Spring has sprung! Our diversity club members and honorable guests seem to be highly energetic and indefatigable. We’ve got 19 attendees including 10 members tonight, which is the larger number than ever before! They are Naoki san, Drian, Masako san, Jay from Singapore, Jota san, Kaoru san from Germany, Lan Anh from Hanoi, Megumi san, Tomoyo san, Yuki san, Kazuko san, Miyuki san, Yu san, Takako san, Mikiko san, Yukari san, Surat from Thailand, and our club founder Yukimasa san. Awesome!
Today, we had… Toastmaster & Timer: Naoki-san (the first time to take the role in the online meeting. Amazingly done like Yukimasa san!) Meeting Theme: Let’s share! Word of the Day: down-to-earth (It means sensible and practical, in a way that is helpful and friendly.) 6 members used the word during the meeting. Especially 10 times from Drian
Best Table Topic Speaker: Drian Best Prepared Speaker: Mikiko san Best Evaluators: Kaoru san & Miyuki san
First off, I must apologize to everyone for having been late for the meeting because of my PC problems. To my great sadness, I missed most of the small talk session. As soon as I managed to participate in the meeting, the voice of an adorable baby caught my ear. Wow! One of the guests successfully was in the meeting with her new born baby. This is one of the advantages in an online Toastmasters club like ours. When I was a member of an ‘off-line’ Toastmasters club in Tokyo, I ‘took parental leave’ and had to withdrew from the club for a long time. But she can join our meeting anytime anywhere she wants. Hooray! Her child must be a future Toastmaster.
After the small talk session is over, Naoki-san conducted ZOOM function drill very well. He not only gave a clear-cut explanation to us, but also showed a fairly accurate picture. I am pretty sure even a quite new member could understand how to use the function effectively.
Now it’s the highlight of the meeting.
The first prepared speaker is Jota san! His speech title is ‘Who am I?’ He started his speech referring to his first name. According to him, in Japanese it is called in various ways, but in English Jota is the only way to call him and easy to pronounce so that everyone can easily remember his name. Since he dedicated to his global company, it was very useful. He thanks his father, who named him. Speaking of names, he kindly mentioned that he likes our online club name ‘Diversity’ Well, (coughing to get your attention,) I feel proud of myself because I chose it from a few options Yukimasa san offered. Haha…Anyway, his speech was enjoyable and entertaining, and we’ve got to know more about him.
The second speaker is Mikiko san! Her speech title is ‘Either A or B choice’. She said she is not a good decision maker. She shared her experiences of the time when she took some time to decide something including buying an expensive item. Then, she smoothly moved to her father-in-law’s experience in Sasebo and Dalian with the effective pictures so that we could imagine his decision-making experiences during the war. She concluded with her powerful message. It is indispensable to broaden our mind to the world as well and to make a wise decision, nurturing wisdom. It was a touching and an inspiring speech. By the way, her choice of being a member of our club is also great, I should say ;)
The last speaker is Yuki san! Her speech title is ‘Not perfect but great’. Since she is a big fan of music, this speech is perfect for her! During her speech, we had a great time listening to her singing, playing the mandolin and the digital piano. It was her live concert as well. She successfully exemplified the importance to work together, not alone. We try to concert our efforts every meeting.
The next session is Table Topic Session conducted by Takako san! She is going to attend the International Contest in Chicago this summer. How exciting! The theme of the impromptu session is ‘Let’s share your experiences, ideas and opinions.’ It is great to be related to the meeting theme. The questions are: - What would you like to be doing 10 years from now? Yu san started his new job just 3 months ago. His dream is to succeed in such a big project that he can be proud of himself. Also, he wants to spend precious time with his children as much as possible. What a great person and a parent! - Tell us your plan for Golden Week. Megumi san usually go abroad but this year she has a plan for celebrating her baby with her family. And she will be playing in this golden week while her husband is taking care of their baby. Someday I would like to listen to her speech about how he can look after the baby. It must be fun ;) - What do you do to improve English proficiency? Lan Anh san firstly mentioned why we should learn English. She thinks it’s important to approach to the world and try to understand each other in this global age. In this sense, English is indispensable to learn. She believes it’s a good chance to practice English and learn from each other at Toastmasters club. I can’t agree with her anymore. - Do you think we will be able to go to Mars and live there in the future? I guess this is the toughest question. I couldn’t think of anything. But Masako san used her imagination and she made it! According to her, with the advancement of science technology, we will be able to know much more about the planet and live there. There must be a lot of aliens with diversified backgrounds. I think she is right. In fact, a world-famous entrepreneur Elon Musk has a big project. Believe or not, his company SpaceX has been developing a reusable super-jumbo rocket to Mars. Will it be a true story? - Who influenced you most in your life and how? Today’s best table topic speaker Drian answered his respectable father and a movie star Sylvester Stallone. He believes they have similar mind-set. Their souls are rich and inspire you in a basic way. During his speech, he used the word of the day ‘down-to-earth’ 9 times! What’s more, he finished his speech within the allotted time. Amazing!
The last session is Evaluation session. As General Evaluator Kazuko san pointed out very well, they mentioned the details, which means they were eager listeners, giving positive comments about how they like with a positive tone. Also, they gave their advice how each speaker could speak better as their improvements. Although we can’t see each other at the same time in the online meeting, everyone fully engaged in it. We are friendly ‘down-to-earth’ people!
