Toastmasters Tuesday - Gestures, Body Language, and Facial Expression

Oct 25, 2016
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Food for Thought (Presented at Toastmasters with the goal of emphasizing gestures)

I presented today at Toastmasters, this group is so amazing. I walked in feeling so dead, drained from a busy work day, and having stayed up the previous night to write and prepare a speech; but the people and the energy of the group raised my spirits. I always walk out feeling more alive than when I walk in.

My goal today, in addition to giving a speech was to work on my body language including gestures and facial expressions. I learned from previous speeches to move around the room as I emphasize different points. I started my speech in the middle of the room, on the first paragraph I moved to the right side, on the second to the left side, then right, then back to the middle to conclude. This helped to break up the speech into easily recognizable sections. I also made good eye contact with the audience, and watched them as they watched, so I can gauge their reaction to what I was saying. I was also commended on having good facial expression When I described the food in the speech, I wanted the audience to be able to taste what I was eating. When I was disappointed, I wanted them to see the sorrow in my eyes. I will continue to bring these positive techniques into my future speeches as they are effective way of conveying an emotion.

Some things that I will improve on in the future primarily had to do with the use of gestures. I learned that when I do not know what to do with my hands, I tend to clasp them together and cover myself like a fig leaf. When they are not acting as a fig leaf, they cover my belly. When I hit a pause where I am trying to give an example, I also tend to wave my hands as if trying to pull the thoughts from inside me and present them to the audience. These are nervous gestures, and it was recommended that I should start getting comfortable with just keeping my hands at my sides. I will need to start practicing in a mirror an watching for the habits.

I learned about how I did through my evaluator. She had evaluated me  by isolating each component of body language, gestures, and facial expressions. I thought this was a really effective way of presenting the information, it creates an easy opening and closing statements when presenting the evaluation to the audience. This was a similar technique to one she often employs which breaks down into "what I heard", "what I saw", and "what I felt". What I heard includes positive phrases such a great use of imagery and negative ones like excessive use of filler words. What I saw encompasses body language, gestures, and facial expressions. My goal was to emphasize body language, gestures, and facial expressions which was why she gave more focus on this point for my speech.  What I felt has to do with the overall feeling after the speech was done. What were the highs and lows of the speech.

Today was a great experience and I got some great feedback and a ribbon for best speaker of the night. I am excited to learn from this club each week and I always feel more energized walking out than when I first walk in. My written speech is as follows:


Food for Thought

Savory butternut squash, succulent shrimp dumplings, mouth-watering ribs that just slides off the bone with each bite. I love food, it may be the only thing in this world I love as much as my wife… but don’t judge me wrong, me and food, we have a history, and I have known food for a long time. But to understand where I am coming from, you must understand what food really is. Food is family, food is love, food is an adventure. 

Growing up, mom and dad had always worked in restaurants, where they learned to cook very well. That meant despite our modest upbringing, we always had good food and the family gathered together every night to have a wonderful dinner. Mom always made the best soups, dad made the best noodle dishes. During the holidays we would have the entire family come together, mom and dad would go all out and make the most wonderful feasts, with boatloads of seafood, roast duck, steam fish, and more. We never had much of anything, but we always had good food and good company. When I left for college, I remember having to fend for myself. I was forced to cook for the first time, and I was terrible at it. I knew I hit my low when I made ghetto spaghetti, which is a mix of top ramen with ketchup packets from McDonalds. I know what you are thinking, and it’s not nearly as tasty or healthy as it sounds.  No one wanted to join me for that meal, it was a sad and lonely time. I had to get serious about cooking and eventually through trial and error and more errors, I was able to make pretty efficient use of a rice cooker, a microwave, and a George Foreman grill.

As I graduated from college to grad school, my cooking skills graduated as well. I brought that ability with me to Hawaii where I met my future wife. For our first date, I made her ribs from scratch. I remember at the time I did not have any tomato sauce for a base, so I had to improvise using ketchup. But this time, it ended up much more successful. I am pretty sure that was when she fell in love with me. My wife introduced me to a number of local favorites from the islands. Like Poke, diced sashimi style fish often mixed with a medley of flavors cut from Hawaiian big eye tuna. You will never have fresh tuna the way you can from Hawaii. And Pipikaula, seasoned slow cooked smoked beef,  so so flavorful. Food in Hawaii was amazing, and to this day it is one of the things we miss about the islands. When we left the island to move  to California, I had to show my wife some of my local favorites, like taco Tuesdays…which are tacos you enjoy… on a Tuesday.

Great food can take you on an adventure to new and exotic places. You can try the best hot dog cart in New York to fine dining. To point you in the right direction, you can pick up the Michelin guide.  The Michelin Guide is a highly coveted list of the best restaurants in the world, to even be mentioned is to be honored.  Restaurants are rated out of 3 stars. 1 star means the food is great. 3 stars mean it warrants a trip to the country just to try the food. One those restaurants which I would love to try one day is situated only a couple hours away, the French Laundry located in Napa. Chef Keller at the French Laundry presents incredibly technical cooking with fresh seasonal ingredients and wine parings along the backdrop of wine country. This charming restaurant has been described as perfection at every bite and its 9 course meal can last 3-4 hours. But before you can step foot inside, you will need to prepared to fork over $310 for the Prix Fixe (wine not included) and wait around 2 months praying for a reservation. One of my goals in life is to visit one a 3 star Michelin restaurant, and I think the French Laundry will do. Alas, it will be quite a while before I can visit here. Although my days of ghetto spaghetti  are over, my student loans unfortunately are not. 

I love food. I love savoring each bite of butternut squash, shrimp dumplings, and mouth-watering ribs. I love how food can bring together family and how it can be used to show how much you care and love for someone. And I would love to go on an adventure to sample all the great food this world has to offer.