or: Spicing Your Life up with Improvisational Comedy and Clinical Hypnosis.
One of my business consulting clients is multilingual, and is now working in Japan. He came to me one day saying “When I speak in Japanese with people at the company, they often reply back in English. It’s frustrating.”
I told him – they’re probably just trying to be helpful. You can compliment them. Say “Your English is very good – you’re very bilingual, and I need your help to learn to speak Japanese better. Could you reply in Japanese when I speak Japanese?”
Just when I said “Your English is very good,” my client burst out laughing, and took notes.
The principle at work is “Accept what you are offered.”
Saturday a week ago, I went to Roppongi to dance salsa, but the place I usually go to was empty. A lot of Japanese have left from Tokyo to the west, and a lot of foreigners have left Japan altogether, fearing nuclear contamination. I wholly avoid watching the news because it’s covered with speculation about [...]
“Yochan, Otsukaresan” Jason, good job today. Said Sensei. “Arigato Gozaimashita.” I sais, and bowed in thanks. I was surprised to see how happy I felt, and I am reminded of how special a role Aikido has played in my life.1. 1. Commune: Unlike Chinese Taiji or Wushu, which can be performed alone, the forms in [...]
Toastmasters is like a dojo, a model of the larger world, where members can experiment and can get to know themselves better. At a any given meeting, the agenda-maker sends out the agenda, and the chair confirms roles, and runs the meeting. On a particular meeting in June, the agenda-maker sent the proposed agenda just [...]
I was invited by Mieko Kobayashi, the head coach and a fellow Toastmaster, to coach a pair of teams for the Imagine Cup, a worldwide competition between schools that challenges students to come up with solutions to world problems. This year’s problems were drawn from the United Nations Development Program’s Millenium Development Goals. One of [...]
Yesterday, I helped the Chabad House of Tokyo put together a documentary about the making of kosher nori (dried kelp sheets). I didn’t pre-script any of the voice-overs. The hard part was getting the words to match the scenes transitions, and I found that the easiest way to do this was to record in segments, [...]
The April 2009 issue of Toastmasters Magazine has an interesting article on how to apply debate principles to real-life conversations: acknowledging points made by the other side allows the other side to feel heard, and makes you seem like a more reasonable person. anticipate and prepare for objections use even-handed language, not prejudicial or loaded [...]
The April 2009 issue of Toastmaster Magazine, a magazine for public speakers, features Clifton Toastmasters, who meet at a men’s homeless shelter in Atlanta, GA. “A club provides skills, confidence for men in an Atlanta shelter.” How to Handle a Heckler featuring specific techniques such as Maintain control at comedy stores by applying comedic pressure [...]
