Public Speaking is a challenge for almost anybody without any speech disorder, so imagine how it can be if you must practice that suffering stuttering. This was a common idea that came to our mind when the first guest introduced himself, Ben, from Israel, and told us about the club he is creating back home in the Israeli Stuttering Association, where he is the president. This visiting Toastmasters also participated as Timekeeper of the Day.

The meeting agenda contained one Icebreaker (first speech in the club) and two projects number 4 from the Competent Communication Manual (“How To Say It”), so there were many good examples on the usage of the language in oral communications to effectively communicate your message in a specific context. Just one from each speaker:

“Expect nothing, appreciate everything” (Tony Bryant)

“Your life is in your friend’s hands” (Jesús Clemente)

“You are skeptic or you are a Harry Potter like me” (Maria Marjevscaia)

The two first ones make you reflect, and survive the speech itself. They are powerful to stick the message in the audience’s brain. The last one had a specific purpose during her speech: connecting the audience to the speech, to the speaker, and introducing a piece of humour with the reference to Harry Potter.

The club’s founder, and Distinguished Toastmaster, Jim Dodson, offered us an interesting Table Topics session, and served as inspiration for future Table Topics Master in the future. He commented some news, making everybody be part of the story and form an opinion about it, and suddenly dropped the question to the victims. The main advantage of this technique is that you make everybody be prepared for the question, so that everybody participates in a way, and the speaker is ready for the mini-speech.

Written by Nacho