Club Contest Speech 2024

The Inspiration Behind This Speech

The inspiration of this speech title came while I was communicating with a friend, an ex-colleague, on WhatsApp. I was telling him some cultural issues the Koreans have, and the many conflicts they have with mainland Chinese. To this he said to me, “I thought that you liked Korean movies.”

That remark has an implicit meaning that if I like Korean movies then I should take side with the Koreans and like everything that is related to Korea. I cannot deny that many people think like that after all, many people are like that. This in itself can again be materials for another speech.

It is true that I had and I still have a keen interest in watching Korean movies. I even spent a few years studying how K-pop developed and listening to them, just to understand why was K-pop so successful while the music industry was in decline.

Ever since I resigned from my job at the end of 2018, I spent much of my time doing things that I like, things that intrigued me. I began learning many things. Improve on myself, my knowledge, my language proficiency. I replied him, “Yes. I liked Korean movies. However, I learn, I grow, I evolve.”

Learning about the truth around me: economy, geopolitics, history, etc. These things opened my eyes to many things – truth and reality.

Pop culture, the entertainment industry, is like opium that desensitise you, making you oblivious to what is going on around you.

While crafting the script to my contest speech, I wrote on the struggles I went through from childhood to adulthood. The challenges I faced: food that I dared not put into my mouth, people outside my family that I was afraid to talk to, struggling with the English language throughout the whole of my academic life.

As I continued to write my script, I found it to be too long. The speech is only 5 to 7 minutes long. I decided to focus only on my struggle with the English language.

My struggle with food and talking to strangers could be saved for another 2 speeches at another time.

Keeping my speech to only my struggle with the English language alone, I still had to cut down yet another 50 to 70 percent of my speech content, removing much details and elaborations.

Area B2 & Club International Speech Contest

“I Learn! I Grow! I Evolve!”  was the speech I used for Toastmasters International Speech Contest in 2024 where I won at the club level. In the past, in order to compete in any speech contest at the area, division and district level, I need only to complete my Competent Communicator manual. Owing to an update in the contest rules, a toastmasters has to complete the Level 2 projects in the Pathways. As a result, I did not compete in the Area B2 International Speech Contest in the year 2024 as I had not completed my Level 2 Pathways projects in that year. Subsequently, I used this speech in my Area B2 International Speech Contest in the year 2025, instead of my speech delivered at my club contest in the year 2025.

• International Speech Contest
• Speaker: Daniel Sun
• The Open Alumni Toastmasters Club International Speech Contest held on 22 February 2024 (Champion)
• Area B2 International Speech Contest held on 15 March 2025 (First Runner-Up)
• Title: I Learn! I Grow! I Evolve!

English – My Achilles Heel

“Very weak! Read more!” (Body language: hold up a piece of script and read from it.)

That was the remarks I frequently get at the end of my English compositions in secondary school and my General Paper essay in junior college.

Contest Chair, Club Presidents, District Officers, Distinguished Toastmasters and fellow toastmasters.

If I were audacious enough, I would tell my teachers, “I do not read because I am very weak.” It is a vicious cycle. (Body language: Tear the script)

My Family And School Environment

My entire family: my father, my mother, my brothers and my sisters were all Chinese helicopters, …, I meant …. Chinese educated. Fate had it that my mother decided to send me to an English school. I was the odd one out in my family.

When I was in primary one, I knew the alphabet, but I could not read in English. I could not write in English. I had a vague idea what people around me were saying, though not entirely I suppose the reason being that young children had the natural ability to pick up languages just by being exposed to them.

I still regretted that I was studying in a school where my peers were mostly from the lower to middle class who spoke a mixture of dialects and broken English. Looking back, even my teachers’ standard of the English language was not that great either.

Do you know what did they say when they meant, “urinate”? Pass water! “Who wants to pass water?”

So later during our break, you people can go to the toilet and “pass water”.

Naturally, the standard of English that I acquired from my school environment was that of broken English.

My Struggles In Secondary School

Fast forward to secondary school. My English teacher really drove fear into my heart. He would always fail my composition. He really made me thought that I would most probably fail my O-level examinations because I would most probably fail my first language, English.

The day I received my O-level examinations results, I was shocked. I had a B3 grade for my English language. My teacher told my classmates behind my back that he believed that my result was a mistake. You know what? I believed that it was a mistake too.

However, it was a wonderful mistake. It was a beautiful mistake. It was a fantastic mistake.

Nevertheless, two years later, I actually failed my General Paper in my A-level examinations. I had a D7 for my General Paper.

I Learn! I Grow! I Evolve!

Ladies and gentlemen, that was in the past. The fact is: “I Learn, I Grow, I Evolve”.

Unconsciously, my English had improved during the past few decades. It all began with me reading Mathematics textbooks back during my varsity days. Some of you may be surprised! What! How do you learn English reading Mathematics? My dear friends, Mathematics at the varsity level is full of words. You read more of definitions and theorems instead of formulae. You prove theorem by writing in English along with a substantial number of Greek letters, not numbers. (Body language: open up and show the audience a varsity level Mathematics textbook.)

Learning Through Writing

My big leap forward was during my teaching career doing what I hated the most, “Telling Lies About Students”. We call that, writing testimonials for students. “It was an absolute honour for me to have him as my student.” These testimonials cannot be written in bad English.

At first, I learned some standard phrases and sentences from sample testimonials and had the grammar vetted by an English teacher. As time passed, I learned to write more confidently and developed my own style of writing.

Reading Mathematics textbooks, writing lecture notes and testimonials for students have improved my English up to a certain point. That was not an end by itself. I resigned from my job 5 years ago. I stopped doing all these things, but that does not mean the end of my journey to improving my English, and myself.

Learning Through Reading

Beginning 5 years ago, I had all the time to improve myself after I resigned from my teaching job. I begin reading classic English literature. At first, I did not know but it came to my knowledge that many of these novels are actually used for A-level Literature. They do not seem to be that difficult. In fact, I find them manageable.

Thus far, I have completed

• Pride and Prejudice
• Wuthering Heights
• Jane Eyre
• The Great Gatsby

I made an effort to read around 1,500 words from classic English novels everyday. While reading, I would compile a vocabulary list of around 20 words from what I read. Could you imagine how long has that vocabulary list grown over the last one year?

Learning About Geopolitics

Besides English, I always failed my Geography, History and Literature. Those subjects that required reading many words and I hated those subjects. All these failures were all attributed to the fact that my English was bad. I merely managed to survive my academic pursuit with my Chinese language and Mathematics.

Nowadays, I watched YouTube, read Wikipedia, search Google, chat with ChatGPT. I learned from experts on how mountains, landscapes and rivers affect economy, history and geopolitics, and not to rely on the fake news from the mainstream media.

I learned that there are 6 Tan families in Central Asia. Who are these Tan families?

• Kazakhstan
• Kyrgyzstan
• Tajikistan
• Turkmenistan
• Uzbekistan
• Afghanistan

Time would fail me to mention the South Pacific islands.

Now, now, I know what some of you may be thinking. “Hey! You are watching and listening to propaganda and fake news from the internet.” I will have you know that I learned from the best. Professors from renowned universities. Take for example, Professor Kishore Mahbubani. He is a Singaporean diplomat and geopolitical consultant who served as Singapore Permanent Representative to the United Nations.

And I say again. I read and I learn. I bought as many books as I could lay hold of. These are books by Professor Kishore Mahbubani. (Body language: Hold up books written by Professor Kishore Mahbubani.)

Conclusion

Today, I am not just an ex-teacher that taught Mathematics. I am a web designer, a digital marketer, aspiring to be a photographer and graphic designer.

I have learned much about history and geopolitics. Along with geopolitics, you cannot help learning about economics and geography too.

I may have begun as an English illiterate, but I learn, I grow and I evolve.

Back to you, Contest Chair.