New business or school year has just started. Yukimasa-san, as Toastmaster of the Evening, picked a theme for the meeting is "Reflection". According to him, reflection has various meanings such as reflection from the season, on the mirror, from the speakers to whom you listen, or to yourself and others. He added that speech delivery is a great chance for us to look into ourselves and sort out reflections from others. He was hoping we can enjoy various "Reflections" in this luminous season. What a splendid point of view he had!
Now let me introduce our meeting helpers tonight. Word of the Day conducted Hideki-san, Timer Yukimasa-san, and Ah-counter Hideo-san. Well, you may notice that Yukimasa-san had double roles, but actually one more role, the second evaluator. Surprisingly enough, he got the best evaluator award. Wow. Besides, Hideo-san kindly accepted to fill Aaron-san’s role on the spot. Thanks a million!
Let me go back to the Word of the Day. Hideki-san explained the details. Splendid means very impressive, or very good / used about something that is impressive and beautiful to look at / used about a period of time that is very enjoyable or pleasant
e.g.) The staff are doing a splendid job. / All the rooms have splendid views. / We had a splendid time in Nice. ‘I’ll see you tomorrow then.’ ‘Splendid!’ And this is a quote from Dostoevski, “The Brothers Karamazov”, which is Hideki-san’s favorite work: Yes, man’s heart is wide, too wide indeed. I’d have it narrower. The devil only knows what to make of it! But what the intellect regards as shameful often appears splendidly beautiful to the heart.
As a warm-up session, we had pleasant small talks. Almost all the speakers talked about something related to spring such as cherry-blossom viewing, hay fever, bamboo shoot, and others. But one topic has been always told in this session. It’s about some Toastmaster activity. Off the regular meeting, some enthusiastic members have dedicated to the activity. Impressive!
Now it’s time to start our main sessions.
The first prepares speaker was LanAnh-san! Her speech title was ‘The roller coaster” from Competent Communication Manual 5. Her objectives were to use stance, movement, gestures, facial expressions, and eye contact to express message and achieve the speech’s purpose, to make body language smooth and natural, and to focus on methods. After she shared her personal experience while she compared life to a roller coaster, she described how she overcame her anxiety. In addition to her intriguing story, what impressed us most was she stood and made a speech with appropriate gestures like her evaluator Mikiko-san mentioned. It was quite exciting to see her in a dynamic manner.
The second speaker was Yuki-san! Her speech title was “You are aimed!” from Competent Communication Manual 8. (In my humble opinion, she could use ‘targeted’ instead of ‘aimed’ of the speech title, considering the speech content. I may be wrong, though.) Her speech objectives were to select visual aids that are appropriate for the message and the audience, to use 2 or more visual aids correctly with ease and confidence. In her speech she used audio visual aids effectively, sharing her own bitter experience of having got phishing scam to warn us not to be deceived and to be cautious about anything doubtful. Splendid speech!
The third speaker was Yumi-san! Her speech title was ‘Beyond adventure’. Her speech objective was to present a speech on any topic. She has lived in Thailand and shared her experience of listening to a world-famous divers’ story behind the scene. Do you remember the news “Cave rescue: Elation as Thai boys and coach freed by divers”? She shared how she felt and what she learned from their talks. One of them was that we can be adventurous at any age. Never too late to learn! I can’t agree with you more, Yumi-san 😉
Next, let’s go to the table topic session conducted Paul-san! But he firstly had difficulty in connecting to the internet. What should we do? It seemed to take some time to go back to the normal. Then, Yukimasa-san asked one of experienced Toastmasters Mikiko-san if she could sub in for Paul-san. And she kindly accepted his offer in no time. She was a big help! She made up questions for us on the spot.
#1 What kind of activity do you do in spring?
To Hideki-san, cherry blossom viewing is his favorite thing to do in this fantastic season. When it comes to cheery blossom, people often associate with drinking party or BBQ under blooming trees. But I would rather just appreciate the beauty in a peaceful surrounding.
#2 Do you have any experience in cherry blossom viewing or season?
Megumi-san has enjoyed cherry blossom parties twice so far and will have another one in a few days. Among them she talked about enjoying riding with her child on Chidorigafuchi, which is one of the moats around the imperial palace. Some cherry trees branch forth to the moat, which creates more fabulous scene. You should see it in person!
Oh, Paul-san just popped in! Congratulation! We are glad you made it! And thanks a lot for conducting this session very well, Mikiko-san. Applause👏
He had prepared 6 questions related to the meeting theme: reflection. Oh, another surprise! Jota-san also joined! Thanks!
#1 What’s your reflection on joining TMC?
Jota-san said he had already delivered prepared speeches on this topic before, but he made a great impromptu speech by mentioning his new platform of Pathways. Taking the online course as Toastmaster encouraged and motivated him to continue to be a member.
#2 Share 1 thing that you wish you had done but had not because you were afraid.
Our welcome guest Naoko-san said that she wished to own her company in the future though she has been working for a company. With her master’s degree and her friend’s influence, she made up her mind to try new thing using Aura Soma & Ho’olokahi Numerology, which are quite new to me. If you are interested in them, you can check her blog.
#3 What did you accomplish last year?
Hideo-san was humble to say that he didn’t accomplish anything, but he wants to pass the Eiken Grade 1 while building up his vocabulary. I’m pretty sure you can pass it someday. I know a lady who passed it at the age of almost 70. Age doesn’t matter. Good luck!
Lastly, we had evaluation speech session conducted by Megumi-san. That was the first time she took the General Evaluator role. She did a great job! So did 3 evaluators including Mikiko-san, Yukimasa-san, and Takako-san! They applied to “sandwich” evaluation by mentioning good points and improvement points from non-verbal to verbal communication in an articulate manner. Within the limited time, they succeeded in evaluating effectively each prepared speech, which is quite amazing!
To wrap up, I’d like to go on to the award session.
The best table topic speaker was Megumi-san!
The best evaluator was Yukimasa-san!
Congratulations👏👏
Though we had some problems during the meeting, we quickly overcome them because we are cooperative and supportive of each other. We should be proud of being a splendid club 😉