“Dream big and dare to fail.” What a bold theme for today’s meeting we had! When I searched for the origin online, I hit the exact quote by Norman Vaughan, the chief dog driver on the first Byrd Antarctic Expedition in 1928-30. I also found the book with the same title. Here is a quote: Start your day with an INSTANT POSITIVITY. Pen down your daily POSITIVE Thoughts. Look back and reflect on how far you've come and how much you've grown.
Midori-san as Toastmaster of the Evening, thanks a lot for a suitable theme for our meeting. And Megumi-san, thank you as well. We love the poster with the king of beast, which looks very confident, you created for our meeting.
Let me introduce our great meeting helpers. Hideo-san as Word of the Day selected the word ‘Exhilarating’, which means to make you feel happy, excited and full of energy. These are examples Hideo-san gave us.
>Learning a surf is exhausting but exhilarating.
>I still remember the exhilarating freedom of driving my car. Thanks, Hideo-san!
Last but not least, we had Aaron-san as Grammarian & Masashi-san as Ah-counter.
Now let’s go on to the main sessions. First, prepared speech session! We had 2 speakers tonight. And the first speaker was Mikiko-san! Her speech title was “HPL Report.” What does HPR stand for? It stands for High Performance Leadership. Though she first had no idea what to do with the project and how to start, she gradually figured out what she was going to do to achieve her goal. It was about holding a magazine review meeting online seasonally. She has had successful meetings several times. You can pay a visit the next meeting on June 12th (the 2nd Wednesday) 9:30p.m.~10:15p.m. Mark your calendar😉
Next, the second speaker was Hideki-san. His speech title was “About numbers”. His speech objective was to deliver a speech on any topic as an introduction to the club using any style that appeals. Hmm…About numbers…Since he is a fairly informed person, we were excited to learn a lot from him. Indeed, he described his different perspective with effective visual images weaving his personal experiences in his younger days. It was quite intriguing.
Since we had only 2 speakers tonight, Yukimasa-san proposed that we have educational session. To be exact, Kazuko-san was a finalist on the Division G speech contest, and she attended the meeting tonight. We were so lucky enough to listen to her success story and useful tips and advice for creating a speech, the way she practices her speech, and the way she speaks on the day. While listening to her speech attentively, I was busy jotting down what she said. She was generous enough to share all she has on wonderful speech with us. Thanks a lot! Are you eager to know them all? Just join us and you’ll see what her speech is actually like. 😉
Second, Table topic session conducted by Paul Peng. In the last meeting it was a pity that he couldn’t give all the questions to us because we ran out of time. We had been very looking forward to his session today.
#1 Many people are afraid to dream big because they worry that they might fail. How do you overcome your fear of failure?
Yuki-san talked about her entrance exam to be a university. Though she didn’t pass it just after she graduated from high school, she emphasized how important to try and error and you can learn something even from your failure.
#2 When people encounter obstacles, many give up on their dreams. What are some of the things do you do to prevent yourself from giving up on your dream?
Megumi-san said it’s not easy to think the solution to a problem by herself, so she talked about it with her close friends in order not to give up on her dream. By doing so she can sometimes change her approaches and come up with a new idea to realize her dream step by step.
#3 What is your dream? How do you plan to make your dream come true?
Hideki-san wants to contribute to peace of the world and wealth of human being and promote Japanese culture to the world. He introduced an association which he has been involved in.
#4 Share a time when you tried to realize your dream but failed. How did you deal with your frustration at the time?
Mikiko-san is used to overcoming difficulties. She tries to think positively whatever happens to her. She doesn’t have any frustration in her mind. She believes even though your dream fails, it means this is another chance to try and think about your different side of your life.
#5 What would you do to keep chasing your dream if others disapprove?
Takako-san rethinks about her dream and discuss my family if it is achievable. And She gradually persuades them why she wants to achieve her goals and show her passion to her dream while respecting other people’s opinions.
#6 What would you do if you have to sacrifice your family for your dream?
It would be a tough decision to make for men with family members, but Akihito-san
is likely to prioritize his family over his dream. He has 2 kids and sounded like he always loves taking care of them.
Lastly, proudly to announce, the best evaluator Kaoru-san & The best TT speaker Mikiko-san! Congratulations! 👏