中壢英語國際演講會 Chungli Toastmasters Club

Dear members and guests,

I personally enjoyed the meeting very much yestersay.

首先，要感謝我們來自林口（Linkou Club）及元智（YZU Club）的朋友：Sunny（President of Linkou）、Morgan（SAA of Linkou）、Henson（PRVP od Linkou）、Brian（acting President of YZU），還有第一次參加Toastmasters聚會的Jeff，因為有你們的參與，讓整個會議更熱情、更有趣！

現在就讓我們一起來回顧昨天晚上精彩的會議片段吧！

第一次擔任Joke Session Master的Sunday為我們帶來了一個跌破大家眼鏡、笑破大家肚皮的小叮噹笑話集！問題一：Doraemon有幾個兄弟姊妹？答案：25個，因為他還有哆啦B夢、哆啦C夢～哆啦Z夢。問題二：那在東方社會，Doraemon有幾個兄弟姊妹？答案：3個，因為他還有”小甲噹”、 ”小乙噹” 、”小丙噹”。 問題三：那在台灣中南部，Doraemon會有幾個兄弟姊妹？答案也是3個，因為他還有” 小叮春”、 ” 小叮夏” 、”小叮秋”（請用台語發音）……挖哈哈哈～真是太好笑了，Sunday妳應該同時獲得The best joke teller、The best session master及The best environment portector的，因為妳的opening joke，馬上讓大家感覺涼颼颼（身旁一陣陣冷風咻咻咻吹過），冷氣都可以關掉啦～

第二道main dish可說是高水準的Prepared speech session，因為三個speakers都是Advanced Level的。首先上場的是Sunny，題目是”A Slice of English Pronunciation”，哇～不愧是專業英文老師，Sunny準備了一個內容豐富的簡報檔，用短短的幾分鐘為我們介紹如何把英文說得像native speaker一樣道地。讓同是為學習英文演說目的的所有聽眾都像如獲至寶的上了紮實的一課。尤其大家都超級想要那個簡報檔的，所以囉～到時候會再請EVP將簡報檔寄給大家！而我自己的感想是，Sunny sister，您不僅英文講的既流利又漂亮，連台語也講的有夠”輪轉”，光是那句”你去死啦”～至今還餘音繚繞在我的腦海中！

第二個speaker是特地從YZU邀請過來的Brian Lin，他可是2005年台灣區幽默演講比賽的winner之一呢！我們邀請他來讓大家見識一下如何做好幽默演講。果真，他的”Three tickets and one lesson”搏得滿堂笑聲，尤其讓我印象深刻的是，大概每一分鐘就會有一個good punch，果真達到project的要求：Make Them Laugh。會後Sunday跟我表示，看完Brian的speech表演後，她大概知道該如何準備即將參加的幽默演講比賽，真是太棒了，Brian～You really did a good job. Brian家在苗栗，平日在新竹工作，週末會回元智參加例行會議……我覺得他年紀雖小，但是精神實在令人敬佩！就像Chad說的，參加Toastmasters就像是每個月投資四個小時在學習英文上，看起來很少，但是卻是讓許多Toastmasters保持使用英文溝通及思考的好環境、練習場所，希望大家也能好好保握學習的機會喔！

最後，壓軸的是Albert，speech title 是”The Toast to my……”，他邀請到（私底下據我瞭解是半強迫）他的Eunice夫人來當他的演講主題，所以大家可以猜到囉～他要Toast的對象就是他的另一伴！哇～Albert這一次的演講內容真的很感人，當下我幾乎要感動的掉眼淚，不過怕被別人看穿我在心底暗自怨嘆沒有這樣一個有心有肝有感情懂浪漫的男人，於是強忍住眼淚～～不過說真的，在這裡要爆料兩件事，第一件事是很高興Eunice終於來參加我們的例會，因為她在六月份的時候就已經在美國總會登記成為中壢的會員，只是始終還沒有浮出檯面。

印象中，Eunice第一次來參加是三年前的事，當時本人尚未赴高雄唸書，我們的會議地點是在育達高中，Albert去接她來參加我們的2nd round（瑾瑜廚房）；時間在過，親像小鳥在飛，咻～一下，三年已經晃過去了，想當初Albert在YZU club上假借做speech的名義，邀當時還不是女朋友的Eunice前往參加當guest，由當時中壢會長”馬克先生”偷偷暗地幫Albert準備一束鮮花，當眾獻花請Eunice當他的女朋友……事過境遷，如今兩人已經互結連理，果真馬上讓我見識到結婚前和結婚後的差異，雖然這次主題是Toast，不過沒有鮮花，只有白開水，沒有西裝筆挺，只著POLO杉就上場，真是今非昔比！

而我想說的另一件事是，想當年，Albert可是英俊瀟灑風流倜儻的文藝好青年，每次當我上網收信時，總會收到他寄來的創作短文或是詩詞歌賦，往往讓我迷戀在他的字裡文間！沒想到上帝是公平的，人也是會走樣的，當Albert娶了一個賢慧的妻子為他料理三餐之後，人也變得越來越有福氣了！當我寫這一段的時候，我心裡暗暗猜想Orson或是Sunday這一代的年輕人此時心裡可能暗想，Amy的眼睛有沒有被@#$%^&糊到？Albert這樣子叫做”帥”啊？唉～年輕人你們真的不懂，Albert當時可是迷倒多少會內的女生啊（詳情可問Chad）！

好啦～八卦不宜爆料太多，免得到時候遭天譴。話說speech session之後，又到了Table Topics Session，這次Ken準備了五個問題讓我們的guests有機會練習說話！尤其最後Chad補充指定給Julian的題目是：如果有機會再辦一次outing，你會選擇去哪裡舉行？Julian的答案是帶大家去搭乘麗新油輪～挖啊，真是高級！不過我相信這是可能的，等到我們的大老闆Brad賺了大錢之後，必定會回饋給我們的club，到時候club會贊助大家多一點錢去搭乘麗新油輪的，大家覺得如何？

至於最後的Evaluation session，謝謝Jade首度接下General evaluator的工作，我相信這是一大挑戰，但是唯有嘗試過之後，才能慢慢學習體驗如何把一項assignment做好，相信大家都是這樣慢慢累積經驗的！Jade，Keep Going~

最後，想要順便一提，不知道昨天有拿到布朗尼Trophy的winner覺得好吃嗎？每次meeting的Trophy都會不太一樣，主要是想要鼓勵大家好好把自己的assignment做好。不過沒有拿到Trophy的也不要太難過，畢竟有時候高手如雲（如本次speaker都是Advanced level），要拿到Trophy真的不簡單哩！

最最後，謝謝Brad高品質的主持整個會議，讓會議圓滿結束，謝謝大家！

The Best Joke Teller: Amy（YA！）

The Best Speaker: Sunny

The Best Table Topics Teller: Jeff

The Best Evaluator: Chad

The Best Session Master: Brad

【題外話】上禮拜五參加桃園的例會，碰到我們的舊會員Willow（在南崁高中當英文老師），不知道大家對她還有沒有印象？就是高高瘦瘦的、很會打扮的氣質美女Willow！Willow不但結婚了而且還有了一個小男孩唷，不過外表一點都沒變，一樣高瘦漂亮！希望Willow之後還有機會回來參加我們的例會喔！

Dear members & friends of ChungLi club, 

Good Day. 

Last evening was the first time for me to knock the gavel at the table and open the meeting. The experience was fresh; however, I have a lot of things to learn and get familiar with the officer's responsibility.

 First of all, thanks for Bruce & Chad's effort, we moved our meeting place from a classroom to a small but well-equiped "meeting room". People can sit in a "U"shape without moving any tables or chairs before and after the meeting. That was great! And just like Jamie said, it's much quieter.

 【Joke session】

For the first session, Ken & Bruce & Chad performed a magic show. Ken used his power and energy to move 100 dollars from one person's hand to another person's hand without touching both people's body. And then, members volunteered to tell jokes. Just like Brad mentioned: Always prepare one or two jokes in your pocket!

 【Officer Training】

For the officer report, I think Hua-Hsuan made a big breakthrough. Before the meeting, she told me she couldn't deliver a speech longer than 5 minutes. She didn't know how to use slides to help her deliver her speech. She can't....... But, in fact, she prepared everything very well. As EVP, she prepared one-year plan for members, which will help members plan their assignments in advance in the coming year. And she also spent a lot of time in editing tables and graphs to illustrate her points. Finally, she opened her speech with an inspiring story from Stanely Yen (嚴長壽) and deliver a speech longer than 10 minutes. Good Job~ Hua-Hsuan. I think you set a good example for everyone. If you are willing to open your mind and take the challenge, you will run more than one-step ahead from others.

 【Training】

Every time, when I can't find a fire fighter to do something, Chad will be the victim under my pressure and accept my "suggestion" to conduct a training. I think the training of last evening was the best one he had conducted ever. He mentioned the commitments of being a Toastmaster, it not only refresh us about Toastmasters spirit but also give a good introduction to guests.

  【Table Topics Session】

And Albert, the master of Table Topics, didn't prepare any topics but just brought a stack of newspaper and asked members to use the newspaper as a tool to tell a story. The "experiment" was successful. Members and guests had time to speak up and used their imagination to role play. It was very interesting and impromptu. Thanks~ Albert, you always brought something new to us.

 【General Evaluation】

And as a past president & Area governor, Brad broke the record once again. This time, he was not taking two roles (GE & IE) but be the only evaluator at all. He gave a thorough evaluation to the whole meeting and to each assignment taker. The suggestions he mentioned were constructive and will help us do better next time!  

 【Good News】

The best gift was given by Orson Hsu, a first time comer/guest to visit a Toastmasters club and decided to join us! That was really fantastic. He spoke fluent English and has a sweet heart to serve ladie(The detail was telling in the Table Topics Session). We are so lucky to get him to be our new blood. And I think it's a good omen for my term, isn't it?  

 In the end, thanks our old friend - Henson came from LinKou Club (Sampo club changed it's name to LinKou club offically). He is really a nice person and has a good sense of humor.

 Dear members and friends, let's meet in the next meeting.

Amy