What is Toastmasters?

We are a club associated to Toastmasters International, a non profit organisation created to practice and develop communication and leadership skills.  Please cut and paste the link into the browser to learn more about who we are.

http://prezi.com/_3ac25uvrgim/toastmasters/

Speech Contest Winners!!

Toastmasters Speech Contests are events that show off the talents of the members who compete and members who organize and support the events. A warm thank you to all those who participated!

The Inhouse contest winners are:

For English

1.  Jason Yang

2. Natasha Thompson

For Japanese

1. Helen Lewis

2. Shigeto Miyamoto

As for preparation, I didn’t rehearse – I wanted to speak from the heart.  I spent time mind-mapping – thinking about the structure and outline of the speech and appropriate transitions to connect the ideas.  I thought about the feeling I wanted to convey which also kept the nerves away. (Jason’s reflection on his experience at the district speech contest)

Great result at Division A Japanese Competition

It was a real treat to go with TMs Hirose and Thompson to see TM Yang participate in the Division competition in Shibuya. Although it was a hot sunny day, the room was packed. I’d never seen a Japanese competition before and the energy and connection of the speakers, much greater than when Japanese speak in English, really struck me. There was even practice for the audience at how to clap!

From our seats at the back, we got to see our representative psyching himself up through seven great speeches. The audience was charged, and finally Jason got up to speak.

His speech ‘あれ、あれ　(A-re, A-re?’) began with him getting the audience involved with chorus of ‘so desu neh…’. I could see how this fused the energy of audience and presenter, and helped him to get off to a strong start. He told his message – watch out for when things go wrong and look at how to learn from them – with anecdotes, analysis, and through inviting the audience to visualize how they would like to change their lives.

Finding developmental points in such a great speech is hard, but I think that more personal stories to get the idea across would have been more effective. He also said that he felt the audience connection drop when he invited them to close their eyes for a second time.

However, it was a really ambitious speech that was delivered with tremendous energy. We were delighted that he was placed third; a great achievement given that he has only been in Toastmasters for around three years. The learning curve may seem steep, but it really pays off.

Helen

A SPLENDID SPEECH!

Sir Ken Robinson: Do schools kill creativity?

A great speech posted on youtube! Please enjoy it!

第１５１回　自由が丘トーストマスターズ例会　後記

本日から、ブログを使ってその日の例会の様子をお伝えしたいと思います。
詳細は次回の例会（１１月５日）に話しますね。

今日は、佐藤さんの入会式があり、ゲストも４人来てくれました。
準備スピーチが二人しかいなかったため、テーブルトピックス（即興スピーチ）を長めにやったのですが、ゲストを含めてレベルが高いものでした。質問も、「もし時間が止められる能力があったら何をしますか？」といったバラエティーに富んだものでした。
（僕なら１００ｍ走の金メダル目指します！バレない程度に能力を使う必要がありますね・・・。）
加えて、井口さん、ヘレンさんの準備スピーチも素晴らしいものでした。特にヘレンさんによるダイアナ妃の「地雷」に関するスピーチは、感動的かつ啓蒙的で、あっという間の１０分でした。
（このスピーチを聞いて、NO MAN’S LANDというアカデミー外国賞をとった作品を思い出しました。戦争が題材で、ユーモラスかつ怖い作品でした。オススメです！）

今回の例会はこんな感じでした。自分の日記みたいになってしまったんだけど、どうなんだろう。なんにせよ、これからも続けていこうと思います。書きたいという方を募集してるので、是非是非メールしてください！