Hello again, everyone:) I’m Asami. A few years ago, I wrote blogs about what was going on at our meetings. Well, now I’m a full time worker and due to my hectic work schedule, I’m not confident in writing a lot of thing about our updates like I used to… Having said that, I hope you will enjoy reading and get interested in joining our club in the future ;)
Well, it’s about time to start the very first meeting for the new term! Yeah!
Toastmaster: Mikiko san
Attendees: 4 guests from different countries including UAE, Argentina, India, and the other
8 members
The meeting started with our president Kazuko san’s encouraging remarks. All of the members felt inspired and revitalized a lot.
Now let’s get started out meeting! Mikiko san conducted our first session, It is called Small Talk session, a unique feature of our club.
I think she is one of the most respectful Toastmasters. She always gives speakers warm and nice comments so that they feel good in a friendly atmosphere and enjoyed talking:)
Anyway, she asked us how to spend rainy seasons and how our lives have been going. Some members enjoy BBQ outside, drinking beer with the air conditioner on, running 30 kilometers! while seeing beautiful scenery, and trying to beat his ‘rival’ in playing tennis. Others traveled in Osaka to visit the mausoleum of Emperor Nintoku and, Kazura-bridge in Tokushima. Lastly Takako san shared the perfect episode for an traditional event this month. She had her students write down their wishes on Star Festival. That nice episode let to an interesting impromptu speech session called Table Topic.
Regarding Thoughts for the day conducted by Yuki san, she mentioned it was a good timing to make a resolution for the new term as Toastmasters Club. Well, as for me, even if I’m busy, I won’t be lazy and will attend regular meetings because I have to write a blog until the next term! haha…
As for Word of the day introduced by Aki san, it was ‘generate’ or ‘generative’. She chose it due to a global trend of AI usage. I have never used it in a daily conversation. A few members used this word during their speech. Amazing!
Here is another interesting session: Joke Master conducted by Kimiko san! She shared 5 hilarious jokes related to Star Festival. All of them really cracked me up!
Oh, let me mention the main session: prepared speech! The speaker was a distinguished Toastmaster at another club but she joined our meeting as a guest. Usually it’s not so common for a guest, even if they are experienced toastmasters, to make prepared speech. She was an energetic educator and shared her experience of taking “future-entrepreneur” kids to excursion with the speech title ‘Igniting the Future’. It was quite intriguing and inspiring speech, indeed. I wish I could be like her! Later on, Anita san evaluated her speech with some compliments and improvement points effectively.
Last but not least, Takako san conducted the impromptu speech session called Table Topic. The theme was the Star Festival☆She explained how to answer her prepared questions. Since people write their wishes on strips of paper and hang them from bamboo branches, which is said to make their wishes come true, she showed 5-color strips of paper on the screen. Each color has different meaning according to Chinese theory of Yin-Yang and the five elements. For example, lue stands for self-improvement, yellow means wishes about relationships, and so on.
Like you can easily imagine by reading this blog;), each and every participant fully engaged with the meeting and we had another fruitful meeting! I can’t wait for the next meeting :)
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