Written by Svetlana
Introduction
Bloomsbury Speakers Club hosted its regular meeting on Monday 12th January 2015 with an enthusiastic opening from President Jo who mentioned that Toastmasters was the right place if one wanted to get rid of fear of public speaking, the palpitations of being nervous and learn to enjoy it.
Prepared Speeches
After the Introduction, Jo handed the meeting over to the Toastmaster of the Evening Joe, whose easy and elegant manner and the theme of the Night was a good way of returning into the grove of our delightfully busy meetings. According to Joe, after the razzmatazz and the glitz and glamour Christmas, we enter a somewhat cold long month of January. In these times, he is looking forward to the evenings getting lighter, not having to eat turkey for another 12 months and spending some Monday evenings among Toastmasters! For introductions, Joe used answers to one question: however small or big, what we are looking forward to in January or later this year.
Joe introduced functionaries of the day: Hari the Timekeeper and Glen the Grammarian.
There were three prepared speeches on the agenda. The first speaker Alefiyah’s No. 2 Speech Project “The SSLANGmobile (self-study language-mobile)” was a very informative, instructional, and well-organised description of a self-study language learning methodology, which uses modern internet and mobile applications. She offered a number of easy tips and pieces of advice among which consistency was named as the most important one for good results and maintaining strong motivation.
Peter L. (who in 2015 was determined to promote vegetarianism as a protest against the death of millions of turkeys that have to be slaughtered every Christmas) delivered his Speech No. 4 “The Big Piece of Paper” devoted to the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta. Peter L. addressed three questions: what it was for, what its name meant and what it meant for him. He used his personal experience of judicial system, a well-known occasion when David Cameron was asked about Magna Carta. These events brought Peter L. back to the notion of Magna Carta, which effectively limited the powers of monarchy and laid a foundation for many modern fundamental laws, such as habeas corpus, speedy trial, and due process under the law; thus, indirectly, it continues protecting main liberties and individual rights and continues being the source of law.
Damien (who looks forward to the Rugby World Cup) in this his No. 7 Speech Project entitled “The Forgotten Parrott” related a detailed account of controversies, facts and figures, which shed light onto the less known 150 years of history of records set by professional and amateur long-distance runners since 1770 when James Parrott, a fruit seller, who was also a long-distance runner, set the first record of running 1 mile under 4 minutes, but it was forgotten due to methods of measuring and recording results and lack publicity. Since then, there were other talented and strong runners who ran the distance under 4 minutes before Roger Bannister whose result in 1954 was the first one to be officially recorded.
Swarajit (who looks forward to the next Christmas) in his advanced speech “Probability Problems” from Manual “Speaking to Inform” told us about odds of probability, statistics and our perceptions of probability, which differ. He used an interactive probability game with a chocolate prize to test the probabilities and show us that the reality is counterintuitive and mathematics of probability is shocking. This should help us accept the public domain discourse especially from journalists who don’t know what they are talking about with a pinch of salt.
We had warm guest introduction from Michelle and well-balanced evaluations from Egor, Faith-Rose, Svetlana, and Femi.
Table topics session conducted by Peter F. was a fun session with interesting questions and imaginative impromptu answers. Peter F. gave very positive instruction, inspired and encouraged speakers, facilitated the session with warmth.
“What is your favourite childhood memory?” went to Svetlana, who said she had lots of happy memories but told us the one that was most memorable and which gave her flashbacks from time to time; it was about her very first and last gymnastic lesson, which made her extremely happy but after which she couldn’t find her way back home. She was only 7.
“If you had a chance to do a makeover what would you do differently?” went to Henry, who said he would change the way he looks at the world and make over his soul to be happy, productive, to oose smiles and feel incredibly positive. He would try everything to find what would work – from a magic pill to change of climate.
“If you had a chance to travel where would you go and why?” went to Rachel who told us that she travelled to Moscow, New York, Ireland and visited Copenhagen, after which she decided she would go to Scandinavia, Iceland, Norway and she told us how much she liked those countries and was interested in them.
“What teacher in school made the most impact on you and why?” went to Georgia, who told us about her English teacher who instilled in her the love of arts and literature.
“What was your most defining moment of your life?” went to Graham who named quite a few defining moments starting with visits to a dentist but the most important one was meeting his current partner.
“What is your strongest quality?” went to Tom who said that it was persistence which helped in so many cases and circumstances throughout his life, such as learning languages and some others.
Hari provided a thorough evaluation of Table Topics speakers’ with lots of commendations and useful recommendations.
Grammarian Glen’s report was a thorough, very educational report on the language usage of the day which contained many examples along with recommendations.
It was followed by General Evaluation from Isabel de la Cour, Phoenix Speakers, provided a lot of positive feedback and very helpful recommendations. Her speech was enthusiastic and peppered with humour.
Awards
Best speaker award was handed to Peter; best evaluator award went to Hari; and best impromptu speech award went to Henry!!!
Next meeting
Our next regular meeting will be held on Monday, 26th of January upstairs at The Clerk and Well, 156 Clerkenwell Rd, London EC1R 5DU. Doors open at 6:30pm.
