Adventures in Geography

Days like today are what make Toastmasters so much fun. In addition to learning a lot of geographical trivia, we had speeches about Volleyball, growing plants in San Francisco, and Arlinda’s grandmother. And it was fun to hear about both real and imaginary trips to the seven continents. Koala bear hunting? Where did that come from?

Ok, now I'm afraid of YouTube

I was in Toastmasters for a very, very long time before I watched a video of myself for the first time. I always felt kind of guilty about that because there is someone there every week who painstakingly records our speeches. (Thank you, by the way.) But I was really nervous about watching them! I was afraid of what I'd see. When I finally did watch them, I was pleasantly surprised. I mean, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Now I am back to the drawing board and nervous about the YouTube recordings. I will get over it -- I just hope it doesn't take two years.

What to speak about?

Once you decide to join toastmasters, an initial mind block is what do I speak about? I faced the same fear. I thought it had to be something that had a lot of meaning and weight. In my mind it needed to be educational as well.

What exactly is a Malapropism?

In Toastmasters, one of the duties of the grammarian is to listen for Malapropisms. Invariably, the first time grammarian asks, after trying to figure out how to pronounce the word, "What is a Malapropism?"


Simply put, a malapropism is any sentence in which a word is inappropriately replaced with a similar sounding word which means something entirely different than the intended word. For example, "I resemble that remark," instead of, "I resent that remark," or, "The grammarian is excepted to catch malapropisms," instead of "The grammarian is expected to catch malapropisms."