6th September 23 Starting at 21:00 Asia/Tokyo
Word of the Day: brisk = lively, pleasingly tangy, fresh, invigorating, sharp in tone or manner, and energetic
Venue: Online Club
9 attendees = 8 members + 1 guest from the US
It is often said in Japan that temperature changes after the Equinox, and you will enjoy the cool season. Autumn Equinox Day falls on around September 23rd, but these days it has been still hot, and it is not expected to be cooler according to the weather forecast. We can’t wait for a brisk autumn day!
We started with a lively or brisk session, Small Talk. It has a wide variety of intriguing topics such as more scorching hot days with the highest temperature of over 40℃ in one of the members’ place, Toastmasters, family events, a volunteer work, and even mosquitoes. Haha…
Among others, the most impressive words for me was “people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel”. Don’ t you think it is a thoughtful message for us?
Speaking of which, we had the Thought of the Day Session conducted by Kazuko-san. The theme was about the flaws of averages based on the article below.
https://www.thestar.com/news/insight/when-u-s-air-force-discovered-the-flaw-of-averages/article_e3231734-e5da-5bf5-9496-a34e52d60bd9.html
She insisted how valuable it is to see individuals as they are with a relevant quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson on individuality, not focusing on averages.
Then, we had a new session tonight: debate! Since I have never done any debates before, it was such a good learning experience by observing the debate between Takako-san and Mikiko-san. The proposition was “Japan should adopt ‘Daylight Saving Time’. Based on the debate framework shared by Kazuko-san prior to the meeting, they did a wonderful job.
Honorable readers, if you had been there, you would have been watching them with your jaw dropping.
It is still challenging for me to have a debate, but I will give it a try some day to brush up my English skills.
Last but not least, let me touch upon the Table Topics Session conducted by Mikiko-san. The theme was September. She had prepared several useful idioms related to September or autumn season. For example, they are “save for a rainy day”, “an apple of one’s eye”, “to get wind of” and “turn over a new leaf”. Also, she had kindly created presentation slides with a meaning and an example sentence of each idiom like this so that speakers could make an impromptu speech smoothly.
Among others, personally I think, the honorable guest was the best speaker! He happened to choose the most difficult idiom: to get wind of. At first he seemed to have some difficulty in making a speech using it. But he succeeded in not only making a great speech on the spot but also including other idioms “an apple of my eye” and “turn a new leaf” in his speech. Quite impressive, indeed. I will use those idioms in my daily conversation next time to increase my vocabulary.
Although we had a special meeting with the debate session tonight, we had a very good time and learned a lot as usual. I hope we will be able to feel brisk autumn breeze at the next meeting. ;)
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