In order to break a leg, I decided to arrive at the meeting venue as early as possible to rehearse my speech. I left the Shanghai Expo at 2:45PM, arrived at Shin-zha Road before 3:30PM, only to find out the address of the meeting venue (No. 335 Shin-Zha Raod) was wrong. The door of a dental clinic was chained. I followed the blue arrow to the newly renovated dental building next door. Guess what? I was greeted as a patient. Being an early bird, I was not in a panic. I had plenty of time to work out my problem. At worst, I had the entire evening to find my way back to my hotel. I took it easy and walked into the nearby McDonald to review my script. At five, I gathered my courage to borrow the mobile phone from a high school girl at the next table to contact Toastmaster Pamela Yang. Luckily Pamela was in the neighborhood and found me at the McDonald. After Pamela found out the correct address (No. 335 Huang-he Raod), we went to the meeting venue at 6PM. Room 523B was locked, so we took the opportunity to walk around on the fifth floor to discover a music cram school for children. Pamela and I decided to venture to the neighborhood to know the environment. The old neighborhood around the corner across the street reminded me of the nostalgic military community of my childhood in Chia-yi.
Bilingual Drama Toastmasters Club in Shanghai held a special joint meeting with Legacy Toastmasters Club in Taipei during the Moon Festival holidays. The theme of the meeting is 「Same Moon, Same Love」, by a famous Chinese poet Yu Kuang-chung (余光中). Harrison Lee and Harry Fong, two sponsors of Legacy Toastmasters Club, served as language evaluator and general evaluator respectively. I delivered a C-10 speech to inspire the audience, talking about Toastmasters in Mongolia.
The drama before the meeting brought about another drama during the meeting. When the drama session master asked for four volunteers for an impromtu drama setting, I jumped at the opportunity. It was about a Taiwanese young man who wanted to marry a Shanghaiese lady after a romatic night. I was requested to play the role as the MOTHER of the young man and gave two impromptu speeches, one to my son, the other to his girlfriend. In less than ten minutes on stage, four of us became a family in Toastmasters.I was very honored this evening to have Incumbent District 85 Governor Yingdan Liu, DTM, as my individual evaluator. After replaying the videoclip of Yingdan’s evaluation I took with my newly bought HD camera, I was completely taken with her public speaking skills. No only Yingdan spoke English impeccably, her insightful comments and valuable suggestions prompted me to soar to a new height in my Toastmasters journey. I'm one step closer to the thron of the international championship of public speaking!
From the beginning till the end of Bilingual Drama & Legacy Toastmasters Clubs Joint Meeting, I was impressed by the young, energetic, and enthusiastic members of Bilingual Drama. They meet every week and they held the special meeting for Taiwanese toastmasters on Moon Festival holidays. The rising toastmasters stars at Bilingual Drama opened my eyes to the great potential of Toastmasters in China.China is big. Young Chinese everywhere are eager to connect with the world. In no time, China will become a superpower in Toastmasters. While I look forward to exploring more toastmasters clubs in different parts of China, I firmly believe Chinese Toastmasters will play a key role in the development of the Toastmaster International in the future.
*****Toastmasters in Mongolia*****
Life if a journey. It's to see, to experience, to achieve. Yesterday I was one of the 630,000 visitors to the World Expo Shanghai. I believe quiete a few toastmasters, including District Governor Yingdan and myself, helped the World Expo 2010 achieve the new record high (>600,000) of visitors per day since the opening from the first of May.
This morning, a gentleman volunteered to take a group photo of our tour group in front of Expo Culture Center. When I dug my club banner from my Toastmasters bag, he told me he's a toastmasters from Vancourver. What a serendipity! When we toastmasters travel, we enjoy the sightseeing, we enjoy the synergy (word of the day) of toastmasters all over the world.Six years ago, I was invited to visit Mongolia where I knew nothing, nobody. There were no Toastmasters clubs. To go or not to go was not a question, but a decision! Yes, to go, to promote Toastmasters program in Mongolia.
I called Grace Lu, a senior member of Grand Toastmasters Club, invited her to join the Mongolia tour with me in August 2004. We flew from Taipei to Seoul in the afternoon and we arrived in Ulaanbaatar in the evening.
Mongolia is beautiful in summer, green grass, blue sky, we took many photos with our club banner. Wherever we went, we had Toastmasters meetings. On the tour bus from Ulaanbaatar to the ancient capital of the Mongol Empire, we had joke sessions. On the overnight train from Ulaanbaatar to the Gobi desert, we had tabletopics sessions. Even riding on the horseback shouting "Ah Ah" at the national park, Grace counted how many ahs I made. It was a fun Toastmasters journey in Mongolia! After coming back to Taiwan, I wrote an article about Toastmasters in Mongolia for the Taiwan Toastmasters Website.
In June last year, to my surprise, I received an email from Mr. Dembee, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Mongolia asking if I could help them charter the first Toastmasters club in Mongolia. After six months coaching and exchanging of emails on the internet, I decided to meet with the descendants of Chenghiskhan in person. I flew to Ulaanbaatar alone this time in January this year. Was I scared? Nah! I was terrified to death! But if not then, when?
Mongolia is beautiful in winter, but freezing cold, 30 degrees Celsius below zero. I couldn't walk on the street for more than five minutes. My feet, my hands, my ears, my nose got frozen immediately. It was painful. The icy roads were so slippery. Even when I walked carefully one step at a time, oops, ouch! I scored another touchdown! It still hurt with my thick winter clothes on. Whenever I shook hands with handsome men, oh, what a shock I felt, not love at the first sight, but because of the static electricity. It was embarrassing. But it was worth the lessons, I saw the beautiful winter wonderland, I ate the most delicious horse steak tartare, I experienced the hospitality of Mongolians.
Three weeks in Ulaanbaatar, I attended demo meetings, gave presentation and leadership training workshops and seminars. I met one thousand people, from elementary school children, university professors, business elites, government employees, medical doctors to ex-convicts. It was a meaningful Toastmasters journey in Mongolia.
I joined Grand Toastmasters Club in 1986. For the past 24 years, I grew in Toastmasters with many good friends, I became a better person. Today I can stand here to tell you my story, I must thank Dr. Ralph Smedley who founded the Toastmasters club in 1924, Dr. Bennie Bough who chartered the first Toastmasters Club in Taiwan in 1958. I shall follow their altruistic footprint to charter as many Toastmasters clubs as possible so that more people can benefit from the great non-profit educational organization.
Fellow Toastmasters, the first Toastmasters club in Mongolia is yet to be chartered. Let's embrace our new Toastmasters family member with our full support. What do you say if we go visit Mongolia together, to see the country of blue sky, to experience the hospitality of Mongolians, to enjoy the synergy of Toastmasters in Mongolia, and to add Toastmasters drama to your lives. Toastmaster of the Evening!
