Life in the US can get a bit lonely at times, and my friend from DC, Teja, found the perfect solution with meetup.com. He is a programmer and joins meetups to learn different languages, but he told me there are several other categories of meetups too. UF had a group of outdoor enthusiasts, and ever since I graduated I wish every day that I found such a group where I am. Unfortunately the University here is made up of boring people who only have academic/ religious student groups, and very few recreational groups like sailing club, and climbing group. (They don't even have anything akin to Gator nights!!!) The average age here is 42 and I wasn't comfortable even with the idea of going on a remote hike with 42 year olds. But I did browse other meetups and found a group of coders and hackers, and the toastmasters.
I RSVP'ed for a toastmasters meeting near office. As soon as I stepped in, a lady welcomed me. It was the 1st day of their yearly session, and they began with inducting the new officers. Then they started with the speaker of the day, and his evaluations. One very good point that the evaluator mentioned was that hand gestures should be symmetrical. Most people are right handed and end up gesturing exclusively with their right hands. But the speakers should bear in mind that the audience are seated on both sides, and so they should also try using the left hand once in a while.
Then we started with the table topics, in which multiple speakers have an extempore speech of 2 minutes, and I did speak up. I was good, but by no means was the best speaker in that meeting, yet ended up winning the Best Table Topics speaker. Haha, unfortunately, the new President, in his acceptance speech, had said that he won the prize on his 1st day, and so I knew it was just a lollipop to attract me to the club, and since I am no longer a kid who will be attracted solely by lollipops, the plan backfired. Then 3 different people approached me to tell me about the benefits of the club, and how I should join. BTW, I was looking for a free activity. I think they would need some membership fees for booking the meeting venue etc, but then the meeting can be held in any starbucks, or for that matter anywhere! Again, it is a very structured thing, because the evaluated speaker has to speak exclusively from the 10 topics enlisted in the toastmaster's syllabus. Even the table topics are chosen off a "suggested table topics" list, and so once you have the "syllabus" booklet, there is little scope for extempore. This starting and ending of every other sentence with "Madam toastmaster, or Mr Competent Communicator, or Distinguished toastmaster" seemed too pompous for me. (Imagine that I am in a meeting tomorrow, and every now and then I call people Mr. Program manager, or Mr Chip lead, they would think that I am being condescending or something.) What really pissed me off is that they expect "interjectors" to raise their hands and speak only when permitted. Needless to say, since I am no longer a school-kid, this raising hand business is a thing of past to me, and I was the "interjector", and someone among the members was actually counting the number of "interjections". (In the past year + 3 months of internship of attending meetings, that too, some over the phone, I don't remember a single instance that I had to "raise my hand" to let the speaker know that I wish to interject. :) ). "Again the 3 people mentioned that they will follow up with me by phone regarding the membership, and insisted that I get the membership. (Lol, one of the reasons to get the membership was that I will get an monthly magazine. I asked them if I can get the magazine online and save a few trees.) I think whether I want to improve my life or not should be upto my discretion. All in all, my first impression of toastmasters was not so favourable.
My next was a Coders meetup to learn python, and it was a real fun + learning experience. There was a 8 year old home-schooled boy competent in programming and that really impressed me. I agree, there are advantages of structured learning, but this development of "other" skills is possible in a open learning environment. Hats off! Not just to the mom, but also to the American system, which will accept the boy later in his life when its time to join, say a college, once he has completed the requisites.
I decided to give the toastmasters another shot, and I attended another group's meeting. This time it was in a public library, and I asked the librarian if they need to pay for the meeting room. The librarian told me that it is a "public" library, and all the facilities are free of charge, one just needs to book the meeting room in advance. This group was much more informal. The interjections were a regular part of the meeting and not something to be frowned upon. Infact, there were much more laughs going around. The speaker to be evaluated not just had a structured speech, but followed it up with a unstructured Q&A. Again I was given a very good feedback, that non-native English speakers tend to omit articles (especially "the") because there is no "the" equivalent in the native Indian language. (hah, even in this sentence it should have been "the non-native English speakers". Now that I think about it, my intern supervisor had pointed this out too when I was writing the datasheet and the user guide as a System Engineer.) They were open enough to say that I can attend meetings if I want to, and the membership is just to get me started in leadership positions. Ah the freedom of speech :P
I RSVP'ed for a toastmasters meeting near office. As soon as I stepped in, a lady welcomed me. It was the 1st day of their yearly session, and they began with inducting the new officers. Then they started with the speaker of the day, and his evaluations. One very good point that the evaluator mentioned was that hand gestures should be symmetrical. Most people are right handed and end up gesturing exclusively with their right hands. But the speakers should bear in mind that the audience are seated on both sides, and so they should also try using the left hand once in a while.
Then we started with the table topics, in which multiple speakers have an extempore speech of 2 minutes, and I did speak up. I was good, but by no means was the best speaker in that meeting, yet ended up winning the Best Table Topics speaker. Haha, unfortunately, the new President, in his acceptance speech, had said that he won the prize on his 1st day, and so I knew it was just a lollipop to attract me to the club, and since I am no longer a kid who will be attracted solely by lollipops, the plan backfired. Then 3 different people approached me to tell me about the benefits of the club, and how I should join. BTW, I was looking for a free activity. I think they would need some membership fees for booking the meeting venue etc, but then the meeting can be held in any starbucks, or for that matter anywhere! Again, it is a very structured thing, because the evaluated speaker has to speak exclusively from the 10 topics enlisted in the toastmaster's syllabus. Even the table topics are chosen off a "suggested table topics" list, and so once you have the "syllabus" booklet, there is little scope for extempore. This starting and ending of every other sentence with "Madam toastmaster, or Mr Competent Communicator, or Distinguished toastmaster" seemed too pompous for me. (Imagine that I am in a meeting tomorrow, and every now and then I call people Mr. Program manager, or Mr Chip lead, they would think that I am being condescending or something.) What really pissed me off is that they expect "interjectors" to raise their hands and speak only when permitted. Needless to say, since I am no longer a school-kid, this raising hand business is a thing of past to me, and I was the "interjector", and someone among the members was actually counting the number of "interjections". (In the past year + 3 months of internship of attending meetings, that too, some over the phone, I don't remember a single instance that I had to "raise my hand" to let the speaker know that I wish to interject. :) ). "Again the 3 people mentioned that they will follow up with me by phone regarding the membership, and insisted that I get the membership. (Lol, one of the reasons to get the membership was that I will get an monthly magazine. I asked them if I can get the magazine online and save a few trees.) I think whether I want to improve my life or not should be upto my discretion. All in all, my first impression of toastmasters was not so favourable.
My next was a Coders meetup to learn python, and it was a real fun + learning experience. There was a 8 year old home-schooled boy competent in programming and that really impressed me. I agree, there are advantages of structured learning, but this development of "other" skills is possible in a open learning environment. Hats off! Not just to the mom, but also to the American system, which will accept the boy later in his life when its time to join, say a college, once he has completed the requisites.
I decided to give the toastmasters another shot, and I attended another group's meeting. This time it was in a public library, and I asked the librarian if they need to pay for the meeting room. The librarian told me that it is a "public" library, and all the facilities are free of charge, one just needs to book the meeting room in advance. This group was much more informal. The interjections were a regular part of the meeting and not something to be frowned upon. Infact, there were much more laughs going around. The speaker to be evaluated not just had a structured speech, but followed it up with a unstructured Q&A. Again I was given a very good feedback, that non-native English speakers tend to omit articles (especially "the") because there is no "the" equivalent in the native Indian language. (hah, even in this sentence it should have been "the non-native English speakers". Now that I think about it, my intern supervisor had pointed this out too when I was writing the datasheet and the user guide as a System Engineer.) They were open enough to say that I can attend meetings if I want to, and the membership is just to get me started in leadership positions. Ah the freedom of speech :P
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