National holidays - what's open and shut and why? A Singapore story.

Problem
I once took a holiday to a foreign city for a long weekend, hoping to visit a museum and a restaurant on my last day. Unfortunately, they both closed on Monday.

Singapore
In Singapore, on Tuesday 29th May 2018, I tried contacting people in Toastmasters. Nobody was answering. Why?

From the emails and chats with others I know that in the UK Monday was a bank holiday. America had Thanksgiving. Singapore has Vesak Day on Tuesday.

But surely there must be places which are open? What about other religions, such as church groups?

Answer
Finally, somebody texted me the answer. In Singapore, most Toastmasters clubs meet in Community Clubs. Two of the busiest are Braddell Heights Community Club near Serangoon MRT (train station) which has four clubs, Braddell Heights 1, Braddell Heights II, Braddell Heights Advanced, and Mandarin.

Cairnhill Community Club, almost adjacent to Newton MRT, has about eight clubs, a Mandarin speaking club, a bilingual Malay and English club, a French club, and several English speaking clubs including Cairnhill, Star Millenium Advanced, Filcom for the Filipinos keen to improve their English, and the Vietnamese club and IPA, the Indonesian Professional Association. I have been to the French Club, Francophone, and English speaking clubs.

You would think that like restaurants, Community Clubs would choose to open on National Holidays. Apparently not. Offices and public buildings are closed.

Community centres, although they have outdoor sports areas and open-sided indoor sports areas, are run by offices. Presumably, they also need cleaners to check the toilets every hour. So with those holding the keys to the room also on holiday with their families, the meeting rooms are locked and the clubs cannot meet.

Thanks to the person who enlightened me.

The moral is, don't wait until the holiday and try ringing around because you might get answerphones , recorded information, instructions to ring back after the holidays and phones not answered. When you see a holiday coming up, check in advance what will be open.

visitsingapore.com
singaporeair.com (Singapore Airlines)
https://www.ishopchangi.com
http://www.changiairport.com/en/shop-and-dine.html
http://www.goodwoodparkhotel.com/durian-fiesta-2018-,promotions_viewItem_1341-en.html

visittheusa.com

visitbritain.com

Author, Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Bilingual Toastmasters Speakers' Clubs Worldwide

UK
UK London FRENCH
French in London
Experience French
City Temple Conference Centre
near Farringdon
www.experience-french.org/
Irritating site - easy to find when Toastmasters was founded back in the USA in 1924, but impossible to find the date, time and venue of their next meeting or the phone contact details. Maybe I should go back and read the French.
http://www.meetup.com/Speed-Public-Speaking-en-Francais/

UK London RUSSIAN-English 
Canary Wharf
London UK
NW8 8QR
tel:07768720417

http://whatwhere.me/london/education/russian_english_speakers_toastmasters_273755919348001


UK London SPANISH
website page in Spanish
ww.meetup.com/SpanishSpeakers-Toastmasters/

There should be  a German Toastmasters club in London, UK, last heard of in East London, UK. 
Contacts who might know of a club or help start one:
Ilke (who started English speaking club Harrovians in NW London UK before she joined a club in East London).
Somebody at Excalibur, advanced speakers' club in London, UK. 
My searches direct me to a German club in London, Ontario in Canada. That's why I keep adding UK after London when I mean the UK. Other German speaking but non-Toastmasters clubs in London where you can practise German, or learn German, including the Goethe Institute, so you can follow when you go to a German speaking Toastmasters club elsewhere in the world.
You can get the manuals in other languages from the Toastmasters website, specific page mentioned below near the end of this post.


UK
Polish in London. Club with most meetings in Polish language only. Occasionally meetings in English.
www.polishyourpolish.org.uk

SPANISH
a) In UK

Public url for this Club

http://spanishspeakers.toastmasterclub.org

b) In Spain
Bilingual Spanish and English club in Barcelona meets Wednesdays.
www.bcn-toastmasters.com/

c) In USA
Spanish-English speaking club meets in Ventura, California.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Los-Amigos-Bilingual-Toastmasters-Club/473434029371186

AUSTRALIA -Mandarin and English
Meetings in Mandarin and English and you can give speeches in either language.
http://toastmasters.wikia.com/wiki/Chinglish_Bilingual_Toastmasters_Club

USA - Spanish

 Los Bilingues in Tualatin, Oregon.

BELGIUM
Brussels German:
www.blackforest-toastmasters.com/about
meets 2nd and 4th Thursday of the month

Armada English-Spanish
Atomium English-Dutch
Barlaymont English-French
Claddagh English-Irish
Club des Orateurs (French)

CANADA

Inspiration Bilingue in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada; 

SWITZERLAND
Bilingual German and English club with both languages in the introduction to their website about the founding of the club which meets in Basel, Switzerland.
http://baselmultilingual.toastmastersclubs.org

CHINA
Bilingual clubs include: Shanghai Humor Bilingual Toastmasters and 1st Bilingual Zhangjiang, both in Shanghai, China. 

JAPAN
Bilingual club.
Tokyointernational.org
Meets in Tokyo.


SINGAPORE
Most clubs are English-speaking and everybody whose first language is Mandarin or Hokkien or Cantonese is very keen to practise their English and learn English and give the role of Grammarian or evaluator to a visiting native English speaker, whether from England, the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand or South Africa.

Mandarin in Singapore
Two or three clubs are in Mandarin and one in an Indian language, probably Hindi, but since their websites and answer phones are in foreign languages it's hard to work out if you will meet anybody who speaks any English, and whether they are meeting, or changed their venue, or cancelled because of a religious or cultural holiday.

I went to a Mandarin speaking club but nobody spoke any English except one girl.
I had hoped to learn a few words. No luck. I had hoped to see a bilingual manual. No.

I asked my translator to write down a greeting in Mandarin and thank you in Mandarin.
I gave a speech in English, pausing between each sentence, thanking them for their welcome, and smiles, and food, and saying they seemed very successful, part of a great organisation, and wishing them well.  The agreeable young girl who spoke some English translated into Mandarin - sometimes much briefer than what I said, sometimes much longer! I'll never know whether she understood any or all of what I said, and whether she translated any or all of it, or gave the gist and elaborated some parts more courteously and politely, or summed up.

I should have done a lot more investigation and translation of Chinese (which means Mandarin) in advance. 

ISRAEL
I understand there is an English speaking Toastmasters club in Israel. Most Israelis speak Hebrew as a first language plus a second language, either Arabic which is similar to Hebrew, or English or a European language such as Spanish. (Especially if Sephardi which means of Spanish origin - or they will know another Latin language such as Portuguese or Italian) or French.  German, at least a few words, is likely to be understood if their extended family knows some Yiddish. A few will speak Russian.

BAHRAIN
Filipinos in Bahrain
Filipino Toastmasters Club in Manama, Bahrain.

MANUALS
asters.org/MainMenuCategories/Shop/ManualsBooksVideosCDs_1/MANUALSBOOKSVIDEOSCDs.aspx?Mode=1
Manuals are in Arabic, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, German, Japanese, Spanish. The publications include the first ten speeches manual, the leadership manual, the club kit, and advanced manuals.

More from Toastmasters International website
www.Toastmasters.org/findaclub 

I'll add more to this post when I find more information.
Angela Lansbury
Member of Harrovians Club, London, England; member of HOD Club, London, England. Former member of YWCA club in Singapore. Has visited clubs in Shanghai and Beijing, China; Singapore; Thailand; and International convention in Las Vegas USA.
Author of Wedding Speeches and Toasts; Quick Quotations; Who said what, where, when? (Lulu.com) For more about Angela Lansbury, public speaking, spelling, grammar, performing with puppets, comic poetry, and Toastmasters, see Youtube, LinkedIn, Facebook.