Hello Toastmasters,

Once again, please let me talk about a unique club in NYC.

They meet at a clean conference room of a big company in Manhattan New York.
The venue is equipped with TV monitors, CCD cameras and a good sound　system.

That lunchtime meeting I attended was conducted with the help of the Internet!

TMD (Toastmaster of the Day) presided over the meeting at the company’s Florida office.

A speaker delivered a speech at his office in Washington D.C.

An evaluator participated in the meeting at his home in New Jersey.

They all could do so with the help of the Internet!

Four big monitors displayed their performances well, and the Bose　sound system carried their voices beautifully.

I marveled at the meeting which was also very smoothly conducted.

“Welcome to the 21st century!” the club president proudly said to me.

I spoke at the Table Topics session, and also served as a speech　evaluator.

Four big TV monitors displayed me from different angles, and the sound system reminded me that my voice sounded different from that I　usually hear, a bit high pitched and a nasal voice.

It was a shocking revelation.

And yet, I loved the system!
I thought it was a superb training equipment.

Two prepared speakers ended with saying “I challenge you to do,,,,”.
Actually, in NY, speakers sometimes end with saying this, “I challenge you to do this in your daily life.” etc.

That reminded me of our propensity to misuse this word,”Challenge” in Japan.

We often say, “I will challenge a new speech project soon,” etc.

Usually in English language, you can NOT challenge something.
You can challenge somebody.

Therefore, “I’ll challenge myself to overcome nervousness” could be said.

But, “I’ll challenge my nervousness” would sound a bit unnatural to　native English speakers.

“I’ll take on a challenge of such a tough speech contest.” would be　okay.
Or, “I challenged seven other speakers at the speech contest.” could　be said.
Let’s keep that in mind!

BTW, three dynamic Chinese speakers actively participated in this　meeting.
I was most impressed with their integrity, intellect and insights.

Some would argue, “Speaking good English is not important. The　contents matter!”

I partially agree.

Be that as it may, I believe it won’t hurt if you could represent　yourself with good spoken English.

In summary, I think this kind of TM meeting would be highly　recommendable especially in Japan.

Even if you live afar, through the Internet, you can join meetings　held in many parts of the nation.

Why don’t we try to implement the idea of holding this sort of　meetings, especially in Japan?!