It’s our pleasure to announce that we have made steady progress every meeting and decided to make some changes. One of them is to extend meeting hours by 15 minutes. At least 3 prepared speeches and exciting impromptu speeches have been made each and every meeting. How highly motivated we are! Here we go! Today we had…
18 attendees including 2 guests from Japan, Thailand, Hong Kong, Germany and Vietnam Meeting theme: The adventure begins
Word of the Day: alleviate = to make pain or problems less severe; to lessen or reduce e.g. I hope this medicine will alleviate my headache. Our goal is to alleviate poverty in developing countries. The successful users: Yukimasa-san & Aaron-san (He used the word by writing it on the Zoom group chat. : Yuki is alleviating her role as General Evaluator.)
Best Table Topic Speaker: Yumi-san Best Prepared Speaker: Yukimasa-san Best Evaluator: Kaoru-san
Firstly, Prepared Speech Session! The first speaker was Yukimasa-san! His speech title was “When I was a protégé, he was a mentor.” Protégé? The word was new to me. An English-English dictionary defines that an French word “protégé” is a young person who is helped and taught by an older and usually famous person. Quite interesting. Yukimasa-san also succeeded in drawing our attention in the introduction part. I like the way he talks in a staccato fashion. We were unconsciously drawn to his storytelling. He only used gestures with the ticktack sound of the metronome, pretending to play the fiddle. He talked about his younger days spent struggling to play the instrument well as an amateur player with a mentor, not a coach. His gentle mentor told him a knack. It was just listening to his playing tune he made. He concluded his speech by applying his valuable experience to our Toastmaster activities. C’est bien!
The second speaker was Aaron-san! His speech title was “Limits”. To our surprise, he has made more than 100 speeches so far. We know he is one of the most dedicated Toastmasters, but over 100! If you listen to his speech, you will feel that he is paving the way for our better future with his inspiring speeches. He loves speaking but even he has thought about giving up his favorite. He convinced us that we should never give up something we love even if you feel tired. He continued, “Reflections are great because you can adjust yourself to whether you are looking for the same path to live for, but don’t let your reflection become your limit”. His words really hit me. He wrapped up his speech by emphasizing his points to overcome your limits. I have sometimes felt disappointed at myself, but I have decided to follow my dream. Thanks again, Aaron-san!
The last speaker was Jota-san. His speech title was “My Toastmasters Journey.” At the very moment when he was supposed to start, he was not there…But he made it at the last minute. As I mentioned before, he completed his evaluation role despite his bad physical condition. Today he took time out from his busy schedule to make his prepared speech. As a dual member of a corporate Toastmasters Club as well as our club, he summarized his past dedication and his future plans as a Toastmaster journey, showing presentation slides. They were well-conceived and concrete plans. In the conclusion part, he said that he would like to change our beliefs and behavior to think Toastmaster as everyday experience, quoting from “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” by Peter Drucker. Wow. He is a Toastmaster of vision and strong will! Next, Table Topic Session conducted by Surat-san again! Looks he got really good at it with a microphone ;) He had prepared 9 questions, which must have been all well thought out. 3 members had a chance to speak.
#1 If you could go to the past, would you go to the past or the future? It was hard for me to choose which and tried to talk about the past anyway. But I ended up stammering to explain it. I would like to go back to the past, especially to my high school days. It was my parents and my teachers that decided which school I should go to. I had another school I wanted to go to. They just wanted me to become a prestigious high school in our small area. Well, although I had precious friends there, I always prioritized studying to keep up with classes over the other activities. I wish I could have enjoyed club activities, had interests outside school, and gone on a date with someone I loved. Haha…
#2 When you close your eyes, what do you see? It was also another difficult question for me, but Yumi-san managed to start talking, gradually spoke fluently and then got the best speaker award. Woo-hoo! Firstly, Yumi-san asked whether it was a spiritual question or not. Anything was OK. What came up to her mind was Japan. She misses Japan a lot because she is living abroad. She doesn’t have a chance to eat Japanese food there like Sushi, Sukiyaki, Tofu, and others. (I know how she felt! I missed sweet bean paste in the U.S. Chili beans looked much similar but tasted different from what I had EXPECTED...) She also misses her relatives and parents because she goes back to Japan once a year. I hope she will find something great there to make up for what she misses.
#3 If you could go to the past, where in the past would you like to go? LanAhn-san would like to go to see her grandfather. When she was busy studying abroad, he was sick in bed at home. Time passed and sadly he went to another beautiful world. She really missed him. When she was a little, he often gave her allowance so that she could get everything she wanted. He was also nice and cared for her a lot. It was a touching story, which reminded me of my gentle grandfather. He suddenly passed away a long time ago, but I can’t help shedding my tears even now when I think of him. (Tears have filled my eyes.) I am pretty sure that they warmly watch over us.
Last but not least, Evaluation Session! We had 3 evaluators for 3 prepared speakers respectively. Personally, I think evaluating someone’s speech is the most challenging because evaluators should point out both good points and weak points for improvement even if speeches are excellent. In addition, some experienced speaker can evaluate speeches on the spot. No worries. When you are an evaluator someday, you can ask the prepared speaker if you check the speech content beforehand at our club.
The evaluators today were all excellent speakers. It was hard to choose the best evaluator. They mentioned both strong points and weak points carefully, referring to what each speaker said in their speech explained why they think so, and then give some useful tips for the next speech. I also thought their word usages were appropriate enough to admire and encourage each speaker. All evaluators should deserve the best award.
The meeting today was conducted well with great time management and we had a lot of beautiful smiles on our faces. Thanks heaps, everyone.