Megumi-san as Toastmaster of the day set the meeting theme ‘Laugh Friendly’ because February is National Laugh Friendly month. LOL! I laugh a lot and even try to laugh by watching a comedy show or talking with my family and friends when I feel stressed out because laughing is one of my stress relievers. Let’s laugh out loud and have a great time together! Before the meeting starts, I’d like to introduce our meeting helpers.
Timer: Takako-san (had an amazing job! She prepared 3 colored-signal made of paper for timing just in case!) Grammarian: Naoki-san
(pointed out good usages of the language and some improvements very well. Thanks!)
and LanAnh-san as the word of the day introduced in advance ‘amusing’. (Amusing means someone or something that is amusing makes you laugh or smile.
Marama-san, Naoki-san, and Hideo-san used the word twice during each talk. Now let’s go on to the meeting. We had prepared the speech session, the table topic session, and the evaluation session as usual.
The 1st prepared speaker was Marama-san! Her speech title was ‘Who am I?’ from Presentation Mastery 1. Her speech objective is to deliver a speech on any topic as an introduction to the club using any style that appeals. She cast a question first. What defines who you are? Giving some examples like nationality, personality, and others, she mentioned one of her jobs as a teacher and then another job. I found it fun to listen the way she described it. The job requires her to work for 24 hours a day and her customers are demanding. It is a mother and a wife. Amusing! After she shared her experience, she concluded her speech by claiming that not only her jobs but also other elements define who you are, and the thing is what makes you feel like as you are matters to her. Thanks a lot for sharing your insight!
The 2 nd prepared speaker was Midori-san! Her speech title was ‘instinct’ from Leadership Development 2. Her speech objective is to present a speech any topic. Midori-san first introduced a famous proverb: Don’t judge a book by its cover. Then she mentioned what she was going to talk about referring to the proverb. I like the way she started her speech. She described her experience at work where there was a man that she first found it difficult to get along with. But she managed to get out of the difficult situation thanks to her boss’s useful advice. Besides, everyone involved with her felt satisfied with her work. And she ended her speech by explaining her intriguing idea. Instinct is from our ancestor. I have never thought about it in depth as her evaluator Yumi-san mentioned.
The last prepared speaker was Aaron-san! His speech was from the new humor path (Evaluation and feedback 1) He was starting his speech at a station platform, not at home, again! Looked like he was a reporter. Passers-by at the station who saw him making an amusing speech couldn’t have understood why he was talking, laughing, and pointing his finger on his stomach. He demonstrated how to make people laugh in 2 ways. You made our day! Next, table topic session conducted by Mikiko-san! She set the table topic theme: appeal. Each speaker was appointed at random by her.
#1 Appeal your hometown. Kaoru-san talked about her hometown Sapporo in Hokkaido. She mainly described the autumn and winter seasons there. In autumn you can enjoy hiking and seeing wild animals and beautiful flowers in cool weather. In winter you can go skiing and snowboarding on powder snow unique to Hokkaido. I remember the time when I traveled there in winter and was surprised to see its snow quality. I’m from Fukuoka in Kyusyu area and we HAVE snow in winter, but our snow is wet, not powdery. I felt like visiting the city again!
#2 Appeal your habit positively. Mikiko-san kindly showed many examples; early bird / night owl, good chef / bad chef, book lover / SNS lover, neighbor-oriented / self-reliance, you name it. Hideki-san thinks himself as a gentle and kind man. Also, as Mikiko-san pointed out, he is humble. If I remember correctly, I read his post on social media that he takes good care of his mother by cooking meals for her. She must be very happy to have such a thoughtful son.
#3 Appeal your friend. Yuki-san has a friend who is an obstetrician ( = a doctor who has special training in obstetrics). Her friend is very active and energetic like she loves to travel when she has free time. Yuki-san has been looking forward to seeing her friend again someday.
#4 Appeal to your Chinese Zodiac sign. Naoki-san was born in the Year of Rooster. He thinks himself as a calm and kind person. Unlike monkeys and dogs in Japanese, (cats and dogs in English, though) rooster don’t like fighting. Also, he has a good relationship with others. It may have been very challenging topic, but he handled it well. All the questions above she had prepared beforehand were really intriguing and challenging. Due to the time constraint, unfortunately, there was one question left. I wonder what was the last question.
Third, 3 great evaluators including Yukimasa-san, Yumi-san, and Marama-san did outstanding evaluation for the prepared speakers respectively. Actually, Kazuko-san was supposed to be one of evaluators but, to our great disappointment, due to some problems on her digital devices she couldn’t make her voice heard. We are looking forward to listening to your fabulous evaluation, Kazuko-san! Instead, Marama-san immediately covered for her. Amazingly done!
One more thing I would like to touch upon is that Yumi-san did evaluate a speech for the first time. I couldn’t believe it because it seemed to me that she has already known what an effective evaluation was like. In addition to an experienced evaluator Yukimasa-san, it took some time to choose who was the best evaluator. Lastly, I would like to share the award session.
The best table topic speaker was Kaoru-san! The best evaluator was Yukimasa-san Congratulations! To wrap up this blog, I will send you a message: Good fortune and happiness will come to the home of those who smile.