1000 Paper Cranes for Good Health

The crane is the symbol for long life, prosperity and good health. It is a tradition in Japan and in Taiwan for friends and family members to fold a thousand cranes together to wish their beloved one get well soon and have a good health and a long life.

A group of Toastmasters led by the Incumbent International Director George Yen, Former D67 Governors Harry Fong and Jorie Wu, Incumbent Division C Governor Trini Ding and many golden ladies joined the taskforce to fold 1000 paper cranes for one of our beloved toastmaster in the hospital.

Learning is by doing is the motto of toastmasters. With all sizes of colorful papers, a origami handbook, plus a guidance of a 11 year old boy, we figured out how to fold the paper cranes successfully. Even though it would be more efficient to fold the paper cranes in an assembly line, the majority of toastmasters preferred to take the challenge to fold the paper cranes in different sizes, and advanced from a hand size to a finger size.

While folding the 1000 cranes, we prayed in our hearts to wish our dear toastmaster friend get well soon and return to the big toastmasters family as soon as possible. It is our sincere hope that our prayer would be answered. And we can see the smiling face of our friend surrounded by 1000 colorful paper cranes and come back to us in good health.

1000 Paper Cranes for Good Health

The crane is the symbol for long life, prosperity and good health. It is a tradition in Japan and in Taiwan for friends and family members to fold a thousand cranes together to wish their beloved one get well soon and have a good health and a long life.

A group of Toastmasters led by the Incumbent International Director George Yen, Former D67 Governors Harry Fong and Jorie Wu, Incumbent Division C Governor Trini Ding and many golden ladies joined the taskforce to fold 1000 paper cranes for one of our beloved toastmasters in the hospital.

Learning by doing is the motto of toastmasters. With all sizes of colorful papers, a origami handbook, plus a friendly volunteer guidance of a 11 year old boy, we figured out how to fold the paper cranes successfully. Even though it would be more efficient to fold the paper cranes in an assembly line, the majority of toastmasters preferred to take the challenge to fold the paper cranes in different sizes, advanced from a hand size to a finger size paper crane.

While folding 1000 cranes, we prayed in our hearts to wish our dear toastmaster friend get well soon and return to the big toastmasters family. It is our sincere hope that our prayer would be answered. And we can see the smiling face of our friend surrounded by 1000 colorful paper cranes in all sizes and come back to us in good health.

Celebration of the Lantern Festival

It is an auspicious year for Grand Toastmasters Club. We have the first regular meeting after the Lunar New Year holidays on Lantern Festival. I thought again and again what I could do to create a celebratory atmosphere to bring joy to members on the special evening. Maybe a lantern parade during the intermission would be ideal.

No sooner than later when I was informed by EVP of my assignment as the timer this evening, I was excited to convert three of my lanterns into the timing devices to fulfill my timer's responsibility in a festive way. I painted a white lantern in yellow and wrote District 67 on it to serve as the yellow timing board.

The lanterns didn't achieve the expected effect in a brightly-lit lecture hall. And I shouldn't have chosen a red lantern in the shape of a strawberry to substitute the green timing board. It was confusing to speakers, especially those late comers who missed the briefing of unique timing rules. Nevertheless, most members were quite pleased to celebrate the first meeting of the Year of the Rat in a meaningful and memorable way.

After the club meeting, I joined a few old friends to participate in the lantern parade at Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall. It was the first time Taipei Lantern Festival was moved to the Sun-Yat-sen Memorial Hall since the first Taipei Lantern Festival was launched in 1990 at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall.

The serene and peaceful Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall became a huge open-air night market jammed with city dwellers as well as residents from other cities by chartered buses. A huge fire ball lantern signifying the wedding party of the rat family was placed in front of the hall. When the multicolored lantern was lit up every 30 minutes at night, it left the viewers in awe. The columns around the corridors of the hall were wrapped with big red ribbons to celebrate the wedding day of joy and happiness.

My handmade lanterns drew a lot of attention from parade goers. When a young woman asked me where I bought my lovely lanterns, "I made them", I replied proudly. How nice it is to be acknowledged with my cute lanterns, my pride in my hand.

On Lantern Festival, I felt blissful to be able to bring up the value of the unity and wholeness of lanterns in Toastmasters and beyond. I look forward to the next lantern festival and many lantern festivals to come in the future. The Year of the Rat is indeed auspicious at the very beginning of a new 12 year Chinese zodiac cycle.

Kitakyushu Toastmasters Club--The Speeches of 2008

Dear Rio and Tamiko Imamura,

This is to acknowledge the good receipt of six copies of Kitakyushu Toastmasters Club--the Speeches of 2008. I picked up the package from the main post office in Hsin-tien this morning. I was so happy that it had not been returned to you in Japan yet.

In fact, I didn't sleep tight last night because I misplaced the notice from the postman in my bag three weeks ago. I was not home when the package was delivered to me on the 24th of January. I received the notice, put it in my bag, and forgot all about it. I didn't find it till yesterday evening when I packed my kimono for my Japanese dance class this afternoon. But I was lucky to find the package in the warehouse of the main post office. On top of that, I had a chance to witness the complicated postal operations behind the scene this morning.

I read my copy from cover to cover as soon as I opened the package. It is good to learn to be thankful from the bottom of our heart from Kitakyushu Toastmasters Club President's Albert Moe's message. The target speech "Negotiations" by Koichi Sata reminded me of the happy time at Division E Evaluation Contest in Fukuoka last October. When I read "How We Can Live in Pleasure" by Fukuoka Toastmasters Club President Kazue Fujino, I was touched. I was a fan of Ayako Miura when I was in high school. And I read "Hyoten" again after I visited Asahikawa last November. Melody's article about Jade Mountain was humorous and entertaining. Like her, I almost made it to the top of Jade Mountain, but I gave up at the last minute, less than 100 meters from the peak. Dr. Kobayashi's article about Alisan is inspiring and informative. I love his artistic illustrations a lot. The special feature forum from down about "Shirley Club" was simply amazing.

Upon request, I shall deliver the rest five copies to George Yen, Jack Tsai, Marian Hsiao, James Lin and Luna Chiang as soon as possible. And I shall give my personal copy to Melody when I see her. Thank you so much for thinking of us--your Toastmasters friends at District 67 in Taiwan.

Happy Lantern Festival,
Sherry

Public Speaking vs Ballroom Dancing

Toastmaster Kanai Rikuko of Kyoto Toastmaster Club and her husband invited me to join their biennial ballroom dancing gathering in Spring in Kyoto. What an alluring invitation to see men and women dressed up to dance elegantly on a spick-and-span oak floor. To be honest, being holden tight by a man to dance in one is not me at the moment. I need to take the initiative to hunt for a good coach as soon as possible.

I like dancing very much. I learn jazz dancing, tap dancing, clogging, Japanese dancing, folk dancing regularly. I find an enjoyable dancing is more or less like a successful prepared speech. If I dance to the tempo and sequence correctly and precisely, time flies. I feel great. But on the contrary, if I miss a few steps, I suffer the blackout, then Einstein's theory of relativity reveals, time simply stops at certain point.

Ballroom dancing is going to be a huge challenge for me. It's not something I can master by myself. I need to cooperate with another person. What if we end up having four left feet? In addition to many intricate and fancy steps, it is important to keep the posture right from the beginning till the end with the partner.

In order to deliver a successful prepared speech, it is important to know the audience and to internalize the speech, advocates one world champion speaker. For a enjoyable ballroom dancing, it is vital to know the partner and to internalize the music and the choreograph, I presume. Ballroom dacning is more intimidating than public speaking, for sure, because it takes two to tango.

When I look at the footprints of many successful speakers and leaders in District 67, quite a few of them are great ballroom dancers. Maybe it's time I acquired the vital skill of ballroom dancing to advance in Toastmasters. I shall learn to give and take, to be aggressive and submissive at the same time. From public speaking to ballroom dancing, I am on my way.

What a Face!

Sophia Chen is a young and exuberant makeup artist and hair stylist. She makes a living by putting on makeups for brides on their wedding days. The first time she walked in Grand Toastmasters Club, she showed us the tricks to improve our self images. she was surrounded immediately by many female toastmasters, young and old alike. Sophia and I became fast friends.

Last week, Sophia offered a free makeup class for female junior members of Grand Toastmasters Club. She asked them what they liked the most about their faces. She encouraged them to highlight their strengths and brought out their confidence. Carrie Chiang likes her big brown eyes, Yvan Chu likes her small cherry lips, Liya Huang likes her long and tall nose. And I like my asymmetrical eyebrows. Just imagine the face proportions of the above combinded four, what a face it might be.

Sophia and I had an afternoon tea yesterday afternoon. She looked different, her eyes were brighter and more attractive. I could tell her eyelashes were different but they looked just like her own. I was curious and she told me she glued the eye lash one by one for a long time. She admitted that putting on the eyelashes is the most time-consuming among the total makeup engineering processes.

If Albert Mehrabian's 7%-38%-55% Rule holds true, total impact = 7% verbal + 38% vocal + 55% facial, then it certainly pays to spend time putting on the eyelashes to convey our ideas to others in a more effective way. The knowhow is simple, purchase a pair of standard eyelashes, cut them into individual pieces (in a right sequence), paste their on your own, draw a line on the eyelids, done! Now let your eyes do the rest talking!