self-evaluation according to the judging criteria:

Content 50%: This is where I lost big time. My speech had the values I guess- it was about family (theme) and the message was Love your family. But the ENDING- OoOoh that fateful ending. EVERYONE told me that my momentum at the beginning was good good good and BAM! At the end, it just went downhill with a very awkward closing. I did not mean a very strange ending; I was trying a technique but I guess it backfired. Plus I didn't have a good contrast or a really emotion-evoking supporting material.

Delivery 30% : Insufficient drama and emotions- I guess my body language didn't enhance my message enough. I was most unhappy with my voice. I endeavored to project it to the back of the room and I thought I had done an okay job. But people said my voice was too soft (TOO SOFT?!?!). I learnt that men sound more authoritative because of their low pitch voice. Now I'm practicing to reverberate the sound so that my voice will have a lower pitch to it- to sound more authoritative that is. It has that certain convincing effect on the audience.

For some reason, I think I also lacked passion. That ability to talk with such sincerity and project your utter belief in a topic. I could have, should have- but I didn't. Microbe must have made me think so minute (hah let microbiology be my scapegoat for this!).

I watched World-champion Otis Junior and he was just PHENOMENAL. When he quoted Theodore Roosevelt, he said it with such conviction, at a fast-paced rhythm, and synchronized movements, I found that I had practically stopped breathing that very moment. I was so mesmerized in fact that I found myself exhaling only after his performance. After the panelist evaluated him, only did I find out that there is a technique called the Rapid Fire Technique where it's like you talk quick and rapidly to sort of hypnotize your audience. I fell victim. But it was just AMAZING.

Language 20%: One of the best speeches I've watched with marvelous English usage was by Jim Key. He uses really powerful words like: "monumental choices", "accidental heroes", "ultimate decision". Remember to use at least one WOW word (I should search for the list of 100 beautiful words that Najah showed me). After my speech, Daniel Teh approached me and said that my English was okay and everything- it's just the choice of words that needs to be chosen properly because "Words have power." I will remember that.

It was quite overwhelming for me today. A lot of advice, feedback, constructive criticism and suddenly possibilities as well as being inspired and motivated. Sometimes people think it's so easy to craft a speech; they say: Oh this thing is missing, you should have done this, you could have done that. But you won't know what to do til you actually sit down to write it. You get stuck. You want to think of that perfect-winning speech.

I know this is my first time in the ISC. And my dad DID say that I shouldn't be expecting too much. This moment is about gathering experience and getting better.

I've got a little less than two months now to craft that speech. Recrafting it is going to start today. It's going to be different, PHENOMENAL and AWESOME! Phew. And now to get started...