Taipei Medical University Toastmasters Club

I was invited to the 4th meeting of Taipei Medical University Toastmasters Club Wednesday evening, November 26th.

It felt soooo good to meet young and enthusiastic students at my alma mater. I graduated from Department of Pharmacy, Taipei Medical College in 1977. Time flies, 37 years ago was lik yesterday. I was impressed with many outstanding students from all departments of Taipei Medical University, both their communication skills in English and their enthusiasm in learning!

At the tabletopics session, Francesca Prophete brought a bag full of props. I was called upon to pick up a prop to sell it, and I won the best tabletopics speaker by selling a shoe polish with roll on applicator, first about the good price, buy one get one free; second about the fragrance, 12 selections; third the every lasting shoe shine, once for a month! Francesca Prophete is a new member, a senior of Department of Health. She speaks fluent English and Mandarin. She is from Haiti with her mother tongue of French.

As a Language Evaluator, I gave my comments as follows, it was a meeting of quality at the newly chartered TMU Toastmasters Club's weekly meeting, Wednesday evening, November 26th. I like the joyful atmosphere club officers nourished for members and guests. Many good phrases were used during the meeting, such as my life will be as brilliant as a home run ball; luxury is not about buying expensive products. It is about showing appreciation to our loved ones and those who love us.

The variety session of finding the missing halves of quotes was a interesting way to mingle members to know one another while learning famous quotes. Quotes are powerful to open and close speeches, both prepared speeches and tabletopics speeches. The more quotes we remember, the more effective speakers we are.

The tabletopics workshop was inspiring and useful. I learned how to think outside the box by drawing a group of matrices. The workshop was an excellent training for creative thinking to answer impromptu speeches. It's to find extraordinaries among ordinaries for copy writers and for Toastmasters.

For the better use of the language, I recommend members avoid using abbreviations about the meeting roles and club officers. Just use Toastmaster of the Evening, in stead of TME or TOE, Vice President Public Relations in stead of VPPR. For new members who are still struggling with the English language, please keep in mind to speak the language slowly and expressed sentences completely. Slow, S-L-O-W, is an acronym for Speak, Listen, Observe, Write. Learning a foreign language is life-long. It can't be done in a haste. Haste makes waste. If members want to master the English language, they must use it at least 60 minutes a day SLOWly!

I joined a few club officers and member for a late night snack at a soybean milk shop. I realized no matter when or where in the world, college students were excited about their future. It felt cool to listen to youth dreams. After the night snack, I walked without much of thinking to the school gate. The good old days flashed back. The old school buildings were in front of me. But the street was wrong. The campus must have been rearranged. I was lost in my memory and in reality. I turned around and ran back to the hospital and walked on Wu-xin Street again.