“I became effectively bilingual because I grew up in Myanmar where I had less than 8 hours of electricity a day, so I always read tons of Chinese books growing up, which helped me greatly in expanding my vocabulary.
In the first few years of my career, I said “YES!” to every event and that’s helped me learn so much about myself and my hosting style. It’s definitely not easy. I’ve cried countless times before, during and after events, obsessed over perfecting every single detail. But there’s no easy way to get around it – you just have to face each challenge head on if you want to be a great emcee!
A moment I will always remember must be hosting in Burmese, English AND Chinese at a gig with President Halimah Yacob.
I was only supposed to host in English, but it ended up being an impromptu event in all 3 languages right on stage, in front of President Halimah herself. No pressure, right?
I’m not going to lie, the Covid restrictions were a huge challenge in the beginning. They challenged me to rethink everything about my hosting style, but reaffirmed my love for emceeing. It was very dramatic for a good 6 months!
Now, I would say I prefer hybrid to virtual events, simply because I love the presence of an audience to connect with.
This entire situation definitely brought about so many new and interesting technical skills for the entire events scene – it accelerated the development of more virtual tools to engage the audience in a stronger manner.
Universally, people love and crave for experiences which is what’s been taken away from us for the last 2 years and I believe people will flock to try more experiences when government restrictions ease.
So I think that many events companies will create more unique concepts where people will enjoy special and fresh encounters!”
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Ivy – The bilingual emcee (Chinese l English) from Myanmar
Bilingual emcee for corporate events and weddings
