Raise Your Glass

What exactly does the Toastmasters club do? In Toastmasters you get to give speeches to a bunch of strangers every week to sharpen your presentation skills. Why the name “Toastmasters”? I think maybe it's because at the beginning the founder thought that he was training people to do the toastmaster's work, the people who do the toast and who make speeches in large events, something like that. Through 80 years of development, then, this concept expanded. Do you guys practice giving toasts? No, but in our parties we do! Could you give us an example of a memorable toast during one of the Toastmasters' parties?b “Toast for Toastmasters!” That's the regular toast ... This organization is mostly Chinese, but there are also foreigers there, correct? Yes, especially in my club. We have people from another seven countries. What language do they practice giving speeches in?** Now they're doing speeches in English, but we're developing into a bilingual Toastmasters club, that means you can do speeches either in English or Chinese.

Details: The Zhongguancun Toastmasters meet up each Tuesday at 7pm. See their listing on CW's website or http://zhongguancuntm.blog.sohu.com for more information.