The meeting was special today. More guests joined us than ever probably because of her. Yes! Our member Marama-san is going to World Championship of English Speech contest in 2018 International Convention held in Chicago this summer as a representative speaker of Japan. That night she was supposed to make the prepared speech for the final stage there. I had missed her victory speech in Tokyo in May. I felt very lucky to listen to her awesome speech at Diversity club meeting.
Oh, I have almost forgot to mention again. One more important news is we’ve got more than 20 members! How exciting! Today we had…… -35 attendees from Kanto, Kansai, Shikoku, Cyugoku, Kyusyu, Vietnam, Hong Kong, and China -Word of the Day: feasible / feasibility (as a noun) (introduced by Takako-san) It means possible and practical to do easily or conveniently e.g. The Dutch have demonstrated that it is perfectly feasible to live below the sea level. -Timer: Megumi-san -Best prepared speaker: Marama-san -Best evaluator: Drian -no small talks, no Table Topic Session due to lack of time
Before the prepared speeches started, Yukimasa-san explained how to use ZOOM including the chat, poll, and screen functions. And it’s my turn! Too fast!
I was the first prepared speaker. I talked about my life partners. To start with, I made a big mistake! Within just half a month, I met my future mother-in-law, joined a Toastmasters in my hometown, and made the first prepared speech. Then I was introduced her son, and we got married. It would make the audience puzzled… No way! Too short! I was going to say “half a year”, not “half a month.” Still too short?! Haha… I talked about how valuable Toastmasters have been to me through my experiences at different clubs. Now I am sure Diversity Toastmasters will be another life partner forever!
The 2nd prepared speaker was Kazuko Takayama san! Her speech title was “Toastmastering My Way Up”. I was very excited to listen to her speech. She has always made a speech including an impromptu one very fluently with confident. I have admired her so much. She started with a quote by Eleanor Roosevelt: “You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. When she went through her harsh experiences, according to her, she felt no confident, no self-esteem. (Her stories touched me though she didn’t finish her whole speech yet.) Then, she made up her mind to conquer her fear by public speech. That was how her toastmasters journey began as well. She played a vital role in her resident committee. She felt confident in herself such an extent that she said “Yes, I can!”, not “No, I can’t.” any more. Lastly, she gave us her inspiring message: Your future is in your hand!”. How impressive!
Now it’s the huge highlight in the meeting today! It’s her turn! Marama-san, aka Maz. In addition, it was her evaluator Drian who made the audience feel even more excited and lucky. He used to be a representative of Japan in the World championship in 2014 at Kuala lumpur. Before she started her speech, I noticed on her screen she held 2 kinds of clothing in her hands. I wondered how she made her speech. Once she started talking, I got so thrilled and glued to the screen that I almost forgot taking notes for this blog during her speech. It was like a performance show. She succeeded in catching the audience’s attention from the beginning as Drian pointed out. And she described with a very expressive face how hectic and even stressful it was to help her 3 kids to dress and prepare themselves in the morning. But her youngest child’s adorable and valuable advice “Smile!” made her change her attitudes and her way of thinking. Instead of making a face, she tried smiling back and talking to them gently. She realized more she smiled, more her family members smiled! Smiles are contagious. Outside her home as well, she tried smiling as much as possible at even a stranger. She also insisted that smiles don’t care about nationality, color, or religion and connects us all crossing any barriers. She recommended us to start “smile revolution” so that world would be a friendly space for everyone. Brava!
Her speech seemed impeccable to me so that there was no room for improvement in it. But the experienced and excellent evaluator Drian pointed out a couple of improvement points in a nice manner as well as some good points. One of them was that she could change her speech title “Smile” into “Smile Revolution”. It was a golden opportunity to listen to both the current national champion speaker and the past one. We had another super success meeting.
We Diversity is unstoppable. It is feasible to say we are growing at an ever-increasing rate!