It was fascinating to attend a Toastmasters meeting in Japan.
Sapporo Pioneers are an English language Toastmasters club, and they made every effort to make me feel welcome. I was quite touched by what appears to be a poster attached to the whiteboard in the image above, but which is actually a tea-towel with a map of Wales and the location of the most prominent Welsh castles!
The club has posted about my appearance on Facebook, and that can be seen here:
My talk was called "What is a Jemmy?" A member of the club suggested this visual answer:
The concept of my talk was to present the facts of a legal case, and to ask the audience to tell me whether they considered the character in the speech to be guilty or not guilty. I had been warned that not all members of the club were fluent English speakers and that I should keep my talk fairly straightforward. The feedback indicates I had mixed success with that!
It was a fascinating meeting to attend. My fellow speaker was telling us about the traditions attached to various animals in Hokkaido. And the table topics session - I think designed in my honour - was about the attractions of Hokkaido to visitors. My abiding impression is that they have particularly good beer.
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