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Dear Members: 很高興宣佈，台灣地區總會的唐華瑄 會友 獲得傑出會員的榮銜!恭喜唐華瑄 會友獲得此一殊榮,值得大家喝采！ |
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Q: Brief us about your Toastmasters journey. How and when did you join Toastmasters?
A friend in the US told me about Toastmasters, so one day I happen to
look at a Compass Magazine and there I found an ad for Taichung
Toastmasters club. That same day I saw that I saw the ad in the
magazine, I attended a TTC meeting. I joined Toastmasters in December
2007 with the hope of improving my Mandarin speaking skills! I know this
must sound crazy, but I also knew that I needed some improvement with
English fluency as well. After living abroad for many years, I found
that I would forget many simple expressions and phrases that were so
commonplace to say when I lived in the US. In the end, joining
Toastmasters helped me to improve my Chinese and English! Q: What challenges did you face and what sacrifices have you made to reach here?
I have written articles in conference manuals explaining my struggles in
Toastmasters and how they have always made me into a better, stronger
speaker and leader. I have lost two speech competitions. One loss was
thrilled to get second place, the other was a heartbreaking
disappointment. But in Toastmasters you learn humility. A speech that
you poured your heart and soul into doesn’t mean it’s a winning speech,
and if you spend almost every waking second sending emails to your club
members and organizing every meeting perfectly, doesn’t mean you will
always get the pack on the back you deserve. In the beginning I was
insulted because I was accustomed to always receiving so much praise for
every small thing I did. Once I became a Toastmaster, I performed many
tasks. Sometimes I received tremendous praise and appreciation and other
times I didn’t. Now I don’t need it. I give it to myself because I know
that it’s all a part of the giving and receiving process in life.
Toastmasters taught me that
I am a trained ESL instructor from the US. I started in Corporate
America but I quickly realized that sitting at a desk all day wasn’t for
me. Then pursued my graduate studies in international affairs and
education. While in graduate school for my international affairs degree,
I was desperate for a job, any job, so I settled for an afterschool
Spanish teaching position. From the very first day I taught that class,
I knew that I should be teaching, speaking, sharing and learning from
others, so then I got a second master’s degree in education. Thereafter,
I taught public school, boarding school and community college in the US
before moving overseas and teaching at an oil school in Balikpapan,
Indonesia for two years. Then I came to Taiwan to teach at the American
School in Taichung in 2005. After many years of teaching, I suffered
from what teachers call “teaching burnout”. I figured that maybe I was
just tired of teaching children, so I attempted to get my PhD with the
hopes of that being my gateway into teaching at university. My doctoral
studies didn’t work out but now I work at a cram school where I teach
children and adults, some classes, some one-on-ones. I never get bored,
I love the students I teach, and I feel I learn just as much from them
as they learn from me. In the end everything always works out! Q: What changes has Toastmasters introduced in your life to make you carry on?
Toastmasters has changed my attitude about the art of public speaking.
Writing and delivering quality speeches that move people’s hearts are
the toughest jobs on this planet – except for maybe brain surgery! Now
when I listen to a speech, I appreciate the effort the speaker made to
use rhythm, to provide allegory and to challenge my brain with humor and
metaphor. Q: How has Toastmasters helped you develop better leadership and communication skills?
I have served as a president of Taichung Toastmasters and Taichung
Advanced clubs. Both times I found serving as president challenging.
Because for the former, it was during the recession in Taiwan and many
people were unemployed or underemployed, so it was difficult to persuade
guests about the benefits of Toastmasters. The latter was challenging
because advanced clubs suffer from having a limited demographic of
members within Toastmasters to choose from. To maintain the integrity of
a truly advanced club was difficult, but we are doing well now, so
sometimes it pays to be stubborn! Q: What is the one thing you look forward to when you attend the Toastmasters meeting?
I always look forward to hearing Table Topics responses. There’s nothing
better than a Table Topics session master well prepared and club members
answering interesting, funny questions in a comfortable, warm,
family-like atmosphere. Q: What does achieving DTM award mean to you?
My DTM means that I found the leader within me that I didn’t know
existed. My DTM means that I became a speaker that I didn’t know that I
wanted to be. My DTM means that I have been able to develop
familial-like relationships with people from completely different
socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds than myself from hard work,
patience and love. Q: What challenges did you face and what sacrifices have you made to reach here?
Every time I served as a leader I loved and hated it at the same time.
As a leader it always seemed that I was stuck doing so much work! I
looked at other leaders and they made the job look so easy. Later I
understood that everyone was working hard, just in different ways. For
some it was overcoming their speaking fears and finding the confidence
to speak as president at every meeting. For me it was learning to love
administrative work. I think God/Universe knew I needed some work in
that department in addition to my poor time-management skills. Also I am
a control freak by nature, so I loved that I could organize meetings and
run them the way I wanted to. But the sacrifice of my time meant that
vacations were cut short, work wasn’t always priority and I had many
sleepless nights debating on whether I was making the right decisions. Q: Before joining Toastmasters what was your dream? Did Toastmasters help you fulfill that?
My dreams were to become a fluent Mandarin speaker, sound like a very
articulate English native speaker and make friends with positive and
supportive Taiwanese people. Toastmasters helped me achieve all of my
dreams and so much more. Now I love public speaking and helping others
develop their own public speaking abilities. I never wanted to be a
leader, but now I have the experience and confidence to know that I can
organize or lead anything – if I want to. Q: What you do in your spare time? During my spare time, I love to exercise, practice my Chinese, listen to music, chat with my mom and other friends on Skype, and of course – Toastmasters! |
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