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The joy of public speaking - with Toastmasters
Speech masters: British Toastmasters Club founder Michael Nicholson (standing) talks during one of the club’s gatherings in Jakarta
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Speech masters: British Toastmasters Club founder Michael Nicholson (standing) talks during one of the club’s gatherings in Jakarta. Toastmasters, a US-based non-profit educational organization, has 90 clubs in Indonesia that help people improve their public speaking skills.
It often begins with butterflies in your stomach and cold and sweaty hands, not to mention a racing heart. It feels like you are standing on the edge of a cliff, but it’s not base jumping – it’s just public speaking.
If public speaking strikes fear in your heart, joining a Toastmasters club may be the solution.
Toastmasters, an US-based non-profit educational organization, has 90 clubs in Indonesia that provide a friendly and uplifting learning environment for Indonesians and expatriates alike to improve their public speaking skills in English, Indonesian or Mandarin.
One of these groups is the British Toastmasters Club, which gathers a dozen professionals of various fields every second and fourth Thursday of the month at the World Trade Center in Kuningan, South Jakarta.
A recent meeting was started with a Table Topic session, where five members — referred to as toastmasters — delivered impromptu speeches about topics randomly picked from paper bags.
Ikhsan, an employee of an Indonesia-based airline company, pulled a paper clip and was asked to persuade a group of medical doctors to buy the clip. He took a minute to think before delivering a convincing speech in front of fellow toastmasters about the advanced technology that the clip uses to diagnose diseases.
After drawing unknown objects from the paper bags, every toastmaster is forced to think on their feet to deliver their speech.
Mieke, a certified hypnotherapist, convinced people to adopt dogs with a picture of a Bulldog in her hand.
Meanwhile, Shareen Ratnani, a preschool owner, delivered a six-minute speech about how she spent her day using a collection of items, including a book and a smartphone.
“There is always cold hands because of the timer, people watching you and you know you’re being evaluated,” said Shareen, the co-founder of Kiddie Planet Montessori Plus Preschool in Jakarta.
“But I think the more you do it, the more comfortable you will get,” she added.
After the Table Topic session, three toastmasters presented their prepared speeches. Each of them must finish the speech when the Toastmaster Timing Light turns red at the six-minute mark.
Impromptu speech: A Gavel club member delivers a speech about her New Year’s resolutions.
(JP/Yuliasri Perdani)
The British Toastmasters club was started in 2004 by Michael Nicholson, a British Human Resources consultant who retired in Jakarta. The majority of the members are Indonesian, but there are also those from Japan and India.
Nicholson said that Toastmasters gave participants training books, but allowed them to learn at their own speed
Shirley, an IT consultant, said that activities in the club had helped her to communicate more effectively with her clients.
“After participating in three meetings, I got more confident and comfortable when speaking English,” said Shirley, who joined the club in December 2015.
“I really enjoy the club. It provides an encouraging environment. The club members give you mostly positive feedback.”
There is a series of evaluations of the speeches, which adds more excitement to the meeting.
Seasoned club members make a general evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of each speech, and give advice about what needs to be improved.
At the end of every meeting, a grammarian evaluator will point out the grammatical errors without specifying which speakers made them. There is also an Ah & WOD evaluator, who counts the number of times each speaker mentions the word of the day, and also the number of times he/she pauses and says “ums” and “ahs”.
The meeting is closed with the voting of the best speakers and evaluators, who have the honor of holding and taking a picture with the club’s trophies.
Founded in the US in 1924, Toastmasters has 332,000 members in 15,400 clubs spread over 135 countries. Indonesia is a home to 90 Toastmasters clubs, with nearly 60 clubs located in Jakarta.
Although Toastmasters is a non-profit organization, each members needs to pay around Rp 1 million (US$70) per year mainly to cover communication and leadership manuals.
On May 20 to 22, Jakarta hosted the Toastmasters District 87 Annual Conference and International and Table Topics speech contests, drawing some 400 contestants and attendees from Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei.
Nicholson, who also acts as Assistant Director Club Growth Division I Indonesia, said the clubs are conducted mostly in English, but there were also Mandarin and Indonesian clubs.
Nicholson said there was only one Bahasa Indonesia club in Jakarta but he hoped this year more Bahasa clubs would be started.
For those under 18, Toastmaster has the Gavel Club at the World Trade Center Jakarta, in which young members are encouraged to make speeches about fun and light topics.
A Gavel club member, Cindy, 17, said the club’s activities helped boost her confidence. “I was so nervous when delivering my first speech, but now I am getting used to it. The Gavel club helps my activities at school. Sometimes, I have to lead a group, so I have to communicate clearly with them.”
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The club can be found through the Club Finder tab at website toastmasters.org. Those interested can start their own club in their offices or communities.
