Better Late Than Never

I had planned to upload the photos after I got home on Thursday (re: my talk at KDU) but I was so bushed that it took a couple more days before I could do so.
And over the weekend, Nic and I visited Taiping with PHT (Penang Heritage Trust where Nic is a member). It was a full day’s trip but an eye-opener as well. Full of interesting sights to see. It helped that we had the goodwill and the help of the Taiping Heritage Society secretary as our guide to Taiping town, Mr Ponnusamy. But that’s coming up soon too. With lots of history thrown in as well.
My talk was all right, given that this was my 2nd time at KDU Penang. I was there last year to talk about blogging and this year, was invited back again to speak on the same subject, or rather my pet subject!
I considered this talk a lot better because the Q&A session was a lot more interesting this year – I had brilliant questions asked of me, two questions from Mr Goh, a teacher and one from Sean, a KDU staff.
The key to gauging any speech is to review the quality of questions asked. In my case, I was glad that at least people were listening to madame moi!
This time around, there were four speakers for each of the 45-minute slots – myself, Janarthani Arumugam, Dr Khairir Khalil (UMW Toyota) and Emma Talbot (British Council Penang).
Dr Khairir is the General Manager of UMW Toyota; he’s also the chartered president of Penang Seagate Toastmasters Club. It was a pity that we had concurrent sessions, otherwise I would have loved to hear him speak.
The same went for Emma Talbot whom I had heard was a big favourite with Penang teachers. She conducts literature workshops for English teachers in Malaysia, having been a Cambridge teacher trainer for the British Council, Malaysia for the past 4 years. Emma has also taught English in over 6 countries for the past 13 years.
As we started chatting during lunch, I could see why she’s highly rated – I could read the enthusiasm in her corn blue eyes.
Janarthani came all the way from KL to speak on “Getting Your Voice Heard in the Media” as a representative from All Women’s Action Society. Accompanying her was a full-time AWAM staff, Vizla who presented after Janarthani said her piece. Janarthani is a member of WWRP or Writers for Women’s Rights programme (under AWAM). She had fortunately made the age limit, just in time. The WWRP was conducted by AWAM for women between 18 to 32; after successfully finishing the programme, Janarthani was given the task of conducting the workshop for Fiesta Feminista 2007 held at Universiti Malaya recently.
If you don’t know yet, Janarthani and I go a long way back. We are old school friends; we sat next to each other in class! We were in the same debate team when we were in Sekolah Menengah Methodist, Teluk Datok, Banting. She’s now based in KL, teaching at HELP University College, doing her Masters in Theatre part-time and helping out AWAM whenever she can. She’s also an accomplished bharatnatyam dancer, a fact many do not know!
KDU Penang organises a Literary Day each year to encourage the four core language skills – reading, writing, listening and speaking. It’s usually a full-day event, with talks, games, book exhibitions and booths by NGOs like SPCA.
For me, it’s a chance to meet with old friends, get to know new ones, and see if I have a knack for public speaking!
If you’re keen, the photos of the talk can be viewed at http://www.flickr.com/photos/kristagoon/
Or in case you’re looking, here’s the link for the free PDF file.

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