The Banquet of My Life

今天完成了Toastermaster的第一個項目，Ice Breaker。同伴們都很支持，能加入這麽好的一個小組真是我的幸運。

Mdm toastmaster, fellow members and guests,

The banquet of my life.

I feel lucky to have experienced a vast array of food ingredients and cuisines across China and around the world. My life has been like a wonderful banquet.

There are many interesting stories about this banquet. Today, I select three of them to present for you as appetizer, main course and dessert of my speech. (今天的word of the day是abundance, 所以我把many換成了abundant, 效果更好。）

To avoid feeling too hungry when I talk about delicious foods, I had a heavy brunch before I came. Have you? If not, bon appetite after the meeting. (因為前一位演講者給大家提供了巧克力，所以我臨時換成了you can help yourself to the chocolate, 效果也很好）

My hometown Guangzhou is the third largest city of China, formerly known as Canton. Dim sum is a traditional style of its cuisine, served in small steamer baskets or on small plates.  If you have tried Dim Sum before, you may probably know about Har gow, aka shrimp dumplings, cha siu bao, a bun filled with bbq pork and “phoenix claws”, my favourite, a.k.a. chicken feet. The contemporary restaurants usually offer a menu with about 20 to 30 choices, but during my childhood, the restaurants carried over a hundred varieties. And they don't even have a menu for them.  Dishes and buskets were put in carts, the servers pushed them winding between tables. Me and my cousins would not wait for the cart to approach us, we went out to search for the dishes we liked. Just like a treasure hunt, with immediate reward of yummy foods.

Guangzhou has a recorded history dated back to 206 B.C.. It used to be the south gate to China and the starting point of marine silk road. Cantonese people are known for the AUDACIOUS selection of food ingredients. Some of them may be very odd for Western culture, but the local people consider them as delicacy. (There is a saying that Cantonese eat anything that flies except airplane, anything that has four legs except table. 因為時間不夠，所以臨時把這句話砍了。)Armadillo had been on the table in the 1990s. Its taste is so attractive. If the government hasn't protect it, it would have been extinct now. Worms, sparrows and crocodiles are commonplaces. The most rare one I had ever had is called“Dragon Tiger Phoenix”. These are considered as superior and energetic animals. This course has a symbolic meaning, to wish our family the prosperity. Dragon is represented by snake, Phoenix by chicken and Tiger, you would not want to know what is it. My grandma made the feast more than 30 years ago. The love of grandma and the unity of my family always warm my heart whenever I think of this “Dragon Tiger Pheonix”.

Another city I have stayed for over two years, before coming to Canada, is Singapore. Durian is considered as the “king of fruits” by many local people there. It is distinctive for its thorn-covered husk and strong odour. Some people ADORE it, and some ABHOR it. Because its odour is so strong, bus drivers will reject a passenger with durian to board the bus according to the bylaw. I could not stand the smell and didn’t try it at all until the last month before I left Singapore. I still remembered that day, my friend took me to an area called little india. Dozens of durian husks were piled up like moles outside the vendor. I held my breath, watched the vendor cut open the formidable looking spiky fruit, took over the super fresh golden flesh and bit my teeth into it. It’s sweet, creamy, as far as the sensation of your tongue goes. Since then, the stinky smell became fragrant to me. This experience encouraged me to be more brave in trying out new foods and be more adventurous in my life.

 My life is an amazing banquet and I am so thankful to be born in Guangzhou, have a caring family and have the opportunity to explore the world.

許多肯定和鼓勵都在我意料之中，讓我意外的是，我選擇的AUDACIOUS，ADORE和ABHOR幾個詞得到了至少三個同伴的肯定。

需要改進的是時間控製，這些內容對於6分鍾來說太多了，我到後麵有些趕，描繪試吃榴蓮的經曆本可以更繪聲繪色的。我需要增加一些手勢，一直以來我都有些拘謹。有同伴提示我要改進一些發音（pronounciation）。我不知道自己哪裏說的不好，有機會要找同伴改進一下。