Grammarian Special
We focused on the meeting role of Grammarian at this meeting. Grammarian is supposed to pay attention to the use of language throughout the entire meeting and sometimes intimidates new and/or inexperienced members. That is why we focused on this role with one of the speakers, Hideo, deliver a speech about some tips in serving in this role. He suggested that a new member who is not really confident in serving in this role start small, focusing on typical grammatical mistakes such as subject-verb agreement, verb tense mix-ups, countable/uncountable nouns among others. As we get used to the role and improve our language skills, we can pay attention to more complex errors and mistakes including word usage, inappropriate word choice and such. In addition, we are encouraged to spot some nicely put phrases, descriptive words, and figurative language.
We had three Grammarians at the meeting. They described their role at the beginning and later presented their respective reports incorporating some tips they learned listining to Hideo's presentaiton. After their Grammarian reports, participants voted for the Best Grammarian award, which meant that every participant was encouraged to pay attention to other participants' language use.
Now, Toastmasters is not a place to practice your language skills. Improving our English speaking skills should not be the priority. Our primary goals should be improving your public speaking skills that encompass how to select your materials, how to put them in the most effective order, how to add emphasis by optimizing your way of delivery among others. Yet, it is highly important to improve your language skills as well because, at the end of the day, our messages are conveyed using words and how effectively we can control our language directly affect how effectively our messages are conveyed. The reason we have the Grammarian role in Toastmasters is to help speakers be more careful about our words. In trying our best to do a great job at the Grammarian role helps not just our fellow members but also ourselves become a better communicator.