August was full of events. I attended the presentation class and all of the sudden many events came to me. That was good since I had many chances to practice my skill in reality.
So the TriipMeet@Saigon was invited by a friend of a friend. And it was totally different from the others.. Because I had to present in English and together with another speaker. He is very experienced in public speaking, talking at TedX Singapore and other barcamps quite often.
Kim, the girl from Triip emailed me before the event to set up the outline for the talk and arranging other things. I was really impressed by her English and professional working style. Until then I was already very confident with the talk show or workshop type. But I was not confident in presentation and public speaking for a long time like 30 mins. And especially in English, it's weird but I'm not 100% confident with my English speaking.
But Vu helped me a lot. He told me to practice and practice, and he spent time to listen to my talk and gave me many useful ideas to make my talk more attractive. He then taught in the class how to prepare for the presentation. Only then did I know that we had to prepare so much time before each presentation. 30 mins rehearsal for 1 minute on stage, means a talk for 10 mins would take us 3 hours to practice. I didn't know if it was by chance or Vu meant it but that class was so helpful to me.
So I got the idea and I went to practice. I already practice before, but I then did again the whole thing that Vu advised. Reading out loud 2 times, speaking in front of an object 1 time, speaking in front of the mirror 1 time, speaking in front of a friend 3 times. Huy told it was good, Tao told Ted Ben Thanh should have invited me to talk (he really liked my talk), Vu told it was fine.
So I was confident to go to the event. I came there 3 hours before the event to do the rehearsal as Kim - TriipMeet informed. When I reached the place, only the other speaker - Preetam - was there. He talked to me and he told a lot of jokes and seemed to be very humorous and funny and I immediately had good impression with him. We waited for others to come but they didn't show up until 4PM.
Kim and other people in the organizing team were all students, very young and nice. But their arrangement has some problems there. The MC showed up late, the technical guy showed up late, the cafe didn't have the projector so they went back to the office and took it. Then we didn't have much of the rehearsal.
Then the MC and me discussed about my talk. On the contrary with the plan, she suggested me to talk all along without her interfering with the questions. I also wanted to stand up to talk to use my body languages so I agreed. But I didn't prepare my power point. I thought for a while and I decided to make some simple slides to divide my talk into small parts, so the audience could follow it.
And then my brother showed up and brought flower, wow, and made me embarrassed (if it were my book launch event it would be more appropriate). And showtime, I went on stage and delivered the speech. And unlike my prediction, the audience didn't laugh at my jokes, only a few times. And there were some foreigners that made me feel like what I talked wouldn't benefit them as they already had many travel experience. But some of the audience looked at me and smiled and I felt good and I continued. At some time of the talk I forgot one or two points but I got back and finished my talk.
Then came Preetam. He made peple laugh at every sentence, and his talk was full of useful tips. A really really skillful guy with much of travel experience. And in the panel discussion he also replied very appropriately with good insight. I was a bit serious with my answers though. But then it was ok, I asked the travel quizzes, handled the gifts I brought and we finished.
We went down to talk with the audience. Some told they liked my talk, a girl asked if I was shaking because she felt my voice not natural. But I felt I didn't tremble, then Huy later verified it. Then other people started to ask me some travel tips and I got to know that they were just newbies. In my talk I omitted all the basic guides because I thought that part was boring, but in fact it would be very helpful for them. Then I felt a little fail.
Anyway, we finished at around 10pm. Preetam suggested me to go dinner with him and his friends, before going back to join Triip.me people in another dinner. I actually wanted to go to with Triip because I wanted to say thanks to Hai - the founder of Triip, I didn't talk with him before the event. But anyway we would go together, I thought, and I joined Preetam and his friends for the mushroom hotpot.
Preetam's friends were university students, later I knew that most of them had travel experience, they went to Japan, Cambodia, New Zealand, etc... and were quite outgoing. I smiled with them and didn't ate much, the food was not healthy. Preetam ate everything and talked about food in Korea and Japan, and spoke Vietnamese and other things in Saigon. Then I knew he was really a local expert. He went around Asia and traveled back and forth among Taiwan, Hongkong, Japan, Singapore, Laos, Cambodia, and he went to Saigon every 2 - 3 months. He had many friends here and he knew the places in Saigon that I even didn't know. He managed to go around and sharing this and that and organised barcamp and reading camp and etc. It was a cool lifestyle. But when he talked about happy pizza in Phnom Penh (containing marajuana), and the way he integrate with the local culture made me wonder who he really was.
It was late at night, Preetam called Hai Triip.me and they were about to leave, so we wouldn't go to meet them. A little pity here, still no chance to talk to Hai and got to understand Triip startup more. Then other friends of Preetam decided to go to a bar. And I said goodbye to them then. Reached home at 11.30 or something and felt really exhausted. Kim sent the message to me, saying that some of her friends really liked my talk and told they were inspired to travel after hearing my sharing, and Preetam shared really nice and useful tricks to them. I didn't know if what she said was true because she was a really clever and diplomatic girl. But anyway I just left it. I felt the talk was ok, not best but not bad.
The next morning I went to the presentation class, still feeling so much tired. But the class was so fun and at some points it helped me to get back my energy. And Cam Le was back to be nearly normal and that made me feel good. Then I went home, feeling tired for the whole day. And I kept thinking about Preetam. His lifestyle was cool, he was really skillful, humorous and intelligent and all. I was curious about him and I was thinking whether to follow him or not, but I felt also something wrong with him and I didn't know what and I just kept thinking. Then I told my brother and he told: "No, his style was totally different with you. He is about small tricks and tips, and you are about inspiring, he is about broadness and you're about dept. You can't imitate him and you shouldn't imitate him. Just do what suits you, that would benefit more people". You see, how nice it is to be around with wise and insightful people. So I just took my brother's advice.
Then Triip sent me the thank you card, which was the first one I received after attending so many events. Their working style was really professional and considerable, I really like it.
So that's all for now. What Vu said was right, I just need to spend an amount of time to practice one skill intensely, and don't have to worry about it anymore, and move on to the next skill.
August almost ends. Come September, with Tarot and my English speaking and integrating with international friends. I want to be fluent & confident with my speaking and social skill. I don't want to get nervous when I stand in front of a native speak and speaking something wrong in grammar.
Thank you em Kim, em Vu, Preetam, all the audience and God.
