Over the weekend, I attended our online Advanced Toastmasters Club. It is not yet chartered so we are working to become a chartered club. Toastmasters International requires at least twenty members to charter a new club. We just need three more.
But that is not what I want to write about. I was reminded of all we learn about language in toastmasters. We have a role called grammarian and another role called “ ah” counter. These two roles teach us a lot about habits that we have adopted in our day to day language.
For instance, how many times a day do you talk about “ things”, “ I was working away at “ things” and this happened.” Or How many of those things do you want? Can we not have different words instead of things? For instance, I was working away at writing my blogs and I was listening to music. It is more interesting than “ things”
We also pick up on incorrect use of language or slang. We listen for “ums”, “ ahs” and other filler words. If you don’t know what to say next, just pause. We learn about the power of the “ pause”. We are not perfect and we don’t demand perfection but we do encourage you to improve your communication skills.
We are just reminding each other of the little habits we create in our every day speaking. We choose how much we want to change for ourselves. It is often a fun activity ( thing) to track the filler words and everyone uses them
There is so much to become aware of in Toastmasters. There is a reason that there are over 300,000 members worldwide. Want to improve communication and leadership? Need to speak at work? Visit a toastmaster’s club and see how they can help.
