Special Meeting featuring a "Grammarian" Workshop, January 13, 2024

 We held a special meeting featuring a "Grammarian" workshop. The word "Grammarian" here means one of the meeting roles in a Toastmasters meeting. This role is devoted to commenting on the participants' language use. More specifically, a Grammarina pays attention to grammatical errors and mistakes, pick some beautifully put words and phrases, and other language aspects of speeches. 

The plan was to have three members serving as the Grammarians. After a workshop presented by Tenten, they were to pay attention to the language use of the participants while they practiced impromptu speeches in the longer-than-usual Table Topics Session.

At the workshop, Tenten discussed in his presentation titled "Grammarian: From Novice to Expert," how to serve as a Grammarian effectively depending on how knowledgeable and comfortable each member is about grammar and the role. He suggested that inexperienced members pay attention to some common mistakes such as singular/plural, subject-verb agreement, countable/uncountable nouns, and transitive/intransitive verbs. It should be easier to find mistakes when focused on one or two areas.

He mentioned more advanced members could try to find some advanced words explaining their meanings and more advanced mistakes and errors such as word usage challenges. 

At the expert level, members should try to pay attention to word choices. Sometimes the speaker inadvertently or not-knowingly ends up using words that are not as effective words to convey their messages. They could give special attention to those slightly different nuances to help the speaker select the most appropriate words and phrases.

After his presentation, we held a Table Topics Session and listened to the Grammarian reports by three Grammarians. They all successfully incorporated some of the tips shared in the workshop. We will organize more themed meetings going forward. Stay tuned so you won't miss information about these special meetings!