One Page A Day

"Life is a foreign language; all men misprounce it." - Christopher Morley

I am an enthusiastic reader of Toastmaster magazines. Early this year, I invited six female veteran Toastmasters from various clubs to form Golden Ladies Toastmasters Reading Group. We read the most current issue of Toastmaster magazine every month. I also construct this blog to document our reading activities.

I am glad the promotion of Toastmaster magazine reading on the web receives a positive response. To be more proactive, I am now carrying the most recent Toastmaster Magazine in my bag. Whenever I am with toastmaster members, I'll take the opportunity to initiate an impromptu reading relay. Whenever I am with non-toastmasters, I'll use the magazine to introduce toastmasters clubs. Whenever I am alone at a coffee shop, I'll place the Toastmaster magazine on the table to identify myself.

Last Wednesday, September 12th, I invited Grace, Billy, and Gina, three senior members of Grand Toastmasters Club, for lunch at Ikari Cafe near my home. It was a nice gathering to congratulate Grace on her construction of the first blog. We talked about how to improve the club quality, how to convince members to construct their blogs, how to build the team spirit. Before we ended our lunch, we tried a reading relay of "Preparing a Speech in 5 Minutes" by Sid Gilman, DTM, page 14 of Toastmaster magazine August issue. It was a successful reading.

Grand Toastmasters Club will have the annual autumn outing Saturday after next. I plan to encourage all participants to try another reading relay of page 14. Just think about it, if all toastmasters can read a page a day, then every member can finish the entire copy of the magazine in a month. Isn't it wonderful to make it a habit to read a page a day? I hope Grand Toastmasters Club can become a club of readers of Toastmaster magazines. From readers, to writers, to speakers, there is no doubt Grand will be the most admired Toastmasters club in District 67.

For non-native English speakers, the Toastmaster magazine is the best reading material to improve our language skills. Many articles are written by outstanding toastmasters. From time to time, there are articles for non-native English speakers. Take the article "Sounding Good in English" written by Katherine Meeks, for example. Reading Toastmaster magazines is one of the best ways to improve our language proficiency and upgrade the quality of our club meetings.

On the fourth floor of Taipei 101 (the world's highest building), there is a bookstore. I like the store name Page One. I like the catch phrase of Page One. Every book starts with Page One. Why not pick up your magazine from the shelf? Start with page one, and read a page a day! Let's do our best to pronounce our life well, even it is a foreign language!