A Judge--Area H3 Humorous Speech and Evaluation Contests

 Area H3 humorous speech and evaluation contests took place at Arris, Sunday afternoon, October 13th. As I live in Hsin-tien, Arris is in the neighborhood. It feels good to participate in the community event, not to mention a Toastmasters event in my community. As a life Toastmaster, it is one of my goals to charter an English speaking community Toastmasters club in Hsin-tien. When I'm as old as Toastmaster Richard Fong (90+), I wish I could walk to the Toastmasters club meeting from home.

There are four Toastmasters clubs in Area H3, Leadership Village didn't send any representatives. Two contestants from each club participated in humorous speech contest and evaluation contest. Being one of judges at Area H3 contest, I found it hard to select two winners from each contest, as all contestants had their strengths and weakness in their own ways. Nate Murray (Price Cutter) talked about his bargaining experiences in China. Jason Liu (Be Quiet) talked about looking for a quiet place to study in the city library for his examination. Kenny Chang (What's the Boy) talked about the career path of a software engineer to elementary school kids. Maria Kang (Two Devils) talked about her two sons as two devils to punish her. Tim Cheng (Facial Expression) used all kinds of facial expressions to add impact to his speech. Vincent Chuang (My Dear! Why?) talked about the shopping behaviors between men and women. When Area H3 Governor Christine Liu announced the winners, I noticed that some judges exchanged looks at one another. I'm sure each judge had their winners in their minds, but it's no use protesting after the contest result was announced. On top of that, there was no issue of legibility and originality.

Target speaker Paul Lee told a touching story about his college classmate Winnie who went to the US bare hand not being able to speak a single word of English. She started working at a restaurant with only food and shelter, no salary. Then she got a job at the casino. Her house got bigger and bigger with the advancement of her job at the casino. It was a motivational speech. Many thanks to Paul Lee, a long time no see friend in Toastmasters!