Happy New Year, everyone! A little bit late?! Well, it is the first-time meeting as a chartered club for 2019, which is the year of the wild boar in Japan. We have an idiom called 猪突猛進(chototsumoushin). I take it as a positive meaning and I wish to be a person driven by the hope to get more involved in Toastmasters.
Today we had…
The theme of the day: New Journey has just started!
(with a very COOL and Exciting picture created by Megumi-san. Thanks always!)
Toastmaster: Yuki-san
Word of the day introduced by Midori-san: laconic means to express much in few words; concise
e.g.) If you were laconic with your lectures, then we could leave class 15 minutes early.
(Due to some technical problems, she couldn’t attend the meeting but later she kindly sent a message with the presentation slide of the word she was going to give.)
Timer: LanAnh-san reported each timing with excellent slides she made.
Grammarian: Hideo-san
& 5 special guests 😊 (Interestingly, one of them, who is another charming Japanese lady,
was contacting us from Republic of Mozambique.)
As for speeches, we had regular sessions: prepared speeches, off-the-cuff speeches, and evaluation
speeches in this order.
The lead-off hitter for this year was Jota-san! His speech title was “My Communication Style” from Dynamic Leadership manual. The objectives are to share a communication style and its impact on professional and personal relationships; avoid reporting on the content of this project. I have always impressed with his well-made presentation slides as well as wonderful speeches. This time his slides conveyed his messages more effectively because he adopted his speech improvements his evaluator had pointed out in the previous meeting. He started with describing mutual understanding from the points of language and culture. Then he shared what he learned from his experience in communicating as a business leader at a global company, analyzing his communication style. Very informative and so much learned from him.
Next, Aaron-san! I wonder how many times he has made a fabulous speech so far. Countless! His speech title today is “Online Clubs v Online Attendance (& Hardships) from Strategic Relationship manual. His speech objectives are to research and present an unfamiliar topic; organize the speech clearly to maximize audience understanding; craft clear and engaging transitions between main sections of your speech; use and cite sources to support speech content, make source list. What a lot of objectives to cover! Today he wasn’t sitting on a sofa at home, but he started making his speech outside of the building. He demonstrated he could attend a meeting online from anywhere. He articulated a clear understanding of them, which breaks national boundaries and some limitations, talking about the benefits of and difference between online clubs and online attendance with some funny jokes.
Last but not least, Hideki-san! His speech title is “Characteristics of Japanese Language” from Competent Communication Manual. The objectives are strong opening and conclusion; outline that can be followed and understood; clear message with supporting material; appropriate transitions.
Before he started talking, he showed a slide said his speech title and subtitle “with daddy jokes”. Hilarious. His speech was mainly about abbreviation forms of Japanese. He firstly mentioned a literature called Lolita and continued to mention abbreviate forms of Japanese from English words like ‘Lolicom’ from Lolita complex. Then he gave the second abbreviation example of people’s names like Kimutaku out of Kimura Takuya, a Japanese popular TV personality. As the third example, he explained the word Karaoke. Lastly, he emphasized how important we embrace each language. He usually looks serious making an amusing speech. I think that makes his speech more attractive.
Next session, Table Topic session conducted by Megumi-san! The speech theme is about new year’s journey under the Toastmasers
club, which is closely related to the meeting theme. 9 question was prepared and 6 speakers including 3 guests had a chance to make an off-the-cuff speech.
#1 What do you usually bring with you for your journey?
Hideo-san usually takes daily necessities to make his journey comfortable and a camera to take the best shot once in a while. Other than that, his cellphone is a must-have item to keep in tough with his family.
#2 What is your goal at Toastmasters club this year?
Midori-san has been working on Pathway and has some problems of the way how to do that online, but her resolution was to make a speech at our club once every other month, which means 6 speeches for this year and not to miss the meeting. Good luck!
#3 Share your new year’s resolution?
Tomoe-san, one of the guests today, shared her wish. She has been too busy to have enough time to do what she wants. But she is going to manage the time and she wants to make her wish come true.
#4 What do you do for a journey of self-discovery?
Kazuko-san tells herself to do different things for a journey of self-discovery. She runs an English learning school, but 2 years ago she started running. Eventually she succeeded in running a full-marathon. Outstanding! Another challenging thing she made was to launch a new Toastmasters club in Kurashiki. She IS such an energetic lady to do something new and challenging all the time. You must get more inspired and recharged your batteries if you see her in person.
#5 What kind of challenge made your personal growth?
One of the biggest challenges for Yamaji-san was to attend the Toastmasters club meeting. (He is an off-line Toastmasters club member.) According to him, he is not good at making a public speech. But through his prepared speech at another club meeting, he improved his communication and presentation skills as well as English skills.
#6 What is your favorite point of online Toastmasters club?
Masashi-san has been an experienced Toastmaster of another off-line club. During his long-term membership, he sometimes found it difficult to attend the meeting because of his family matters and his living far away from the meeting venue. Compared to such an off-line club, however, online Toastmasters club like us is attractive to him because he can join the meeting anywhere as long as he has access to the internet. Another benefit is our meeting hours: from 9 pm to 10:30. His family members are usually in bed, so he doesn’t worry about them. In addition, he has a lot of chances to use English online at work and attending the online meeting is a good practice for him.
Lastly, let me report the award session. Congratulations!
Best table speakers: Kazuko-san & Masahi-san!
Best Evaluator: Marama-san!
I must confess that I was absent at this very first meeting. I was lying beside my daughter, who got flu and urged me to sleep beside her. I was so exhausted to take care of her that I couldn’t wake up until the next morning. I really need to hit the ground running to catch up with other enthusiastic members.
May the new year bring us a lot of happiness and smiles😊