You must have been sick and tired of this blazing summer. It seemed that my PC got “heat stroke” and she shut down her screen all of sudden while I was working on this blog. At long last I feel relieved to report on the meeting of July 18.
Take a chance! It was the meeting theme. Megumi-san as Toastmaster set the theme and explained why. That was her first time of being a Toastmaster, which Naoki-san as her mentor encouraged her to take. Sounded like she wasn’t confident in herself at first, but she took the role anyway thanks to him. Naoki-san has been making every effort to vitalize our club as well as Yukimasa-san. Nobody can refuse his favor. And incredibly successful enough, Megumi-san accomplished her task.
Today we had…
15 attendees including 2 guests from Vietnam, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Tokushima, Fukuoka, Okinawa,
Word of the Day: deserve
It means to do something that have or show qualities worthy of reward, assistance, punishment, etc.
Ex.) You all deserve a pat on the back for your hard work.
These questions deserve some attention.
Timer: Hideki-san explained the role articulately and played his role very smoothly.
Grammarian: Miyuki-san
Best Table Topic speaker: Kazuko-san
Best Evaluator: Yukimasa-san
Best prepared speaker: Marama-san
It’s time to start our first session: prepared speech. The first speaker was LanAnh-san! She is Vietnamese.
She shared her anecdote related to her name mainly. People call her several different names and some of
them even create her name. Her charming smile during her speech showed us she enjoyed it herself as well.
I think it is a good idea to describe her name in detail as an icebreaker speech so that the audience get to
know her easily. Though I taught approximately 30 Vietnamese students in Tokyo, it was so hard for me to
remember their names. Now I can say exactly not only her name but also her nicknames. I wondered which
name she likes to be called the best ;)
The second speaker was Marama-san! Her speech was from Competition speech with the title “Don’t
listen to Mrs. Hall”. She acted as her art teacher back in her grade school. Sounded like Mrs. Hall was very severe in her art criticism, which destroyed Marama-san’s dream to write and draw a children’s book. OMG…She was convinced she couldn’t draw and hated drawing for a few decades. Things have changed. Her adorable daughter encouraged her to draw again and gain stronger confidence in herself. To our great relief, she is working on realizing her dream. Also, her message through her experience was useful to her own student, who didn’t have confidence of his English skills. It was “There’s more in you than you think” Awesome!
Every time I listen to her speech attentively, I can’t help gluing to her performance and I almost forget jotting down what she said for this blog during her speech. She is not only a speaker but also an actress. She is something. If you want to see her, then join us as a guest for starters. Should be a lot of fun too 😊
Lastly, the third speaker was Aaron-san. Well, he was originally going to give his speech as the second
speaker. I happened to find his post on social media: Toastmasters club Marathon and supporting club plans. 24 hours non-stop (excluding lunch break) Toastmasters, even on the go. The record is set at 11. Wow, amazing! It means he was helping another club just before our meeting?! And he continued to say…Got my second Pathways Mentor title for D89 and my third soon for another district at the very least. Last few bits on what I can do at least I believe in my passion to help. Just keep connecting lives, voices and helping others, as usual. We are lucky to have a dedicated member like him.
It’s high time to mention his speech. His speech title was “May TIME rewind…” To begin with, he rang a bell to fly us with him back to the last year, when he experienced a bitter experience. Sounded like it was such a disaster to him. But he tried getting out of the tragic situation and finally discovered a new world of ‘Pathways’. He has already finished about 100 speeches and his 6 Pathway speeches! Incredible! Another striking fact was that as a Toastmaster he has been to various facilitators to inspire people to bring life them who have lost will to live. One of his messages impressed me most. It was “Challenge yourself to the limit.”
I decided to be a Toastmaster a long time ago just because I wanted to brush up my English skills. While listening to his speech, however, I felt like even I could do something inspiring for other people. Thank you for the heads up, Aaron-san!
Next, let’s go on to the Table Topic Session conducted by Mikiko-san. She asked each speaker to create
their own unique story to get through the scorching summer with 6 themes. 4 members had a chance to speak.
The first one was scuba diving. Kazuko-san has wanted to go scuba diving. When she was a student, she didn’t care for it due to her bad eyesight and her lack of confidence in the swimming ability. But now she has better eyesight and would like to go on a trip to Okinawa as well as foreign countries in the future. If her dream come true, Naoki-san will probably tell her the best diving spot ;)
The second one was shaved ice. Miyuki-san belongs to a group of more than 30 members from all over the country. They exchanged the pictures of shaved ice they had had or found somewhere. An example was one with a tea-flavor syrup. Actually, there are a variety of tea-flavor such as Matcha and Houjicha in Kyoto. She hopes to try some next time.
The third one was hammock. Takako-san likes sleeping but she prefers lying on the green grass. Lying on the hammock is like crossing the suspension bridge for her. She has another reason why she is scared of resting on the hammock, but it should be a secret just between us.
The last one was straw hat. Yuki-san had a lot of memories of her hats. When she went on a travel, she ended up getting a new hat. She had forgot taking her hat with her or left her another one at the airport or on the airplane. She had left one in Hong Kong once, where Aaron-san live. While listening to her speech, he was sending a funny message to her at the drop of a hat via Chat function. Haha…
Finally, the evaluation session. 2 experienced evaluators Naoki-san and Yukimasa-san did an amazing job! Where is one more evaluator? It was me, out of the question. Joking aside, both of their evaluations were
informative and effective. Naoki-san mentioned 3 judging criteria, and Yukimasa-san touched on the 7 points criteria from the Pathways evaluation sheet.
Last but not least, before participating in the World champion contest as a representative of Japan,
Marama-san has planned to visit many Toastmasters Club all over Japan to practice her wonderful speech.
Keep it up, Marama-san 😊