Ginza! February 25th, 2018
1. Introduction
Our last meeting was on Sunday,25th February at Kyobashi- Kuminkaikan, in Ginza, where we enjoyed three high-quality speeches, a great table topics session and a special workshop from the regular member with the guests.
2. Roles
Drian Von-Golden, President of the Club, welcomed everyone to the meeting then led guest introduction. There were 8 guests, including Sebastian Thomsen (from Germany), Ichiro Naito, TM Shiro Akashi, Andy Youngman, Nancy Lee, Naoko Adachi, Tomofumi Honda (Paul’s friend) and Eri Suzuki. He then took it over to Toastmasters himself who explained the running order of the meeting. Followed by his warming up session, Drian started his special workshop Take#1 .
3. Workshop
Drian led the great two workshops, one of which, titled “Catalyser Communication, Part II”. He pointed out how being active listeners gradually help us become better communicators. On this point, it is very important that the ‘active listener’ is ‘seen’ to be listening - otherwise the speaker may think that what they are talking about is boring to the listener. We leant that interest can be conveyed to the speaker by using both verbal and non-verbal messages. For example, our active listening skill can be developed through keeping eye contact, mirroring of any facial expressions used by the speaker, nodding our head and smiling, agreeing even by simply ‘Mmm’ to boost them to continue. By giving this 'feedback', the speaker will feel more at ease and thus communicate more openly, easily and friendly.
After the workshop #2, Toastmaster Drian took it over to VPM Paul, who conducted the induction ceremony for new members.
4. New members induction ceremony
An induction ceremony is a big step in Toastmasters relationship. VPM Paul welcomed the 4 inductees, Masayo, Makiko, Tomomi and Bin into Ginza and they stated the Ginza’s expectations of them and the Ginza's memberships' responsibility to them. Both of regular members and new members promise to contribute to the other's success.
Then, Toastmaster Drian introduced Makiko, who chose “serendipity” as the words of the day.
5. Song of the Day
Yuki shared “Be My Baby” by the Ronettes, 1963. It is known that Ronettes added NY street flavor to the girl group model of the early 60s, with their cat-eye makeup. What impressed us was how beautifully dressed, our singer Eva, was!. We hardly saw this in entertainment anymore.
6. Table Topic Session
Table Topics Master Tomomi then organized an outstanding impromptu session on season, which Paul, Yuki, Nancy and Shiro joined. Highlights included great enthusiasm for autumn, including starting period, golden leaves, or sweet potatoes in Paul, strong passion for Winter Olympic sport “Skelton” in Yuki, lovely Hanami viewing in Nancy, and spring new challenge “running marathon” in Shiro.
7. Prepared speech
Then, the first speaker was Bin, with her speech #1 (Icebreaker) titled “How to define yourself”. Everyone fights to figure out who people truly are. When we define ourselves, we usually focus on the negative. But in her speech, we learnt that nobody but we can define who we are.
Next speaker Makiko impressed the audience with her wonderful Icebreaker speech titled “Learning a local language in order to survive”. She spoke about stories from her life in Philippine that involved getting in a trouble as a new comer and that taught her important life lessons. She concluded that nothing helps us to stand out while we spent times abroad than speaking the local language.
The last speaker was Eva, who gave an inspiring #10 speech entitled “Let your light shine”. She revealed stories from childhood and adolescence that involved setting up a life from bankruptcy. With a lot of hard work and dedication to overcome bankruptcy, she found herself in a better situation, even just a few years after all the financial hardships she went through. Her tough story was rich in humor and entertained the audience. She inspired us that challenges never fail us and lights can come from an unexpected experience.
After the speeches, General Evaluator Yuko invited four brilliant evaluators – Andy for Bin, Sebastian for Makiko and Ichiro for Eva. Finally, Yuko evaluated our meeting.
8. Awards
Best Table Topics Award Paul
Best Evaluator Award Sebastian and Ichiro
Best Speaker Eva
9. Next meeting
The next meeting will take place at Kyobashi-Kuminkaikan, on Sunday, 25th March, at 14:00. TM Masayo will do Toastmaster. Come over to practice your public speaking!
