Speak Up!

Have we ever attended a talk or a presentation that requires us to lean forward and strain our ears to listen? I believe we will find it hard to understand a speaker when he or she speaks really softly. Changing the role, do we ourselves encounter this problem? Are we too soft for our audience?

District Officers, Presidents and Fellow TMs, speaking up and be audible is key to a successful speech. When our speech is loud enough for people to hear without having to adjust in their seats, we have achieved our first step – catching their attention, and then we can focus on delivering a good speech. This is why the technique of voice projection is very important. I am saying this will regards to occasions where using a microphone is not possible, or when you need to be heard across a very noisy room. Tonight, allow me to share with you some techniques that you may want to use to try to project your voice and be heard.

First thing first, when we speak, what do we need? Our mouth to form the words.. 

Our throat where our voice comes from… what else? Air! We take a breath of air and then speak, without air, we cannot articulate any sound. Therefore the first thing to do is to ensure you breathe right. We must all use the right technique to inhale and exhale in order to project our voice.

Question, what do we use to breath? We can inhale through our nose or our mouth. Anyone can tell me, where would the air go? Our lungs? The correct place to push our air through is our diaphragm – the area below our lungs above our stomach. 

Let’s all try this together – Let’s all stand, and place one hand over our lungs and another over our diaphragm – the area underneath the lungs and above our tummy. Now breathe normally… how many felt that your lungs has expanded? How many felt that your diaphragm expanded? The correct way is for your diaphragm to expand. Now try again, try to breathe such that there is no movement at your lung area but your diaphragm expands accordingly.  You can do this with your nose or our mouth, however, I personally find this easier for practice sake breathe through my mouth.  This is an exercise that we can all try at home, where you practice breathing to ensure that your diaphragm expands. How to make this better? Your stance is important -stand up straight with the feet shoulder width apart and relax. This improves balance and breathing.

Now that we have air in the right place, how is it to be used? As you exhale, air moves from your lungs through your windpipe.  It then passes between your vocal cords. As they vibrate, sound happens. You use your throat, tongue, lips, and jaw to shape the sound into words. The only way for your voice to be heard is to allow air to carry your voice through. That’s what we refer to as resonance. It is the concentrated pressure through which one produces a focused sound. True resonance will produce the greatest amount of projection available to a voice by utilizing all the key resonators found in the vocal cavity. Where is the vocal cavity? Our mouth alone? Actually it is our mouth, nose, and the whole cavity that is within our head. 

The two extremes of resonance are “head voice,” which is where high sounds resonate, and “chest voice,” which is where low sounds resonate. However, most sounds the human voice makes can also resonate in the mask, or the front of the face. A voice with plenty of mask resonance is strong, and clear, no matter how loud or soft. A voice with good mask resonance is pleasant to listen to and flexible, allowing for rich vocal variety. Mask resonance is a combination of nasal and mouth resonance. The sound you are looking for will produce a pronounced vibration in the front of your face.

Let’s try it. You can try this sitting down. Say “Mmmmm.” See if you can feel the buzzy sensation in the front of your face. That’s mask resonance. Another way to produce it is to simply say “Mmm-hmm,” like an enthusiastic “yes.” Now say, “Mmm-hmm one. Mmm-hmm two. Mmm-hmm three.” Can you feel that sensation carry over into the words “one,” “two,” and “three?” This is how we should be producing our sounds in order to create the most resonance and the best projection. 

So far, we have learnt how to breathe, and how to speak. Now let’s put this all together. Let’s practice breathing and speaking. Best if we stand to do this. Let’s do this together. Stand, with our feet comfortably apart, our hands at our lungs and diaphragm, and breathe to expand our diaphgram. Next hmm with our mouth and nose, and say “One” Can we all feel resonance? Now’s let’s try it with one breathe and count to 5, with as much strength as we can. No shouting or yelling, just breathing and speaking.  Breathe in, hmm, count 1,2,3,4,5.

Can we feel and hear the difference? Thank You, Ladies and Gentlemen, we have successfully completed our first voice projection exercise.

Going forward we can practice at home and try to use mask resonance at the beginning of a sentence and try to keep that sensation in the words that follow. Spend 20 minutes a day working with this, and add it to your awareness as you practice your presentations, and you are on your way to more powerful speeches.

This is a speech delivered in front of an audience for the Advanced Project - A Demonstration Talk.

Evaluation - The demonstration of breathing and resonance took too long and the speech was exceeded. Timing of such speeches is important in order to know exactly how long each demonstration with take. On the whole it is not particularly successful as the technique is hard for the average audience to grasp. Vocalists took years to master them!  

The Aging Population – A Case for Nursing Home

Fact No 1
900 000 – This is the number of Baby Boomers that will retire from the workforce and enter their silver years from the year 2012. This population is more than a quarter of the current citizen population. This is the statistics provided by the National Population and Talent Division. This Age Pyramid provided by the board of statistics in Singapore, shows that the first batch of baby boomers is now hitting the retirement age of 65. 

Fact No 2

10    – 10 Years - Singapore’s life expectancy has increased by 10 years over the last 3 decades: from 72 years in 1980 to 82 years in 2010. This is the statistics also provided by the National Population and Talent Division. The life expectancy trend below as provided by the CIA world factbook, 2011 shows how rapidly our life expectancy has increased since 2000.

Fact No 3

0.78 – Singapore has a fertility rate of 0.78, statistics provided by CIA World Factbook. It is the average number of children that would be born per woman during the child bearing years. This is a figure that is down from 1.16 in 2000. The chart below shows the decreasing trend of our country’s fertility rate.

President and fellow TMs, based on the facts that I have just mentioned, we can draw a simple conclusion. Our beloved country Singapore is aging, and it is aging most rapidly. The social and economic implication that is associated with this problem is humongous. How do we adequately provide for the needs of this large aged population when we do not have enough younger population to share the costs and the burden?  This is a problem that is best left to the right government authorities, afterall, as individuals, we cannot do much to help with these social and economic problems… or can we?

My fellow toastmasters, tonight I would like to appeal to each of us to do our part as individuals, on a specific aspect of this whole aging population problem. Support the building and establishing of nursing homes in our neighbourhood. Our government’s mandate is for every constituency to have one nursing home by 2013 in order to cater for the demand. However, in the last one year we hear of news that people are protesting against the building of nursing homes in their estates.

In May 2012, the Straits Times published an article where the residents of Bishan said No to having a nursing home built in their neighborhood. In Feb of the same year, the residents of Toh Yi estate protested against the same. In Feb this year, the people of Yew Tee estate raised the same concerned as well. Why? The May 2012 article has this to say on the protests from the residents of Bishan:

One resident was quoted - Our children play football there. If there is no football field, they will play in the void deck and stain the walls.'

Another resident said 'the old folk will be groaning right into my home'. And add: 'If their kids are going to skirt their responsibility and dump them (the aged parents) there, then they can travel farther to visit them.'

The residents argue that if the home is set up, air flow to their homes will be blocked and they will have to use the air-conditioner more often to dispel the heat.

Really? The government is tackling the problem aged population, and we are concerned with air cons and stained walls? It may seem trivial but this article demonstrates the underlying misconceptions towards nursing home.

Misconception No 1

Nursing homes are for abandoned parents whose children are irresponsible and extremely unfilial. In an Asian and Confucius-influenced society that values filial piety, people used to be ashamed of leaving their parents in a nursing home. The stigma associated with nursing homes remains deep rooted among us. In reality, our society and way of life has changed so much since the olden days of “three generation under one roof”. The modern life is now an all-consuming, day-to-day challenge as we juggle work and raise a family in a frantic world filled with competitions that we cannot afford to lose. We could only provide our parents with a decent home and we visit them over the weekend once a while. What will happen when both parents reached the age where they needed round the clock help to perform their daily activities? This is the question that many working professionals may also face sooner or later. Asian values, Confucius teaching, filial piety. In this day and age, it is not a question of value, but a question of practically and necessity.

Misconception No 2

Nursing homes are cold, dark, lonely places filled with sad old people waiting for the inevitable outcome of life. This is a scene off the Chinese soap drama. It is no longer true in this day and age. A very basic service provided by nursing homes run by Ministry of Health include medical care, nursing care, physiotherapy, dietary services and dental care for their residents. Some nursing homes even provide for special needs like dementia and psychiatric conditions. The privately Pacific Healthcare nursing home in Bt Merah extends their services to provide diverse recreational and social activities, including regular visits from volunteers that positively contribute to the psychological well-being of our residents. The Salvation Army Peacehaven Nursing Home in Changi, claimed to be a “home within a home” where residents live in a home-like environment with their own rooms. The centre even provides guided autobiography sessions that allowed residents to share their life stories with staff and fellow residents before their memories fades. This is a picture of a cold, dark, lonely place? Certainly not. In fact, it sounded like a place where the residents are well-taken care of both physically and psychologically. 

Ladies and gentlemen, it is high time we dispel with such misconceptions of nursing home and face the problem of aged population, with a clear understanding of what it takes to tackle this problem as a mature society. Nursing home is a necessity and a reality. It is a place with trained care-givers that performs a better job at meeting the needs of the elderly under a comfortable and conducive environment. What more can we ask for? As one very wise resident from Yew Tee said in the newspaper article: "We're all going to grow old one day.” Taking care of the aged paves the way of us when our turn comes in the future. Have a hand in shaping the decision that would affect us ultimately. Start now and support the establishment of nursing homes in your very own estate.

This is a speech delivered at Toastmaster Chapter Meeting, for Advanced Project 5 - An Abstract Concept. It is a topic that is close to my heart, one that I will face in the not-too-long future. 

Evaluation - the presentation of the statistics at the start of the speech needs to be clearer, better so as to be more impactful.