Archive for the ‘Toastmasters’ Category

Interesting Things in Japan

Sunday, July 31st, 2011

Thank you Mr. Toastmaster. Good evening everyone.

It’s been three months since I came to Japan now and I was thinking this week about my time here so far. Before I came to Japan in my city in Victoria there are many Japanese students that go to Victoria to study English or to study at university so I had known some Japanese people before I came here and they seemed like interesting people. So I thought “Oh, Japan must be an interesting country.” And it is so far. There’s been many interesting things that I’ve seen so far, that are maybe different from in Canada or that I’ve noticed.

For example, I live in Gifu right next to a Konbini – convenience store – and I love Japanese Konbinis. They are convenient not like in Canada. In Canada our convenient stores are not convenient. Here in Japan, there’s konbini’s everywhere. You walk for a few minutes, there’s a konbini. Walk for a few more minutes, another konbini. It’s great. I love it. And I have one right next to my apartment. My apartment is here and next door is a Mini Stop. It’s great because I don’t like to cook so when I’m hungry I can just go to the konbini and for just a few hundred yen I get a meal. They put it in the microwave and they heat it up – they cook it – for me. So it’s great. That’s one thing that’s interesting for me – the konbinis in Japan.

Another thing I’ve noticed is that in Japan there are lots of signs everywhere. So my apartment is right on an intersection near the traffic lights where the cars go and one day I was walking home down the road to my apartment and I see a sign on the side of the road. It has an arrow pointing straight and it says “kono kosaten” which means “the intersection is coming up.” So I think that’s interesting because if I’m driving I’m probably not going to look over there to see that there’s an intersection coming up. I see ithe intersection. Why do I need a sign to tell me that an intersection is coming? But that was only one sign. I walked for maybe 10 more meters and there’s another sign “kono kosaten.” And I walk a little more and there’s another sign “kono kosaten.” In maybe 100 or 200 meters there’s 5 signs “kono kosaten” warning the drivers there’s an intersection coming up. I just thought that was pretty funny that you’re driving “Oh here’s an intersection, I better prepare for it.”

One of the other interesting things I’ve noticed is Japanese people’s favourite word – “arigatou gozaimasu”. I hear this all the time. I thought Canadians were polite but Japanese say “thank you”, I think, more than Canadians. And at first I would try to say it properly “arigatou gozaimasu.” But it’s such a long word. In English we can say “thank you” or “thanks.” It’s very short. But “arigatou gozaimasu” is so long to say and I’ve noticed since I’ve been here that I’ve become lazy when I say it. When I came here I would say “arigatou gozaimasu” but now it’s more like “ari…” because I don’t want to say it all the way and one time in a restaurant I heard someone say it as “agemasu” and another person told me I can say “asas.” So that’s good to know. At least I can make it shorter.

And “arigatou gozaimasu” is said so many times. Always when I’m at a restaurant and I’m going to pay they say “arigatou gozaimasu” because I give them the money. Then they give me the money back and I say “arigatou gozaimasu” and then they say “arigatou gozaimasu” again. So I asked my girlfriend about it and she said “Oh maybe they’re just saying ‘thank you’ for your ‘thank you’.” So last time at the restaurant I paid the money and they said “arigatou gozaimashita”. I got the change and said “arigatou gozaimasu” and they said “arigatou gozaimasu” and then I tried again saying “arigatou gozaimasu” but then that was it. They didn’t say it again so I thought maybe it would keep going for hours and keep continuing.

So those are some interesting things I’ve noticed in Japan so far. I hope there’ll be many more interesting things to come. And I’m looking forward to it.

In Canada we were always taught not to end your speeches by saying “thank you” but here I need to say “arigatou gozaimasu.”

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Why I Don’t Have a Girlfriend

Sunday, October 31st, 2010

This is a speech I wrote for the Toastmasters Humourous Speech contest. Unfortunately, I didn’t have it completed in time for the contest so I delivered it a couple weeks later. There were some jokes that didn’t come off as funny as I didn’t deliver them well. I think this is a speech I could refine to make it much funnier.

Welcome guests.

Chinese are very inquisitive people. When I lived in China, some people would come up to me and they would ask me things like “How much money do you make?” and “Are you married?”. If I answered “No, I’m not married” they would follow up with “Well, do you have a girlfriend?” If I said “No” again, they would get a perplexed look on their face saying “Why not?”. They couldn’t understand this.

I think this is because in China they have girlfriend shops scattered around town. And when you do not have a girlfriend your friend’s job is to take you to one of these shops so you can pick out the latest model. You walk through the store with them and say “Oh yeah, I’ll think I’ll take Girlfriend 3.0 there.” She’s not as up to date as the 4.0 model but not as costly and she runs well. So I’ll go with that.

Unfortunately, none of my Chinese friends ever took me to these girlfriend shops. And I think because China has a lack of women that these places are off-limits to foreigners. They’re trying to keep all the women in China. No foreigners allowed to choose girlfriends.

But it’s a good question – Why don’t I have a girlfriend?

And unfortunately, I consider myself a shy guy which is a disadvantage when it comes to dating. So, at the beginning of this year, as part of my goal setting I set a goal to regularly ask out women I was attracted to. And as the year has gone on, I think I’m becoming better and better at it however, still no girlfriend.

I have discovered one thing though and that is women have a very special talent. They are very good at coming up with excuses when they don’t want to date someone.

Let’s see here, some of the excuses I’ve gotten have been:

- The standard “I have a boyfriend” which may be true, may be not true
- I’m going on vacation in a couple months and don’t want to get involved – ok, I can see that. It takes a couple months to pack and get ready with airline security these days.
- I’m busy at my job and I just can’t find an hour to meet with you over the next month or so.
- I’d like to meet you but if I meet you I want to bring a bunch of my friends. I don’t really want to spend time just with you.
- I only like married men.
- I’m don’t really know if I’m into this whole heterosexual thing. It’s not for me.

Although a good one I had was when I did have a woman who said “Yes” to meet for coffee next week. So when I followed up with her and said “Do you still want to meet up this week?” She just simply said “Mmmm, No.”

So at least she didn’t give me an excuse because I find these excuses – they’re very frustrating to figure out. I know they’re just excuses and I know I’m the common denominator so it’s complicated. What can I do?

Unfortunately, what I wish there is like Toastmasters for women – women masters – where someone could follow me around and give me feedback and evaluate me on at the end of the day on well I did. That way I can get feedback on my strengths and weaknesses that I can improve for next time. Unfortunately, Toastmasters hasn’t branched out of public speaking yet. Hopefully in the future.

So I realised I needed to figure this out for myself.

So many nights I went trekking up Mt. Doug and meditated on this problem – Why don’t I have a girlfriend. Finally the answer came to me.

So the reason is…

Oh, this is too embarrassing. I don’t know if I should really say. I don’t know if you really want to hear. Do you guys want to hear?

Well, the reason is….I’m just too perfect.

Yes, I may just be the most amazing guy in the world, God-like if you will.

And this is a big problem because one other thing I’ve learned about women is they like to get a guy they can fix up. When they get a boyfriend, it’s their own personal renovation project. They want, you know, they want to change different clothes, differently ways of talking, interact with different social groups. It’s just a big improvement project to them. So when women meet me they take a look at me and they think “What could I possibly do?”

So this is a big problem to me and I know…

Yeah, so they can’t fathom this, and that’s why they come up with all the excuses.

So I want to give a message to all you ladies out there. To just make it easier on yourself and for me next time. So that you don’t have to come up with excuses just say the truth next time.

“Matt, you’re just too perfect.”

Don’t worry. I’ll understand.

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Things You Didn’t Know About Victoria

Wednesday, August 11th, 2010

This is my 7th Toastmasters speech from the Competent Communicator’s manual.

Thank you Madame Toastmaster, fellow Toastmasters and welcome guest.

Do you know what I like about Europeans? They know their history. Just look at Graham here. Graham can probably tell you everything about British history – all the relevant and irrelevant facts dating back hundreds of years. I lived in Europe for a year after university and I realised this isn’t unique amongst Europeans and British.

Most of the friends I met there could tell me all sorts of details about their hometown. They would invite me to their hometown for a day or a weekend and as we’d be walking around they’d point out “Oh this building was designed in 1405 by Sir Black” or whatever. “This statue was donated to us from Italy in 1692.” And I would ask them “How do you know all this stuff?” and they’d say “Well it’s my hometown, of course it’s my duty to know all this stuff.” And I think, well, here in Victoria I don’t know anything about my hometown. That’s one of the differences between Europeans. They’ve lived there their whole lives and their family may have been there for generations whereas here not many people stay in Victoria. For instance, how many people were born in Victoria? Two people. So Victoria’s a very transient place and I don’t know much about it. So for this topic of researching your topic, I thought I would research a little about Victoria.

Most of the stuff I do know about Victoria comes from walking down Government Street and as I walk along the streets, the Kabuki Kabs go by – the little peddlers – and so for a few seconds I’ll hear them explaining to the tourists some interesting tidbit of information. Over the years, I’ve gathered a little bit of history that way but still not really enough. And I don’t know if it’s true. Sometimes I think they’re just making it up. They could be just telling stories to the tourists to get more tips.

So one story I hear sometimes is that the Parliament Buildings were designed by someone who came over from Britain who had no training in architecture, he lied about buildings that he developed in Britain and then he was murdered by his wife. So I wanted to find out if this was true or not.

In fact, it is partly true. The Parliament Buildings were designed by Francis Rattenbury. He came over from Britain to BC in his 20s. At that time the government had an open competition for designing the Parliament Buildings. Anyone could enter with their designs. He entered and he beat out almost 60 other applicants. He didn’t sign his name but he submitted it under a pseudonym called ‘A B.C. Architect.’ He did, however, have a little bit of training. He had no formal education in architecture but he had done an apprenticeship with a firm in the UK for about seven years before coming to BC. However, beating out 60 other people is not that easy so maybe he did have to fib a little bit on his application. I never found that out.

After designing the Parliament Buildings – after building them – he went on to do a number of other buildings in Victoria including one of the other famous buildings, the Empress. He was commissioned by the Canadian Pacific Railway to do that and he was also designed the old Carnegie Library on Yates Street on the corner of Yates and Blanshard and the old Bank of Montreal on Government Street which is now the Irish Times as well as Crystal Gardens. So he had a big impact in Victoria for developing our architecture.

Unfortunately for him, he never really found success after Victoria. He started to…His personal life started to come unravelled a little bit and in his 40s he divorced his wife to marry his 27 year old mistress at the time or girlfriend. He left his children and his wife and they went back to England.

At the time he was going through financial troubles through investing in poor business ideas and whatnot, and that continued in England at the time. After about 10 years his wife, kinda did the same thing. She had a ‘mister’ who was actually their 18 year old chauffeur. And they formed a plot to kill him so that they could be together. They actually did murder him, 10 years after they were married, and he – the chauffeur – ended up going to jail and his former wife committed suicide a few days after the trail was over.

He was buried in an unmarked grave somewhere in England, until just a few years ago when a family friend finally put up a tombstone for him.

So this is the man that helped develop Victoria around here – our designs. He was a cheat and squandered all his money.

In a way it’s kind of fitting that he designed the Parliament Buildings.

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High Performance the Lazy Way

Monday, May 24th, 2010

This is my 5th Toastmasters speech. Re-watching it now, I was quite disappointed with it. I wasn’t prepared enough and it did not come off as smooth as it could have been. I also need to work on my vocal variety more. Luckily, that is the purpose of my next speech. Please evaluate this speech at Soapbox Guru.

Thank you Mr. Toastmaster, fellow Toastmasters and welcome guests.

Now I hate to start off by bragging about myself but I am lazy. And people come up to me and they say Matt “How can you be so lazy?” and they tell me all sorts of excuses. They say “I want to be lazy but I don’t have the time.” Or “I want to be lazy but, you know, being lazy sounds like a lot of hard work.” And, of course, “I want to be lazy but I just don’t know where to get started.”

Now, I’ve found that there are a number of benefits to being lazy. And I’m going to cover three of them today to help you become lazier in your own lives. First one is that being lazy can help you save money.

Now, I’ve been wanting to buy a new computer for about a year or so because the computer that I have, it’s a bit loud and it overheats and shuts down sometimes so I think “Ah, I should go out and I should buy a new computer for me.” But then I start thinking about all the effort and time that it requires to go out and buy a new computer. I gotta go to all these different stores and do research and pick out the one that suits me best. So I keep putting it off. Buying a new computer – it just takes too much time and energy for a lazy person like me. So I’ve realised that being lazy can help you save money.

Are you one of those people that buys 10 pairs of shoes or shirts and never wear them again? You can put laziness to help you. So the next time you want to buy something you might see at the store, instead of buying it there, go home and think about it for a week. A week later, you’ll think “Maybe I want to buy that shirt” but then you start thinking in your head “Well I gotta get in the car, I gotta go to the store, I gotta pick it out again and find where it is. Ah, it’s just too much work. I’ll be lazy. I’ll save money.”

So that’s the first benefit. Be lazy, save money.

The second thing I’ve found is that being lazy can help you be more efficient. So my philosophy is “Why do something twice when you can only do it once?” In software development, a good practice is called DRY – D R Y – Don’t Repeat Yourself. And I try to incorporate this into my work because I don’t like repeating myself. For example, a few months ago, I was working on a website that needed user registration. And I forgot to put a part where users can, if they forget their password, they can get it sent to them by email again. One day, the guy comes up to me and says “Oh Matt, this guy forgot his password. Can you reset it for him?” I think “Ah, this is petty work. I don’t want to do this work.” So instead of resetting this individual password, I just write code that allows user to reset their own password. And I don’t need to be bothered by this petty work anymore. So be lazy, be more efficient in your own life.

The third great part about being lazy is it can help you kick bad habits. There’s a famous psychologist named Milton Erickson who was known for solving patients problems using very creative techniques. One day a patient came to him and said “Doctor, I’m an alcoholic. I’ve tried everything to stop but I still keep drinking. It’s ruining my life and my family’s life. What can I do?”

And Dr. Erickson thought about it for a minute and said “Alright, drink as much as you want.”

And the guy’s thinking “What? You’re telling me to just keep drinking?”

And he says “Yes. Drink as much as you want but it has to be at this one pub three miles from your house. And you have to walk there if you want to drink.”

So the guy thinks “This is peculiar but I’ll give it a try.”

The doctor says “OK, try it out for one month and come back and see me.”

One month later, the patient comes back and says “Doctor, I don’t know what you did but I’m cured of alcoholism. I haven’t had a drink in three weeks.”

And the doctor asks him to explain and he says “Well, you know, I walked to the tavern the first couple nights and then the third night it was raining so I thought, ‘Ah I’m not gonna go out in the rain to drink’. Then the fourth night I start walking there and about half an hour into my walk I start thinking ‘You know, it’s gonna be another half an hour to get there. I’m a little bit tired. I don’t know really want to go the next mile and a half to get a drink’ so I just turned around and went home and spent time with my family. And the next night ‘Ah it didn’t really interest me anymore’ so I just stopped going to the pub. So this is another benefit of being lazy. Being lazy can help you kick bad habits.

See, I think I’m lazy but laziness is a general trait among people. People try to do things the easiest way and if you make things that you don’t want to do harder you will usually take the easy way out and you will take the lazy way out which if you structure life can actually improve things. For example, if you don’t like going to the doctor, if you absolutely hate it, then eat healthy and take good care of yourself. Then you won’t have to waste your time going to the doctor. Same thing if you don’t like cleaning, then don’t make a mess and it solves itself.

So be lazy in your own life. It can help you save money, make you more efficient in your job and can help you kick bad habits. Mr. Toastmaster.

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The Dirty Secret of Work

Sunday, April 11th, 2010

This is my 4th Toastmasters speech. Please evaluate this Toastmasters speech at Soapbox Guru.

Good evening Mr. Toastmaster, fellow Toastmasters and welcome guests.

How many people here work full-time – about 40 hours a week or so?

Unfortunately, I have some bad news for you. You’re working too much.

What if I told you it was possible to be happier, to be more satisfied with your job and get more done while working fewer hours? Now I know what you’re thinking, you’re thinking whoa, wait a minute Matt, work less and get more done? This doesn’t seem possible. It must define some kind of law of physics or something. But it is true, if you’re working 40 hours, I believe you’re working too much.

Now to understand why, we need to go back and first look at the history of this 40-hour work week. People, I think, are working much longer than they’ve worked for most of history. Prior to the Industrial Revolution, people mainly worked on farms and work was limited by natural factors such as the seasons and daylight. No one’s going to go out in the middle of December and start planting seeds because that’s just bogus. Then the Industrial Revolution came and people flocked to the factories. Factory workers encouraged people to work as much as they could – work them to the bone, work them to death. So people worked 80, 100 hours a week. Their lives, basically were work. And since then, we’ve backed off from that to now where 40 hours is considered a full-time work week. And the 40-hour work week came about mainly because of one man. And you know him because some of you probably drive his cars. That man is Henry Ford.

Henry Ford did over 12 years of productivity experiments about how he can get his workers to work the most effectively so he can get the most profit. He realised that by working people as much as possible, people get tired, people can’t concentrate, they make mistakes causing bad cars, they get sick easier and then it affects everyone else thereby reducing productivity. So he discovered that 40 hours seems about right for what people should be working. So in 1926, he let all his employees know that from now on we are only going to be working 5 days a week, 8 hours a day. No overtime. No more working Saturdays. Let’s just work this. So that’s where we are today.

Now there’s one problem with this. How many people here work in a factory? Exactly. So the 40 hour work week is great for factory work but does it translate into work that most people do today which is, say, knowledge work or problem-solving work. And no, I don’t believe it does. I think the dirtiest secret of work is that people go to work for 40 hours but it is impossible to actually be productive at work for 40 hours. I would say that people do about 20 hours of productive work a week at work. Why do I say this? It’s because what I about do.

I know there’s a risk in me saying this but I’ll say it anyways.

So why do I know this? Because when I’m working I use a timer to track my productive work – the time I’m doing focused work on programming. I run it and I found that doing 20 hours of work a week seems about right. If I try to push myself and do more, I notice that I become more depressed, I am not looking towards going to work anymore, I get sick easier. But if I back it off a little, then I enjoy my work better, I feel I can concentrate more and I believe that I get more done.

The problem is that for most people they view work as something like this. The more hours you put in, the more productive you are. That every hour extra is another hour you can achieve more things. This is completely wrong.

What it actually looks like is like this. When you start off, you are pretty productive and then you reach a point. And as Henry Ford saw, this is about 40 hours for factory workers, a little less for problem-solving or creative knowledge workers and you actually start to lose your productivity. This has been done in studies in the game development industry for software. There’s been studies done because they’re known for pushing their workers for working long hours to get the games developed to a deadline. And so they find that, sure, you can push yourself for a while, say if you want to work 60 hours or 80 hours for a couple weeks, it works ok. That’s where people start to think they can keep pushing themselves. But as it works out that you will actually start to lose productivity in the long-run.

Work hasn’t changed much over the last 100 years since Henry Ford decided to go to a 40-hour work week but there is hope. Some companies are working towards what’s called a Results Only Work Environment, where they don’t care where you work from, they don’t care how many hours you work as long as you get the work done. And I hope this is what we’ll see going forward as it will help make people happier, more satisfied with their jobs and you will get more done in less time.

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