Have you ever listened to the song “Firework” by Katy Perry? I love this encouraging anthem. Let me share some parts of the lyrics: “Do you know that there’s still a chance for you? ‘Cause there’s a spark in you. You just gotta ignite the light and let it shine just own the night like the Forth of July. ‘Cause baby, you’re a firework. C’mon, show ‘em what you’re worth.”
Yes. ‘Spark!’ for today’s meeting theme. It reminded me of the song above. It is also the theme for the 2018 District 76 conference. The district conference officer once said, “Diversity creates spark (inspiration)! If you bring yourself to take one step out of your ‘comfort zone’, try something new, and talk to someone you have never known before, then you will get inspired.” What a congenial theme for our Diversity club meeting tonight!
Today we had.. 17 attendees (12 members+ 5 guests) from Kanto, Tokai, Kansai, Shikoku, Kyusyu area, Vietnam, and Germany ・ Word of the Day : congenial (introduced by Kazuko-san) It means pleasant in a way that makes you feel comfortable and relaxed & suitable for something. Kazuko-san gave a couple of the usage examples: congenial meeting, offer congenial opportunities to learn something. 5 attendees used the word. ・ Timer: Yukimasa-san ・ Grammarian & Um-Ah counter: Kaoru-san ・ 1 prepared speech & Best Speaker : Megumi-san ・ Table Topic Session : Mikiko san ・ Best Table Topic Speaker: Naoki-san ・ Evaluation Session : Jota san ・ Best Evaluator : Miyuki san
Intriguing enough as always, the meeting started with small talk session. A few members attended the 2018 English speech contest of 76 in Tokyo. One of them, Takako-san said that seeing our club president Yukimasa-san in person was a happy surprise for her. Another surprise for her was that the representative, TM Marama, from Tokushima Toastmasters club, which she belongs to as a dual member, got the first prize in the contest. Wow! Congrats! (Once our club is officially chartered with more than 20 members in the future, we have an opportunity to attend various speech contests. We can’t wait!) One more surprise for us was shared by Jota-san. Naoki-san’s son had a friend who has the same family and last name as Jota-san. I wonder how we should distinguish from them if his friend joins our club ;)
Miyuki-san, Peko-san, Kaoru-san had a great time taking trips to Kirigamine, Kyoto, and France respectively. Yuki-san is going to Hong Kong, where Aeron-san is, and hopes to see him in person there. How exciting! On the other hand, some attendees have been very busy working. One of them was Hiroko san, a wonderful guest. She has been recovering from her illness greatly and started working again. I didn’t see her face on line but sounded like she felt blessed with her current situation. She can attend our meeting whenever she wants. Anytime welcome ;)
Oops! I haven’t mentioned the prepared speech session yet! We had 1 speaker today. Recently she went to a jazz concert with her baby. I assume she felt relaxed and released her stress for a while there. OK, it’s time to write about her awesome speech. This was her very first speech in our club. She was Megumi-san! Her speech title was “The Boss Baby”. Hilarious! It was a good hook! She started with quotes from the picture book Boss Baby. It said: “From the moment the baby arrived, it was obvious that he was the boss. He put Mom and Dad on a-round-clock schedule, with no time off.” (In our baby boy’s case, he put just Mom on such a situation. Dad? He was always sleeping like a log. Oh, well.) She has been working at a pharmaceutical company for 12 years but now she is taking a maternity leave. She has lived with her 7-year-old younger husband and their 5-month-old baby. After she said, “Child care seems a repeated work but doesn’t stop even in the middle of the night”, her boss baby appeared on the screen. OMG. He is so adorable and doesn’t seem to be bossy at all. She copied him in the way he ordered what he wanted to do. Well done, Megumi-san ;) Then she raised a question: how can Mom keep feeling healthy with a-round-clock schedule? She claimed that one of the answers is her husband’s participation willingly in child-caring. It is rather engaging than cooperating. Her husband took a paternity leave for 2 weeks just after she left the hospital. It led them to develop their congenial relationships between them. (I envy them!) With all their hard work, sounded like they have enjoyed taking care of their baby, which made us happy too. Lastly, she succeeded in making us laugh by saying: I am a new baby to Toastmasters Club but not a boss baby. Haha!
As her speech evaluator, Miyuki-san praised how much engaging and well-prepared her speech was. She liked Megumi-san’s humor that describes her personality and her usage of words so that everyone clearly understood her message. As for the improvement, she suggested that Megumi-san could use vocal variety in her introduction part. She pointed out that the quotes from the book should have been introduced in a clear manner. I think she got a point there, but I sense that Megumi-san was just too nervous to take control of her speaking speed. Well, taking a side of Miyuki-san, I imagine she found it difficult to find an improvement point, but she managed somehow. All in all, as Miyuki-san praised, her speech was interesting and engaging. Miyuki-san did a great job as well;) Speaking of evaluation, we have General Evaluator to conduct Evaluation session and evaluate the whole meeting. Today Jota-san was in charge of taking the role. I was amazed how well he conducted the session. He said what we were going to do briefly and precisely beforehand and gave encouraging comments to each speaker. Besides, he never stammered to explain at moderate speaking speed. Outstanding job! Now it’s time for table topic session (off-the-cuff speech session) conducted by Mikiko-san. She introduced each speaker very well so that everyone got to know better what each speaker was like. To begin with, she kindly showed us on the screen what we to do. Each speaker was supposed to tell about his/her own story regarding what they chose from 6 idioms and sayings. Their original and unique understanding was OK.
-No pain, no gain. Naoki-san talked about his colleges days. He was a member of a football club and made every effort to increase his physical strengths. In a half year he changed his physical conditions significantly. And he took a positive attitude toward playing the sport even though he was not good at it. He was always trying to think he could be better than himself yesterday.
-Better late than never. For Takako-san, it takes a lot of time to reply to each mail and letter from someone. Sometimes it is too late. But she considers it all right to write back anyway. Similarly, when she has another Toastmasters club meeting, how late it is, she makes it a rule to attend it.
-Early bird catches the worm. LanAnh-san thinks this saying right through her experiences. If you get up early, you enjoy more chances to come. In the house speech contest at her company, she practiced very hard from early on and prepared well for the competition. Even though she got the best prize, she felt more confident and made a small achievement in herself.
-Honesty is the best policy. Tatsu-san disagrees with the idea. He referred to some politicians who told lies. So, it seems to him that telling lies can be a method of getting along with others.
-Sour grapes With Mikiko-san’s great support and the audience’s warm atmosphere, Yuki-san managed to express herself about such a difficult idiom. As a high school student, she made a big object with her classmates for a school festival. They believed that they would win the prize, but they didn’t make it. In another event, they didn’t get a prize, either. But all of them encouraged themselves by saying they did all the best. It was a lot of fun to listen to each story, but I couldn’t have made an impromptu speech well like them except one. That was “Seeing is believing.” I have already talked about it in my last prepared speech ;) Next, Yukimasa-san held a special session. He gave the District Conference report with lots of photos. Some members who participated in the contest also gave their impressions and remarks. One of them almost burst into tears because she was impressed with great speeches. I wish I were there! Before the award session, Kaoru-san as Grammarian and Um-Ah counter reported that she didn’t find any huge grammatical error but mentioned our usage of prepositions after she described some useful expressions she found in the meeting. Especially I should keep that in mind as the role Secretary. Thanks for the heads-up, Kaoru-san.
To wrap up the meeting, Yukimasa-san showed us how to use Easy-speak, apply for our club, and Pathways. Also, he asked for the guests’ comments. It seemed our Diversity club created spark! ;)
p.s. Just after the meeting, we have got a fantastic news. One of the guests Herizo-san has decided to be a member of our club. Welcome aboard!
