Spring has already come? The day before the meeting had the highest temperature in Fukuoka was 26℃, which is called "Natsubi". The literal meaning is "a summer day" when the temperature rises above 25℃. The weather news said that not only Fukuoka but also other prefectures had a warm or hot day. The meeting theme today was “Winter Fun”. It should have been the perfect theme for this season, but nobody had expected to have such a weird weather.
Now let’s start our meeting!
First off, as Toastmasters of the Evening, Peko-san did a great job with wonderful helpers including LanAnh-san, Naoki-san and Megumi-san. LanAnh-san explained “content” as the Word of the Day, which means satisfied or showing satisfaction with things as they are. Then she gave us 2 example sentences: It was so peaceful, and she felt so content with the surrounding; He seems more content, less bitter.
We had a little change about the award session as Naoki-san suggested in the last meeting. “I'd like to stop voting for the best prepared award because I want anyone to make a speech without unnecessary hesitation. Members spend a lot of time and energy to make the prepared speech which includes personal ideas and experiences, and each speech is very unique. Simply we can value and enjoy diversified speeches without ranking. However, if we have more than 3 table topic speakers or evaluators, we will vote as usual as a game.” I think he is such a thoughtful person, and I see his point. However, personally I would like to have the best prepared award, which was the only chance for me I could aim for. I am poor at making an impromptu speech including Table Topic speech and evaluation one. Having said that, I am not ready for the next prepared speech at all. I guess I should just follow other members’ decision ;)
Today we had 2 prepared speeches, an educational speech, Table topic speeches, and evaluation speeches.
The 1st prepared speaker was Midori-san! Her speech title was “My luck!”. Her speech objective is to deliver a speech on any topic as an introduction to the club using any style that appeals. That was her first speech already! How enthusiastic she is! She considers herself as a lucky person based on the fact she was born in the Year of “Hinoeuma”, when few babies were born. This has brought her a lot of luck including passing the entrance examination and got job easily. Then she led an affluent life for a long time, but the 2011 Earthquake forced her to move to Okinawa, where she enjoys herself now. I think the lucks she experienced in her life has resulted from her positive and active personality. Her powerful speech must have given us good luck as well😉
The 2nd prepared speaker was Jota-san! His speech title was “My Leadership Styles.” He must have taken a lot of time and effort to prepare his outstanding speech. You can recognize his dedication to Toastmasters activities from his great speech. His project is understanding his leadership style from his survey analysis. And he considered how much his leadership style impacts the people around him and how he could adjust it to more effectively lead people with style different from his. He concluded leadership isn’t perfection, it’s making the best choice we can. I could go on with another account. After the meeting was over, he kindly let every member via e-mail to read his presentation script because he checked the recorded video and recognized his voice breaking and some clacking noise.
Speaking of the recorded video, I have something to apologize to you for my mistake. The recorded video is now invalid parameter, and I can’t depend on it any longer to write the rest of this blog. (I used to try jotting down what each attendee speaks while listening to their speeches during the meeting because the recorded video was not available then. But recently I have got lazy and relied on it too much. Oops!)
Since the following descriptions may be missing or different from what was actually happening in the meeting, you can stop reading here if you want. Thank you for reading so far.
As the last prepared speech, Yuki-san made an Educational speech. She had the opportunities to listen to TM Naoki Tamura’s lecture in Tokushima with Marama-san. He is one of the most famous champion speakers in Japan. He has listened to more than 500 speeches and analyzed them. So, she shared what she learned from his speech titled “7 Key Elements of an Amazing Speech” with us. His lecture focused on Body part ‘Story part’ in speeches. This part is about a protagonist’s journey to change. Then he explained how a story is built using his sample speech “Pinch Hitter”. (Luckily, I had the opportunity to listen to the speech while in Tokyo a long time ago.) The 7 elements are #1 What changed you to who you are today, #2 context, #3 conflict, #4 catalyst, #5 climax, #6 core message and #7 curiosity. If you want to learn the details, why don’t you join the next meeting as a guest first? 😉
Next, Table Topic sessions conducted by Mikiko-san! She explained why she set the theme for the session first and then went on to ask 5 speakers to make each impromptu speech for each question.
#1 Do you believe in Loch Ness Monster?
Surat-san has never heard of it. It must have been difficult to answer the question, but he managed to do it. Great! He talked mainly about a monster. He gave a common case where you will ‘be frightened by a monster’ if you do a bad thing. If I had been in his place, I couldn’t have kept on talking about this topic and become silent. Great job, Surat-san!
#2 Do you believe in six sense power?
Yukimasa-san believes in six sense power. (It was another tough question for me!) As you know, it is grasping the inner nature of things intuitively. He shared his experience of going to a fortune teller and talked about some people who have this sense to synthesize with the other senses.
#3 Do you believe in Loch Ness Monster?
Marama-san chose the same topic as Surat-san. (Each assigned speaker by Table Topic Master Mikiko-san this time is allowed to choose any topic they want from the question lists.) She doesn’t believe in Loch Ness Monster describing her experience of what she heard from a guide and a store clerk when she went to Scotland as her honeymoon. Her husband believed in the Monster just like many people do believe that there is something in there. Thanks for sharing your interesting story, Marama-san!
#4 Do you believe in ghosts in Christmas season?
I believe in ghosts but not in Christmas season. My father once told me the ghost he saw in his neighborhood as a little in mid-summer. According to him, it was a typical Japanese? lady ghost in white with a long black hair and her legs couldn’t been seen. Thanks to him, I feel cold when I remember his story every hot summer. I don’t want to feel much cold by encountering a ghost in winter. So, I don’t think ghosts in Christmas season except those 3 ghosts in the book ‘Christmas Carol’ by Charles Dickens 😉
#5 Do you believe in Extra-terrestrial Life?
Aka alien life is life that occurs outside of Earth and that probably did not originate from Earth.
Megumi-san did a great job! (To be honest, I was relived not to have chosen this difficult question.) She believes in it mentioning her experiences of visiting Universal Studio Japan and seeing a picture sent from Mars via a satellite.
Due to space of limitation, Lastly, I would like to announce the best speaker for each session.
The best evaluator: Kazuko-san!
The best table topic speaker: Yukimasa-san! Congratulations 😊