Wrong Turns and Detours, Live My Vision Through English

I delivered a prepared speech at the regular meeting of BID Toastmasters last night. My subject was learning English, and the speech was actually a sequel to my previous speech delivered 6 days ago. The issue of learning English has been such a huge undertaking in my life journey that covering it in two speeches seemed to be just about right.

We had a universal and thought-provoking meeting theme: "wrong turns and detours", with the question: "Have you ever taken a wrong path in life, school, or work? What did you learn from it?" To this question, I have many related experiences, and finally I chose the following as my answer: I tried a cigarette with my good friends at 16, and was addicted to it afterwards. So I became a smoker, first secretly, and then openly, until I quit smoking at 39. What I learned from this 23-year detour is, first, that I'll never try another cigarette; second, that I can empathize and get along with smokers.

It was Friday evening and after the meeting, I rode a Youbike home, as usual. What made it unusual was I delivered two speeches in seven days. In between, I made a 5-day backpacking trip in Taitung County and produced three blog posts. What a packed week, full of exciting learning and discovery!

Here is the script for my speech.

__________________________________________________

Live My Vision Through English

What’s your best investment?

Does it still pay you dividends now?

Good evening everyone!

Though I'm not a native English speaker, I am excited to talk about my subject tonight because learning English is my best investment that I first made 42 years ago, and it still pays me dividends today, as I asked in my opening questions.

Actually, this is part-two of my story about learning English because I delivered another speech last week, titled: Adult Learning – My Journey with English, which covers part-one of my story, and let me give you a quick summary of it: I landed a job 42 years ago that required good command of English. I loved the job but was surprised to learn how unprepared I was for it given my poor command of English. Therefore, as an adult, I decided to improve my English; I studied English everyday and even quit my job to study at ITI (International Trade Institute), a two-year training program focused on English and International trade. Two years later, my English had improved so much that it became a strength, instead of a weakness that I used to struggle with. Thereafter, I had been promoted several times and experienced many demanding yet rewarding jobs, largely thanks to my English competency, alongside communication and leadership skills. When I retired in 2022, I was responsible for a department with 150 employees. Okay, that’s part-one of my story: good command of English helped me achieve a rewarding career.

Now, in my retirement, I don’t need to use English as my livelihood, but I continue “living my vision through English”, as my speech title suggests. 

For me, learning English has transformed from an investment into a competency that helped me build a rewarding career. Over time, it further transformed into several habit and hobbies that will support me to live my personal vision, which is: "To live my life rooted in Taiwan and connected with the world".

In this connection, the first part of the transformation is a habit: reading English media where possible, be it BBC, CNN, or any others, so I’ll keep myself updated first-hand through English, without second-hand translation.

The second part is a hobby: reading world literature in English. I have read approximately 30 books since I retired. Besides, I also started reading Shakespeare's works last year. Reading world literature in English allows me to learn from the brightest minds in history and opens up my imagination as never before.

The third part is a hobby: keeping an English blog. I became a blogger in July last year, and since then I have produced at least one post per week, in English. Now I have produced 78 posts on my blog, and will add my 79th after this meeting. Being a writer was my childhood dream, which has now come true through English.

The fourth part is also a hobby - YES: practicing English at Toastmasters! That’s the main reason why I joined Toastmasters two-and-a-half years ago. While I used English throughout my career, I found Toastmasters the safest place to practice English. Thanks in part to BID Toastmasters for giving me this platform to practice, I already completed one learning path months ago, and am on a new learning path now.

I’m confident that these habit and hobbies will support me to live my vision to the fullest extent in years to come. So, in retrospect, the investment I made 42 years ago – learning English as an adult – still pays me dividends now.

To conclude, I shared the part-two story of my 42-year English learning journey, how my investment in learning English transformed into a competency, and later a habit and hobbies that will support me to pursue my personal vision in my lifelong learning journey. I hope you’ll find your investment that pays you lifelong dividends, too.

Thank you for your attention. Toastmaster of the Evening!