Page 33 - 2016 December Voices

QUANTUM TOASTMASTERS CLUB
CLUB VISITING IN HIROSHIMA, JAPAN
by Lani Wiig, Member of New Horizons Toastmasters
Have you ever visited, or thought of visiting,
a Toastmasters club in a foreign land?
I took my first trip to Japan as a tourist 50 years
ago and, in the 1980s, spent the better part of a
decade working as an English teacher there. On
a return journey in 2015, I was excited to spend
an evening with the Quantum Toastmasters Club
in Hiroshima.
My host in Hiroshima was Ron Klein, an
American resident of that city, who put me in
contact with his local Toastmaster friend, Jake
Hirao. When I made initial contact with Jake,
I did not realize that there were any “English
only” Toastmasters clubs in Japan. I was hoping
to be able to give a presentation in Japanese–a
language that I had studied industriously in
college.
Jake indicated that I could give a speech if I
spoke just in English. I decided to update an old
standby presentation from my English-teaching
years in his country: Words from Japanese Used in
American English.
Saturday evening, April 11, 2015. I took a
streetcar to the Hiroshima International House.
Jake was awaiting my arrival in the spacious
first floor lobby. Together we rode an elevator
up to the meeting room. Imagine my surprise
when all the members greeted one another in
English. “Oh, Miss Sasaki, how are you doing
this evening?” “Nice to see you, Mr. Nakagawa.”
I was made to feel cordially welcomed.
Quantum President Nakagawa started the
meeting with a “Thought for the Day.” He wrote
the visitors’ names on the board and turned the
meeting over to the toastmaster for the evening.
The first speaker was Cyndi Bacus from the
Philippines. By way of introducing her speech,
To Love Or To Be Loved?, Ms. Bacus belted out an
impressive, fearless rendition of Elvis’s “Love
Me Tender.” The conclusion of her speech was
charming: “To love is a choice and to be loved
is a gift.”
At one point, various members shared what
VOLUME 3 ISSUE 6 DECEMBER, 2016
had been happening
in their lives recently. One member who had
been away from the club for approximately a
year reported that a friendly telephone call from
a club member had prompted her to return to
the club.
During my speech, I had the members
practice the “correct” American pronunciation
of words such as “karate” (ka-rah-dee, not kah-
rah-tay, the correct pronunciation in Japanese.)
To Japanese ears, people in the USA make hash
of numerous borrowed words such as karaoke,
samurai, harakiri and futon.
Every aspect of the meeting was handled in
English–the evaluations, Table Topics, and Word
of the Day (“terrific”). Still, the most impressive
part of the evening was yet to come. Jake and
five other members asked me if I would like to
join them for dinner. We chatted our way in the
invigorating night air to a nearby restaurant.
where all of our nearly two hours of socializing
was conducted in English.
In conclusion, I believe Toastmasters clubs
in Oregon have some valuable things to learn
from the Quantum Club in Hiroshima.
1) Why don’t we call up members who have
been away for a while?
2) Why not write guests’ names on the board?
3) Finally, for those of us who travel, why
not visit an English-speaking TM club in, say,
Jamaica, India or China?
Lani Wiig is a member of New Horizons
Toastmasters. He is the author of Toadsuck
Summer, published in 2016.
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