Letters to Taipei Times for Toastmasters   Bruce Yang

Benefiting so much from Toastmasters, I always thought and think what to do to promote Toastmasters besides demo meetings and words of mouth. After several letters to TIME EXPRESS were published, it struck me that I could write letters to Taipei Times, which I have been reading since its establishment, to promote the awareness of Toastmasters in Taiwan. But, what should I do to begin?

The long wait was frustrating way beyond description. Then came the tipping point. On Apr. 15, 2005, I happened to spot a report “Chen honors Rotary centennial” and the sentence “The diversity of non-profit organizations reflects on a nation's humanity.” by Rotary official Michell Lin attracted my attention. Based on this, I began writing my letter with the title “Toastmasters deserves your coverage” to introduce Toastmasters and its development in Taiwan. With the title changed to “Learning to be heard”, the letter was published on Apr.21, right before the Spring Convention held in Yuan Ze University. Encouraging emails and phone calls from club members and senior members in Areas, Division and District did touch me very much.

However, nothing could I do after this but just kept waiting for another opportunity. Two months later, I read another letter, ”Good luck, Taiwan” by an arrogant American, which almost drove me mad. I told myself I had to write back to tell this guy Taiwan wasn't that bad as he thought, at least we still have the Tzu Chi Foundation and Toastmasters. With the title “Taiwan is a great place” it was published on Jun. 27. Again, I was encouraged and got touched.

Then I read another letter “Reading can unlock English” from a professor emeritus in University of Southern California. I wrote to support his ideas but added that delivering a speech in English is also a very good way because it integrates listening, speaking, writing and reading together. And fortunately in Taiwan we have Toastmasters. Unfortunately, the letter was not published. I was a little disappointed but not frustrated. In CTC, I always encouraged members to participate every in-club contest, be it Tall Tale, Humorous Speech, Evaluation, Speech or Table Topics contest, by saying, ”You are already the champion as long as you join the contest and stand on the stage.” So, I also encouraged myself to keep going, never giving it up.

Days went on. I read another letter from a Canadian on the first day of this year. His concern that English programs which focus on writing, reading and speaking need to be developed caught my attention. I wrote a letter to beef up his opinions, adding that Toastmasters programs can benefit adults working in the society as well as students in the universities or colleges. The letter, almost cut in half, was published two days later. Though I came to understand it was extremely impossible to ask the Ministry of Education to lend us a hand by introducing Toastmasters programs into universities, colleges and community colleges- we have to do everything by ourselves- I did like the changed topic “Toastmasters is the answer”.

Bruce Yang