Why do I keep coming back to Toastmasters?

By Speaking-life.blogspot.com

Toastmastering is addictive! I am a serial toastmaster!

No matter how much I try to cut down on my toastmasters activities, I continue to help out as a project evaluator, language evaluator or even the toastmasters of the evening on occasions where I can spare the time.

Going forward, I will have to drastically cut down my toastmastering activities especially from March 2008 onwards as my daughter will be announcing her presence to the world! In the meantime, I am still having a blast participating in toastmasters activities.

Being involved in toastmasters is not purely ultristic, I gain a lot from participating as an project evaluator and as a language evaluator.How project evaluation can benefit you.

Those of you who are toastmasters who have completed the Competent Communicator (CC) or Competent Toastmaster (CTM) titles know that when you evaluate, you are practising coaching skills. An effective evaluation is not one that glosses over the weaknesses or the speaker nor is it one that tears the speaker down. Effective evaluations require experienced toastmasters to walk the fine line between encouraging and condemning. It requires you as an evaluator to listen carefully to what, how and sometimes even guess at why the speaker says the things that he says.Speech evaluations have trained me to be a better listener. It has also allowed me to think quickly on my feet to find out how the speaker has either met, exceeded or missed his or her speech project objectives.My approach to speech evaluations has been to be fair and encouraging in tone. So I do not say all is fine when there were clear examples of the speaker not being able to meet one or more of the project objectives. I try to build people up by focussing on what they could do better and to be specific in the feedback. These techniques help me in being a better coach and mentor as I move on to a different phase to be a father to my daughter and a mentor to her development.How language evaluation can benefit you

Those of you who are experienced toastmasters and are fluent in English should consider taking up the role of language evaluator or grammarian in your clubs. If you have tried to arrange of language evaluators in your clubs, you will realise that there are only that many names being shared who are regular language evaluators.I too was afraid to be a language evaluator because I thought I didn't have sufficient vocabulary to comment on the technical references of language. However, as I performed more and more language evaluators, I began to realise that as the language evaluator, my role was not to be an English teacher. Instead, it was to share where I had heard good use of English and to share where I had heard obvious errors in grammar, pronunciation, singlish or poor expressions e.g. cliches. As I delivered more language evaluations, I learnt to listen more carefully and intently on not just what people say but how they said it. It allowed me to critically examine how language was used in a formal setting. I also liked to share with fellow toastmasters during my language evaluation that speaking correct English was important but being able to convey your message to the other party was critical. This means that substance was more important than form, but we could all improve on our forms as we developed our substances! ;-)

Toastmasters is a powerful programme. In my five years of toastmastering, I have achieved Competent Toastmaster (CTM), Competent Leader (CL), Advanced Communicator Bronze (ACB). I am one speech away from my Advanced Communicator Silver (ACS) in my English toastmasters and 4 speeches away from Competent Communicator (CC) in my Mandarin toastmasters.These achievements mean nothing if I have not learnt anything from my toastmasters journey. It is through the journey, the process and the preparation that went into achieving these titles that I grew the most in my toastmastering journey.

Many toastmasters drop out of the programme after achieving their Competent Communicator title. People join and leave clubs and associations all the time. But it is through exposing myself to the different facets of being a toastmaster that I have truly benefitted from the program. It has also allowed me to do something that I had always wanted to do, to touch other people's lives.Toastmasters allows you to do so, if you so chose.

Try toastmasters, it's simply amazing. :-)