Toastmasters CC5 'Your Body Speaks': Mr. Kim

Today I was doing my competent communication manual project 5, Your Body Speaks. This evening, it rained cats and dogs. I was late due to I need to borrow the car from my sister. I caught a cold this morning. I don't want to get it worst by catching in the rain. Luckily I still managed to deliver my speech. The evaluator recommended to tell who is Mr. Kim at the end of the speech. Below was my speech draft.

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Good evening to all my fellow toastmasters. Who is Mr. Kim? [Pause] Is he my school mate? [Pause] Is he my school teacher? [Pause] Is he my colleague? [Pause] Or is he my manager? [Pause] No, no, no and no. He is my travel mate for 11 days.

I met him on my short holiday trip during semester break at Indian Institute of Technology Delhi. That time, I was travelling alone to Agra to see Taj Mahal. I was getting two days pass for three places, Taj Mahal, Agra Fort and Baby Taj.

I always like to save the best for last. My first visit was Agra Fort. I was busy snapping photo. [Showing snapping photo action] Suddenly, a guy looked at me and hand over his camera and asking me of taking him in the photo with the garden behind me. [Showing the action while explaining] He was also offering to take photo of me with my camera. We kept doing this for the rest Agra Fort visit. At the end of the trip, he asked me if I want to go to Baby Taj. It is far from here. We needed to take scooter rickshaws. We can share the costs. Since I am a student and also want to save some cost, I agreed to share transportation cost.

During the journey to Baby Taj, he asked me where I will go after Agra. I said I did not really have much plan. I was planning light and easy, relaxing at Agra first. Then I will decide the rest later. Then he said me how many days I had for travelling. I told him I had 11 days. Later, he told me his plan for the next 11 days. He suggested me following his plan for the next 11 days. First, he will go to Jaipur, the pink city and then Jaisalmer, the golden city. He also suggested after Jaisalmer, I can take the train back to New Delhi on the last day. The places sounded very interesting from his mouth. I straight away said, "Yes." I guess I was naïve on that time. How can I agreed to follow a stranger traveling together for 11 days. May be he is a bad guy. Luckily he was not. That’s person is Mr. Kim. Last night, I managed to dig out the only photo of him that we took on the last day of the trip. [Show the photo to the audience and pass around]

From his name, you will know he is Korean. I saw him carried a Korean travel book. Nope. I should say travel notes. As he will travel whole India for 6 months, he wanted to travel light. He tore this book into few pieces. He threw away those that he already visited. He is about my height. [Showing his height] He is around his forties during that time. He is married and had a daughter. He showed me his family photo. His daughter was very pretty. During that time, economy at Korea was really bad. He got retrenched. He could not find a job. So he used the money to travel India.

Although I was with him for only 11 days. I learned a lot from him.

  • Student card is very useful while travelling in India. Most of the tourist places, different price for local people, students and foreigner. That time I did not bring my student card. So I have to pay full price while visiting Taj Mahal. He did have his student card with him. He just had to pay ten times less then full price.
  • We took a bus to Jaipur, the pink city. He asked me give our bag the driver as soon as possible, as they will first put our bags at the middle of roof top of the bus and then stack up according. Lastly our bags will covered by a huge clothe. They are not responsible if our bag fall off from the bus.
  • After we reached at Jaipur bus station, lots of people approached us and recommend some hostel to us. He just asked me don’t talk and walk away. We finally get rid of them and get ourselves a cheap place for overnight.
  • We had to pay extra if we carried camera in the Amber Palace. We hided our camera at our pocket. Luckily, they just checked our bag at the entrance.
  • One day, we had to overnight on the train to Jaisalmer, the golden city. I saw him bring a chain surround his beg and lock it up. It is to avoid someone stole our bag while we were sleeping.

Even though, it was just 11 days with Mr. Kim, the memories stayed inside me forever. Please allowing me to share this quote by Dave Brenner, “Friends are the most important part of your life. Treasure the tears, treasure the laughter, but most importantly, treasure the memories.” With the memories of Mr. Kim, I am able to share this speech with you.

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