The answer is no. I could have brought myparents to a new place for buffet breakfast on an awesome autumn Sunday morning, I could have bought a SUV in Xiamen and move them around. I didn’t, due to various restrictions.
Would I choose a different path had we got achance to turn the clock back to the time when I was in my early 20s? I don't thinkso. Let me tell you why.
I quite agree with the following the quote fromB. J. Neblett.
“We are the sum total of our experiences. Thoseexperiences – be they positive or negative – make us the person we are, at anygiven point in our lives.”
Part of the reasons why we are who we are todayis those experiences and those people we have encountered over the years. In hindsight, I can’t even tell whether certain decisions I have made, certain paths I have taken, are right or wrong. We may regret for those things we didn’t do enough. What we can is to make up for it within our capacity while it is in time, while your parents are still alive, while your kids haven’t entered puberty stage.
Over to you, Toastmaster.
Toastmaster of the day, fellow toastmasters, awonderful afternoon to all of you. My name is Jeff. Today I want to share withyou part of my life experiences and I hope some of you will find it useful.
March 15, 20xx, Xiamen, China. My phone rang the moment when I stepped into themain entrance of our condominium. It was my 68-year-old mum. She said, “your dad and I are now at the boarding gate, but we couldn’t find your dad’s bag, which contains his IC and a few thousand dollars”. Just 35 minutes back, I saw my dadand mum off at the airport. They were about to board a domestic flight toPudong where they would join my sister to fly to Toronto and stay there for another one year. A couple of days before that, I purposely went back to Xiamen, my hometown to see my parents off. I asked my parents to board the airplane first and I would make a second trip to airport and fetch my dad’s bag home. We were so fortunate that my mum kept the passports of both in her handbag.I quickly called the airport and got to the team in charge of security found the bag and verified my identity.
Life is short, before you realize it, you have missed the opportunity to accompany those important people in your life, and more importantly, to let them sense your love and gratitude towards them.
When I was young, like any other young people who aspire to explore the outside world, I joined a multinational company, upon graduation. I subsequently moved to Hong Kong to work and eventually settled down in Singapore and started my own family. Over the years I indeed saw many parts of the world, especially in my current job. The preparation for icebreaker speech last night allowed me to take a reflection on whether I havedone enough for these important people while I am constantly shuttling here andthere to satiate my own desire.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I'm Eden, I'm 9 years y, I'm going to tell you about my first special memory. It wasunforgettable, because it was my first flying on a plane.
When I got on the huge, white thing with two big ‘fans’, I was so scared. I was thinking what if the big thing couldn’t balance itself? What if in the middle of the trip, the airplane ran out of oil? What if the airplane crashed onto the ground when it landed? I was scared that I would falldown and smash into pieces!
Just then, the plane started to take off, and my ear started tohurt as , I closed my eyes for a long long time. What a surprise! WhenI woke up, I didn't smash into pieces, and neither did I have an ear , I looked outside the window. How amazing it was!
The sun was orange, and all the cloud turning into golden color, just like the toasted marshmallows and chicken. I could still rememberthat they looked very tasty and inviting! Furthermore, there were the golden lions,dancing bears, and more, just like the cloud zoo! I couldn’t take my eyes offthose impressive views, but it was time to land.
Never would I forget my first amazing flight, my first specialmemory! From then on, I was not afraid of flight any more, instead, I enjoyedhaving the trip in the sky. Thank you!
That night I returned to Singapore. I didn’t think it was a big deal as my father was 73 years old at the time and old people were supposed to forgetful, until the next day when I called my mum. Over the phone she told me that on the flight to Toronto, three of them sat side byside, with my father sitting in the middle. All of a sudden, my father looked at my sister but totally couldn't recognize her, he asked my mum, "what is the name of this young lady and why is she so nice to us"? The moment when he said this, my sister burst into tears. At that time, we haven’t heard of a disease called Alzheimers, but we realized we were starting to lose our dad day by day from that turning point.
Fast forward to September 20xx, my father has been with a nursing home in Xiamen for close to 4 years. He is very skinny butstill survives, thanks to the professional care provided there. Over the years I flew back to visit him from time to time. He couldn’t tell my name but Icould tell that he probably knew I am someone important for him, as he always grabbedmy hands tightly.
english is a useful language all over the world. why are we began to learn english when we were little children beacause it is very important for us to learn the world, if you cannot speak english you will lose half a chance to success. i began to learn english when i was 8 years that moment,i do not like english.i connot remember all the words which i have learnt.i think it is very difficult for me to learn it i cannot read english loudly and i never answer the questions in the english classes.
now, i like english very well and i still use the ways he tells me.i know i must learn english even hard.
On every one of hisprojects, you’ll see him talking to the super, the painter, the engineers, the electricians, he’ll ask them for their feedback, if they think something should be done differently, or could be done better. When Donald Trump is in charge, all that counts is ability, effort and has long been the philosophy at the Trump Organization. At my father’s company, there are more female than male executives. Women are paid equally for the work that we do and when a woman becomes a mother, she is supported, not shut n represent 46 percent of the total U.S. labor force, and 40 percent of American households have female primary breadwinners. In 20xx, women made 83 cents for every dollar madeby a man. Single women without children earn 94 cents for each dollar earned by a man, whereas married mothers made only 77 cents. As researchers have noted, gender is no longer the factor creating the greatest wage discrepancy in this country, motherhood is.
dear audience and judges, my topic is can money buy happiness. as we all know, money can buy all the goods in our life, no matter how huge it
is. a spaceship, for example, if you really feel your bank account can afford it. anyhow, money equal wealthy in life but not happiness in mind. only by changing
our attitude to money and enjoying every day, can we obtain a truely happy future!
Hello , everybody! Do you know me ? My name is Liang Qikun. My English name is Jenny. I am from China . I am ten years old . I am a clever girl . I have short black hair , big black eyes , big ears , a small nose and a small mouth . I am not very tall and not very thin . My hobby is reading books . My favourite sport is adventuring. I can play the piano very well . This is me.
In 20xx — not so long ago — a professor who was then at Columbia University took that case and made it [Howard] Roizen. And he gave the case out, both of them, to two groups of students. He changed exactly one word: "Heidi" to "Howard." But that one word made a really big difference. He then surveyed the students, and the good news was the students, both men and women, thought Heidi and Howard were equally competent, and that's bad news was that everyone liked Howard. He's a great guy. You want to work for him. You want to spend the day fishing with him. But Heidi? Not so sure. She's a little out for herself. She's a little 're not sure you'd want to work for her. This is the complication. We have to tell our daughters and our colleagues, we have to tell ourselves to believe we got the A, to reach for the promotion, to sit at the table, and we have to do it in a world where, for them, there are sacrifices they will make for that, even though for their brothers, there are not. The saddest thing about all of this is that it's really hard to remember this. And I'm about to tell a story which is truly embarrassing for me, but I think important.
The problem is that — let's say she got pregnant that day, that day — nine months of pregnancy, three months of maternity leave, six months to catch your breath — Fast-forward two years, more often — and as I've seen it — women start thinking about this way earlier — when they get engaged, or married, when they start thinking about having a child, which can take a long time. One woman came to see me about this. She looked a little young. And I said, "So are you and your husband thinking about having a baby?" And she said, "Oh no, I'm not married." She didn't even have a boyfriend.
Kipling said: “East is east, and west is west, and never the twain shall meet!” But now, a century later, they have met.
They have met in business. They have met in education. They have met in the arts. Some people will argue that these meetings will leave us with a choice between east and west, but I believe that the best future lies in the creative combination of both worlds. We can make western ideas, customs and technology our own, and adapt them to our own use. We can enjoy the best of both worlds, because our tradition is, above all, one of selecting the best and making it our own. I love Beijing and Hennan opera because it always reminds me of who I am. But I am also a fan of pop music, especially English songs. So I have combined eastern melody with western language. It is called western henna opera.
When two cultures meet, there may be things in one culture, which do not fit into the tradition of the other. When this happens, we need to learn to understand and respect the customs of another culture. Then there are certain things some people may not like. To this, I will say, if you do not like it, please try to tolerate it. To learn to tolerate what you personally don’t like is a great virtue at a time when different cultures mix and merge. Before us, there are two rivers, eastern and western cultures. At present, they may run in different courses. But eventually, they will converge into the vast sea of human culture.
Right now, I can see peoples of eastern and western cultures, standing side by side, singing the Olympic theme song: we are hand in hand, heart to heart, together we will shape a beautiful tomorrow! Thank you!
I’ve never been able to shake the haunting feeling of this specific house call because of the significance it would take on later in my own life – and it reminds me, of course, that even doctors can meet the same inevitable fate of becoming patients.
When I tried to tend to the diabetes my father developed later in life, I thought of that woman’s shaking, pale face.
And when I looked at his limbs – a double amputee, and recognized he was in renal failure, I thought of how he fought for a life, when she could not fight for her own.
And I thought of how in his twilight years, he was experiencing the same discomfort and dis-ease he had so seamlessly kept at bay for everyone else.
But even so, I knew we were lucky, my family. We could afford my father’s insulin. We could afford to do what it took to take care of him.
one day in 1819, 3,000 miles off the coast of chile, in one of the most remote regions of the pacific ocean, 20 american sailors watched their ship flood with seawater. heyd been struck by a sperm whale, which had ripped a catastrophic hole in the ships hull. as their ship began to sink beneath the swells, the men huddled together inthree small e men were 10,000 miles from home, more than 1,000 miles from the nearest scrap of land. in their small boats, they carried only rudimentary navigational equipment and limited supplies of food and e were the men of the whaleship essex, whose story would later inspire parts of moby know how fear feels, but im not sure we spend enough time thinking about what our fears we grow up, were often encouraged to think of fear as a weakness, just another childish thing to discard like baby teeth or roller skates.
Ivanka Trump Delivers Speech at Japan's World Assembly for Women
Thank you very much Prime Minister Abe, for that kind introduction. And thank you for your gracious hospitality to my family.
This is my first visit to Japan, and the warmth you have shown us, the beauty of your landscape, and the vibrancy of your culture are truly incredible gifts to all who come to this country. Yesterday evening, as I arrived in Tokyo, I was struck by the magnificence of the skyline – and this morning I was awed by the ancient beauty of the Imperial Palace. The wonders of this land are a testament to the creativity and resilience of the Japanese people.
It is an honor to join you today at the World Assembly for Women. I am grateful to be with this exceptional and passionate group of leaders to discuss the economic empowerment of women, to celebrate the progress our societies have made, and to chart a bold course for the future.
The economic empowerment of women has been a focus of mine for many years – ensuring that 50% of our population can fully participate in the workforce is critical to strengthening our communities and growing our prosperity.
That is why after my father’s election, I decided to leave my businesses and work in government to advance policies and initiatives that empower women to fully participate in the economy, if they so choose. Policies that enable women to pursue their careers and care for their families, policies that focus on workforce development and skills training, and policies that fuel entrepreneurship so that Americans can turn their aspirations into their incredible legacy.
