Best speaker Magazine Issue 2 - December 2017 | Page 54

ENGLISH WINGLISH
Do you want to be a
nobody or somebody
better?
I
am a citizen of the world. And every
citizen is my own kith and kin. If
you know English, the entire world is
yours.
I was a person who did fairly well in
my studies during school days. I got good
marks in every subject, except in English.
My average English marks were around 25
when I was in the 11 th grade. But I did not
care about it. And nobody told me about
the importance of English. However, I
passed the Ordinary Level examination
with a simple pass for English. In Advanced
Level, English was not a main subject.
We focused only on our main subjects.
As a result of that, I got a ‘W’ pass in my
English exam. Even then, nobody taught
me the importance of English. Then in
2016, I got selected to the University of
Kelaniya for a degree in Management.
But fortunately or unfortunately it was
conducted in English. At the Department,
English played a major role. The people
who performed well in the course became
well-known among lecturers. That was
when I understood that English was
needed not only in our personal life,
but also in our professional life. For this
reason, I hoped to learn English. I started
to search for new words. I looked for
English books and material, and I tried to
find friends who spoke English fluently.
This was when I got to know about
the Gavel Club. I wanted to find out more
about the Gavel Club and what their basic
objectives were. The Gavel Club promotes
and improves communication, leadership,
and public speaking skills. If someone is
interested in these areas, the doors of the
club are open for them.
Before I joined the Gavel Club,
Sudharshan was a nobody. But after
joining the club, everybody started to call
me Gavelier Sudharshan. I was becoming
popular among university friends due to
Gavel and I liked it. So I continued going
to the educational meetings of the Club
regularly.
I still remember my first day at the
Gavel Club. I entered the doors of the
Career Guidance Unit full of doubts.
When I opened the door, I could hear lots
of English sounds like the buzzing of bees.
To be honest, at that moment I thought
54
BEST SPEAKER MAGAZINE 2017
“Have I come to the right place? Can I
manage to speak with these people?” Yes,
I was a little shy to be in an unfamiliar
place. So I sat at the back row of the
meeting room and watched what was
happening. There were 3 types of sessions
called the Round Robin session, Table
Topic session and the Creative session,
and it was conducted under a particular
theme for the day. I watched the entire
meeting and then I decided that it was
amazing, fun, and everything made sense.
It was a great way to improve our speaking
and communication skills. Apart from
ordinary meetings, on special days like
the Friendship Day or the Valentine’s Day,
the meeting room was decorated by the
Gaveliers according to the occasion. On
ordinary days the Gaveliers’ evergreen
smiles decorated the meeting room. These
reasons carried me to the educational
meetings every Thursday. First, I only
watched the meeting. Then I tried to
speak in front of the Gaveliers, and I got
many comments from them. As a result
of that, last year I could participate in the
Best Speaker contest. I learnt about hand
gestures, stage movement, eye contact,
how to capture the attention of the
audience, and much more.
Today I am confident enough to
speak in front of an audience. And now
I have become one of the best presenters
in my class. Apart from the meetings, I
participate in other Gavel programs such
as workshops and trips. Those are golden
moments in my life and every event has
given me beautiful stories to tell my son
or daughter in the future. The Gavel Club
teaches me a lot as a teacher, it guides
me as a coach, and it motivates me like
a friend. It provides a stage for potential
speakers like me to showcase their talents
in front of an audience.
Are you interested in public speaking?
Can you truly smile? Do you fear the stage
and a big audience?
The Gavel Club is looking for you…
Gavelier
SUDHARSHAN
Faculty of Commerce and
Management