I went to my first meeting of Toastmaster's International last week at the nearby Yahoo! building. I spoke extemporaneously twice. First, I blathered on for two minutes answering the question "If I could be any animal, what would I be." For some stupid reason, I chose to answer that I would be a wolf in Mongolia.If you think that sounds stupid, I would agree. The weekend before I saw Mongol and I just finished reading Wolf Totem--both have heavy Mongolian wolf influences. I don't remember what I said, but it was barely coherent, certainly boring, and completely awkward. I might as well have chosen to be a dolphin or a unicorn.
As an aside, I read the book because it is one of the best sellers--ever--in China and Marginal Revolution recommended it. I'll have to compare it to the original translation because the version I read was not that compelling.
I then gave a 2 minute critique of a prepared speech presented by a fellow Toasted Yahoo on the importance of bacteria in the large and small intestines.
At the end of the meeting the Grammarian informed me that in four minutes of speaking, I used 19 "ums" and 12 "ahs." A filler word every 8 seconds surely is some kind of record. I will stick with it though. Ummm, if next time you see me I sound more, like, distinguished, ahhh, I think you will know why.
They have those at MIT, which, given that some people here won't speak in private, let alone in public, has to make for an entertaining evening.
ReplyDeleteIf asked what kind of animal you would be, I would say that you are "an eagle with the head of a bear."
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