Soul searching……I learned the phrase in English conversation program on TV the other day. It reminded me of my life filled with failures, hardships, and some soul searching to get over them. I had thought very hard about what I really felt and wanted to do. I assume that you have the experience of its kind. So, I set the phrase as the meeting theme with a message “it’s never too late to start a new journey”.
Now I’d like to introduce our meeting helpers.
Word of the Day introduced by Yumi-san was ‘disguise’
Verb : To change the usual appearance, sound, taste of someone or something so that people will not recognize that person or thing
To obscure the existence or true state of character
Noun : The act of disguising
Examples: 1. He tried to disguise his voice on the phone, but I could tell it was him.
2.We disguised the fact that we were disappointed.
3.The famous thief is known to be a master of disguise.
The best users: Jota-san, Yukimasa-san, & Marama-san
Timer: Yuki-san, Grammarian: Marama-san, Ah-counter: hideki-san
All helpers explained their role very well. Thanks!
It’s high time we start the main speech sessions. First, prepared speech session!
We are ready to welcome the first prepared speaker. His speech title is “Protégé days” from Dynamic Leadership #7 - Introduction to Toastmasters Mentoring. His speech objectives are to Present a speech about a time when being a protege; to share the impact and importance of having a mentor; & to avoid reporting on the content of this project. According to him, protégé means someone, especially a young person, who is taught and helped by someone who had influence, power, or more experience. He said that he’s not a young person, but he wants to share his on-going experience.
He compared his Toastmasters activities to a voyage and explained what and how he did in a stepwise manner. There were 3 stages named “uncharted water”, “know the ropes”, and “run a tight ship”. While listening to his speech, I realized the importance of communication. Especially, on the “run a tight ship” stage, he introduced a quite interesting idea. It was about a follow-up session. Since we are an online club, it may be difficult to have such a session, but still I wish I could have one someday.
The second speaker is Yukimasa-san! His speech title is “Communication change can change your life” from Presentation Mastery #5 - Understanding Your Communication Style. His speech objectives are to share a communication style and its impact on professional and personal relationships; & to avoid reporting on the content of this project. He analyzed his own communication style which has changed in the past 8 months. He firstly described one of the styles called ‘initiating’ in his speech and shared an eye-opening experience that he had by applying it to a real situation. A psychological counselor he happened to meet enlightened and encouraged him a lot to overcome his plight. Just a little bit courage to change your communication style can change your life in a positive manner, too😉
The third speaker kindly asked me to introduce him like this. "May I invite the next contestant up the stage, Aaron Leung, What's missing, What's missing, Aaron Leung". As a blogger myself I have always tried jotting down each and every speech during the meeting, but I totally forgot it while listening to his speech. I was caught up in his story reminding me of my grandparents who took great care of me. He emphasized the importance of cherishing every little moment with the people that makes you feel who you really are. His powerful messages were surely taken to our heart.
Let’s go on to the next session. Table Topic session conducted by Table topic master Takako-san! The session theme was traveling. She had prepared 9 questions beforehand.
#1 What tourist attractions in your area do you recommend?
Megumi-san lives in Tokyo. If she were much younger and energetic, she would take you to Tokyo Disney Resort😉 Aside from that, she recommended national parks such as Shinjyuku Gyoen National Garden and Yoyogi National Park. You can enjoy lush greenery available even in the big city. In addition, she advised us to go shopping at department stores, which sell wide variety of food and others. You can buy something to eat and drink at the parks she just recommended.
#2 What souvenirs to buy would you recommend?
Eric-san is from Perth in Australia, where there are lots of unique souvenirs that you can have. According to him, Aboriginal art done by indigenous people of Australia is his recommendation. It’s kind of dot painting technique. The paintings tell ancient stories which have passed down on generation to generation. Speaking of paintings, I have a spray painting by an artist on a street market in Sydney. It’s not Aboriginal art, but it depicts 4 birds flying in a shape of Southern Cross over the Uluru in 3 colors of black, yellow, and red. They represent the Aboriginal people of Australia, the Sun, and the red earth respectively. That was what I heard from the spray painter. Oops! I wrote too much about my treasure. Let me go back to Eric-san’s speech. He added you should get delicious wine in Australia.
#3 Where do you recommend for natural beauty?
Paul-san said it depends on what people like. He likes to go hiking with his friends and recommended the suspension bridge surrounded by natural beauty, which is a very famous sightseeing spot in Taiwan, his birthplace. I checked it on the website, and just having a look at the picture made me feel weak at the knees. But I would like to try some day and to boast about my success. Haha…
#4 Which season would you recommend?
Hideki-san recommended the fall season. He doesn’t like hot season even though he was born in summer. As for the opposite season, winter is fine with him. He doesn’t care cold even in Hokkaido. I guess he was saying he would rather like cold than hotness, but it may be not good to show people around in a cold weather. So, he seemed to choose the season between them as his recommendation.
#5 What food do you recommend?
Yumi-san, who is living in Thailand, recommended Pad thai, fried rice noodles, Thai curry, aka green curry, and mango-sticky rice for a dessert. She also mentioned Durian as another dessert. She described each Thai traditional food in detail, which made our mouth water. Lastly, she recommended us to try unusual delicacies such as flied insects. Wow…
In the last session, all evaluators did a great job. They mentioned what was the best points and room for improvement with concrete examples in each evaluation. Among them, Marama-san spontaneously took the double roles of Grammarian and evaluator. As I have mentioned above, the other evaluators were great, but she was outstanding and got the best evaluator. Congratulations! And…let us convey our congratulation to Eric-san as the best table topic speaker!
Thanks to the friendly atmosphere, I relaxed and succeeded in disguising my anxious feeling as Toastmaster of the Day. Thank you very much, everyone!