Ginza! 23 December, 2018

Ginza Toastmasters Club held their latest regular meeting on Sunday,23 December at Kyobashi-Plaza-kaikan, in Ginza. We were treated to an excellent workshop and two beautiful speeches with the guests.

1. Introduction

Yuko, President of the Club, welcomed everyone to the meeting then draw attention to positive "Mindset" that separates the best from the rest. She then introduced TMoD Yossy who explained the running order of the meeting and invited Eva who delivered special the word of the day story “Merry Christmas”. After that, he offered a warm welcome to our guests including Toru Maruyama, Mitsuko Hirose, Guanwei Rong and GimHorn Siah, and gave an opportunity to introduce themselves and make a short greeting.

2. New member induction ceremony

An induction ceremony is a wonderful step in Toastmasters relationship. VPM Yuki welcomed the inductees, Shinsaku Kitano and Yuriko Toyomasu into Ginza and they declared their Ginza’s expectations and Ginza's memberships' responsibility to them. Both of regular members and new members promise to contribute to the other's success.

3. Workshop

The special presenter, Toru Maruyama organized great workshop titled "What is Rhetoric", highlighting that "rhetoric" is the crucial key to our success in public speaking. Rhetoric, people call “the art of language” uses figures of speech and persuasive tactics to enhance language and make it more informative, inspiring, and entertaining. He showed us brilliant rhetorical devices which includes antithesis (literally means opposite), alliteration(saying three words with the same initial letter.), repetition, mystification(tips to generate impact in a paradoxical way by puzzling the audience) and chiasmus (reverse the order of first sentence). Some examples were demonstrated by Toru, for example, "Drian is charismatic, curious and compassionate." "Ginza is fashionable, Fabulous and Fantastic."

4. Song of the Day

Drian put out a theme song for Ginza Toastmasters. Combining his talents as an inspiring songwriter with his beautiful voices, he created original "Ginza" lyrics that captures the essence of Ginza views, Ginza feelings, and Ginza story. Along with the wonderful sound, his arrangement is great!! Thank you, Drian!

5. Prepared speeches

The first speaker Tomomi arose emotion with her storytelling "What I discovered in working as a researcher". Sharing her working experience as a researcher in the US, she spoke enthusiastically about how to combat a stress situation she had felt while working. Her intense talk spoke that even small talk like "Good morning" with big smile may serve to gradually release from stress thus she invited us to help others stress less and increase happiness through such small talk.

Next to speak was Yuki with his problem-solution business speech with his titled "Collaboration 2.0", which refers to processes that assist multiple groups interact to achieve common goals. Starting with his bitter experience in the Division B contest as SAA, he carefully analyzed problems and causes he identified and offered four options. The best thing about his speech was to motivate us to take actions to make Ginza more valuable: We should engage in Ginza and self-changing is very important.

After the prepared speeches, General Evaluator Yuko invited two brilliant evaluators: Drian for Yuki and Masayo for Tomomi. Finally, Yuko evaluated our meeting.

6. Awards

Best Performance Toru Maruyama

Best Evaluator Drian

Best Speaker Yuki

7. Next schedule The next meeting will take place at Kyobashi-Plaza-Kuminkan, on Sunday, 27th January, at 14:00. Paul will do TMoD. Come over to practice your public speaking!