April events around the world - 'Friends, Romans, Countrymen'

What a busy month, humorous and serious. It started on April 1st which was April Fool's Day and Easter Monday.

Ramadan dates 2024 and 2025

Ramadan ended April 9th 2024.  However, Ramadan is not in April in 2025. In 2025 it will be from Feb until March for 30 days. Travellers may wish to travel before the date of the start to reach Muslim countries and areas to enjoy evening meals with the family or street markets, or to avoid Muslim countries on these dates if you wish to visit Muslim restaurants. In some Muslim countries and areas you will find other restaurants open to foreigners, eg Chinese restaurants open to Westerners in Malaysia - look for the red lanterns and lights on.

Varied Celebrations & Commemorations

April has brought us Shakespeare and St George's Day in England, Anzac Day in Australia and New Zealand, and Earth Day worldwide.

Earth Day

Monday April 22nd was Earth Day. 

Harrovians Toastmasters International speakers' training and leadership club in Harrow was celebrating its 21st anniversary. Inflatable globes decorated with maps depicting the world were on stage. 

Costco Cake Catering

We had a birthday cake which was ordered from Costco on Saturday and delivered on Monday. The icing was delicious. The cost was about seventeen pounds for a large cake.

Guest of Honour, Mayor Harrow

The club had invited the Mayor of Harrow to speak, and his wife the mayoress. The mayor was dressed in red. He entertainingly told us that a little girl aged about six had mistakenly though he was Santa Claus and asked him for a present. She assured him that she had been very good.

Left: The mayor of Harrow, Ramji Chauhan. 

Centre: Toastmasters International, UK South, Club Growth Director, Mo Dawodu.

Right: Angela Lansbury, member of Harrovians Toastmasters Club since 2004.

If you wish to read about the early days of Harrovians, I wrote an account of it which you can buy from lulu.com

Shakespeare & St George

Tuesday 23rd April, all day and every year on the 3rd, is St George's Day. It is also Shakespeare's birthday. A chance to celebrate with quotations from Shakespeare.  

The red cross on white is familiar to football supporters who know the England team's insignia.

ANZAC

Thursday 24th is Anzac Day in Australia and New Zealand. Marches start at dawn in Australia. 

Field of Remembrance, Australia. Photo from Wikipedia.

The Anzac Field of Remembrance is wooden crosses for those who lost their lives, planted by the War Widows' Guild, in St Andrews Church, Sydney, Australia. Other events include playing of the sound of the Last Post. Events take place worldwide, Malaysia, Tasmania, Canada, UK.

Decorations on memorials and gravestones in cemeteries in New Zealand. Wiki.

Gallipoli, Turkey. Wikipedia.

Anzac Cove, Turkey. Wikipedia.

Hobart Cenotaph, Tasmania, Australia.

Sabah, Malaysia.

PASSOVER MEALS

Monday 22nd and 23rd this year (following a Jewish calendar with changing days) are Passover or Seder night for the UK Jewish community. In Israel, religious events take place on one day, but in the diaspora they last two days to be sure to align with the time the event is celebrated in Jerusalem.

Jesus's Last Supper was a Passover meal, commemorating the angel of death passing over the houses of Hebrew slaves when a plague swept over Egypt. 

The Discovery Channel programme investigating suggested that wet weather turned mouldy the stored wheat or grain. The wheat was eaten by the richer Egyptians. They gave double portions to the older firstborn son, hence the deaths of their firstborn. 

This food poisoning was known in the USA in a previous century as the cause of St Vitus's dance.  The spring cleaning by finishing up last year's old flour before stocking up with the new season's harvest accounts for the unleavened matzah eaten by Jews and the lent fast including pancake day to use up old flour.

If you have a meeting of a club any time in April you could choose any these events as your theme.

April 20th was Chinese Language Day.

The last day of the month April 30th, this year 2024, is the last day of Passover, April 30th is also National Child Day which encourages reading to children, national Mahjong Day which encourages you to play or learn to play mahjong, and adopt a shelter pet day and therapy animal day, and International Jazz Day. If you want to end with a sweet treat, it is also national oatmeal cookie day and bubble tea day. As Shakespeare said, or rather, wrote, All's Well That Ends Well.

Useful websites

Easter

https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/members-area/kids/kids-rule-makes-and-bakes/why-do-we-eat-eggs-at-easter/

Anzac Day

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anzac_Day

https://www.timeout.com/sydney/news/our-guide-to-the-anzac-day-dawn-services-and-marches-in-sydney-042224

Shakespeare

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Shakespearean_phrases

St George's Day

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13339457/thousands-brits-call-st-georges-day-bank-holiday.html

https://nationaltoday.com/april-30-holidays/

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How To Social Media to Advertise Events: Facebook, Meetup, Eventbrite

When holding an event in your home country or overseas, you need to know how to get publicity. Nowadays social media is the thing. Here are some of the suggestions which I have been exploring for my club, Braddell Heights Advanced Toastmasters International Speakers' Club in Singapore.


Braddell Heights Advanced Speakers' Club in Singapore.

I belong to four clubs, two public speaking clubs in London and two in Singapore.

In London the first club I joined was Harrovians. The club began meeting in a pub in Harrow. It moved to another pub, then three more location, a pub in Harrow Weald, a hall in Stamore, and a church hall in Stanmore, before coming back to Harrow to meet in a baptist church. You can see the Harrovians page on Facebook.

I later joined HOD in London. They moved from Stanmore to Harrow..

Facebook
You can make a page for a club and its events, mention an event on your home page, or even make a page for an event, such as an annual conference. I have attended Writers Holiday in Wales and Writers' Summer School in Derbyshire, England. Both attract visitors from all ove the world through their Websites and we keep in touch with each other throughout the year on Facebook. You can have one official page for publicising the event and another for chatting and news of members.

Meetup
In Singapore I have just joined Meetup. This proved very successful for bringing in new members in London and for several clubs in Singapore.

The system is similar to many others. You pick a name for your group, load up a name, add a profile for yourself. You have a calendar for future events.You can add photos from events.

Promotion Throurgh Changing Your Personal Or Club Photo
Decide which photo shows your people and activities best. What does it say about you. For example, a business admin college decided they wanted viewers of their page to get the idea that the college and the college society would help you get employment or a well paid job. So they changed out of their casual clothes into business suits with brief cases and ran a tagline along the lines of enhance your career with our college degree and network at our college club.

My club Braddell Heights Advanced is an advanced club so I choose a picture which shows us with ribbons or trophies.

Another club, Jurong Green Advanced. found that beginners were discouraged or confused by the name advanced, so the club changed its name to English (to distinguish itself from another club at the same venue called Mandarin.

If you are in Singapore come along to Braddell ieghts Advanced Toastmsters International Speakers' Club.  The cost is only ten Singapore dollars and you will gain an enormous amount of information about job interviews, networking and media and social life, relationships and even your dating or love life.

Eventbrite
Eventbrite offers lots of options. You can change the admin from one person to another, eg a colleague at your business. You can have a sub-user.

You can accept payment in various currencies.

You can run events free, no fee to Eventbrite. Or have earlybird free. That would allow you to change and upgrade fees later if you decide you need the money or the event is nearly full and you want to be sure that those who sign up will turn up.

So, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Meetup, Eventbrite, lots of options.

Please check out Braddell Heights Advanced speakers club on Facebook, Meetup and so on. In the next month you will see our page improving.

About the Author
Angela Lansbury, President of Braddell Heights Advanced Toastmasters Club. Meetings the first Wednesday evening of every month from 7 to 9.30 or ten, depending on the number of speakers, and the third Saturday afternoon 2-5.  

Learn to speak clearly and confidently at a toastmasters International club in London

Harrovian Speakers (Harrovians for short) meets the first, third and fifth Wednesdays eery month (barring bank holidays) at a church near Harrow on the Hill station on the Met line.


To attend a toastmasters meeting anywhere in the world, go to Find a club. Singapore has about 200+ clubs.

The clubs where I am a member and which I recommend are:

Harrovians
HOD

About Toastmasters
16,600 clubs in 143 countries.
Number of Toastmaster Clubs
Worldwide: 16,600+
U.S. clubs: 8,800+
International clubs (not including U.S.):
7,800

Useful Websites
https://www.toastmasters.org/find-a-club

About the Author
Angela Lansbury is a member of four Toastmasters International Speakers clubs, two in London, England and two in Singapore. Need a speaker in a hurry - call Angela.
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Clubs To Visit In The UK, Singapore, or Worldwide, Whilst Newsletters From Home Clubs Echo Thank You Speeches

I wrote to a club in London:

Greetings from sunny Singapore 
(Actually - I use the over-used word actually correctly, to indicate modifying a platitude statement - it's no longer sunny, but after two hot, sweltering sunny days, cooling rain is welcome.) 

I am acquiring skills and experience to bring back to HOD and the UK. I am the sponsor of a forthcoming bilingual English-Chinese club. I just attended a Workshop on Club Growth. 

I have been attending a Toastmasters meeting several times a month. I am mostly language evaluator when I aim to be both instructional and entertaining. At the last meeting when I was Language Evaluator, I encouraging everybody in the room in unison to say third, not missing out the H! I pointed out that a turd is what you see in a toilet. That raised a laugh.

PROBLEM

I already have my credentials from Toastmasters. I am away for many meetings of my UK club. Why should I pay to renew membership if I am missing half the meetings?

 I get the Toastmasters magazine full of tips which Toastmasters are glad to share. That gives me my moneysworth from the proportion of my annual fee which goes to the USA. Being a member of two or three clubs means I am paying the USA twice or three times.

ANSWER

To make it worthwhile renewing my club membership, although I am absent, I would be glad to receive a club ‘newsletter’ or meeting summary. This can be part of the duties of: Vice President Public Relations, or Vice President Membership, or project 8 from Competent leader manual for a member, or a High Performance Project for somebody aiming to complete Advanced leader Silver, or Advanced Leader Gold or DTM, or Area Governor project for the Area, a sub-committee organising a rota.

It is merely irritating to hear praise devoid of facts, the news that you missed ‘a wonderful speech by so-and’.

However, I want one practical tip learned from my own club's meetings each month. 

How? Who would do it? 

'Nobody has time during their working day.’ 

(Phooey - the committee's WhatsApp messages go back and forth non-stop between the President, Membership secretary, Treasurer, secretary everybody!)

POSSIBLE TIME-SAVING SOLUTIONS:

1 The General Evaluator could send a one-liner or three sentence summary by WhatsApp 

a) during the meeting or 

b) during the break or 

c) on the train home. (This is done by American Marshall Cooper in Singapore.)

COPYRIGHT ISSUES SOLVED

2 Maybe the chief guest speaker (If none the TME) would prefer to send a quotation: 

eg "Speaker Bob Ferguson says, 'My top tip is …’ ” 

(That way nobody else is revealing the speaker's top secrets; nor off-the cuff possibly inaccurate remarks, ‘Half the audience - don’t quote me on this,’ nor mis-quoting). 

Secondly, the speaker could add their top tip from audience feedback. 

THANK YOU QUOTATION

3 A proper thank you speech by the Toastmaster of the evening, (a thankyou speech is a project in one of the advanced manuals) should incorporate something useful that the speaker has said. 

This sentence can be reused as the WhatsApp message.  The magic quotation forms part of the thank you speech, the thank you letter, and the club newsletter or WhatsApp message, or PR on Facebook or the club website.

UK CLUBS TO VISIT

If you are in London, visit one of the clubs in London, available morning until night, all year. There are breakfast clubs, banking clubs, business networking clubs, English, French, or Polish clubs.

In the UK I am a member of 

HOD Meeting at THE BRIDGE, HARROW, FIRST AND THIRD THURSDAY Evenings, PLUS An advanced club XL on another Thursday. Near Harrow and Wealdstone station.

HOD meeting in Harrow at the Bridge by the Leisure Centre near Harrow & Wealdstone station, London, England.

HARROVIANS meets near Canons Park Station, Edgware, in St Lawrence's Hall, behind St Lawrence's Church, first and third Monday evenings.

Harrovians in the large Hall near behind historic St Lawrence's Church by North London Collegiate School's park near Canons park station and buses from Harrow and Edgware, NW London, England.

In Singapore I am VPR for Braddell Heights Advanced toastmasters club, Singapore. 

If you are passing through Singapore, we meet first Wednesday evening at 7 pm and Third Saturday afternoon at 3 pm. Do visit us! The Community Cub is beside Serangoon MRT railway station.

Braddell Heights Advanced Toastmasters International Speakers' club, Singapore, the committee: Angela, Rachel, Maria, Marcus, Kan Kin Fung.

USEFUL WEBSITE

To find a club in the country where you live or are visiting on holiday or business:

https://www.toastmasters.org/find-a-club

Author, travel writer, photographer, speaker.

Follow me on Facebook, blogger.com and YouTube.

http://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.co.uk

Online Clubs and Committees

Problem
How do you hold a committee meeting when VIP members are overseas on business, holiday or both?

Answer
Use a Skype call. 

Story
I was speaking on the phone to Indra, Treasurer of Harrovian Speakers' Club, about recent contests and contests I shall be missing when travelling and my hope of joining an online Club. He told me that Harrovian Speakers in the UK held a committee meeting in London, at the home of Biju, joined by the VPE (Vice President of Education) Sushil who was in Mubai, India.

I was surprised that it was possible to meet at a mutually convenient time. When you hold a meeting at somebody's house, such as a committee meeting, it is easier to be flexible about the meeting start and end times as you don't have to wait for a caretaker or keyholder to arrive with a key and give you access to a meeting room, and to set up, nor to pack up early in order for the caretaker to lock the room and lock the building.

The committee meeting was a a jovial affair, with members jokingly pretending to offer food to Sushil, saying, 'Would you like a piece of fruit?' and, 'Would you like a biscuit!'

Tip
1 Check time zones in advance.
2 Send the agenda by email so you don't have to hold it up to the iPad or screen for the distant member to read.

Author
Angela Lansbury, CC (Competent Communicator), ACG (Advanced Communicator Gold), member of HOD and Harrovians, London.
Read my blogs on travel, my blogs on speeches, and blogs on other subjects on blogger.com
See profiles and posts on Facebook, LinkedIn, Titter (@AngelaTheAuthor) Instagram, YouTube. 

Please like my pages, follow me and share my posts.

A zoom meeting online.

Update in 2023

Or use Zoom. Or Facebook live. Set to private.

The online club, Singapore International Dynamic, is one of several clubs which meet exclusively online, very conveneient for those who travel a lot.

To find a speakers' club, go to toastmasters international, find a club.

https://www.toastmasters.org/Find-a-Club/

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Learning Spanish - beginning

How do you learn Spanish? Start with a plan, encouragement, confidence, success, progress. When I started learning French at school I created an alphabetical notebook of words I already knew or wanted to learn. When we went to Spain on holiday I bought a pocket size A6 notebook and started writing down Spanish words. I thought I might know 5-10 already. I reckoned if I learned one a day, that would be 365. If I learned 10 a day, that would be 3,650 - a pretty good working vocabulary. If that was too challenging, maybe 5 related words each day - the easiest to remember from a group, or just five every day on holiday, written down from signs passed in the street, or multi-language leaflets.

My first day, first half hour, actually five minutes looked like this:

1 adios - goodbye
2 Amigo - friend
3 si - yes
4 senor - mr
5 Sombrero - hat

Five already!

Keep going

6 señora - mrs
7 senorita - miss
8 gracias - thank you
9 uno - one
10 dos - two

I've reached ten - but am confused as to Italian and Spanish. However, thinking of what I saw or heard in a Spanish restaurant helps keep me on track.

Where were we a moment ago? Numbers one, two, three.

11 tres - three

If you are reading this you have reached today's target. I shall find ten words every day and put them on this blog. Just pop back and read it to effortlessly learn.

If you are in Spain or a Spanish speaking country in South America, Mexico, or even in Washington DC and Los Angeles - hey - even place names help.

12 Los Angeles - the angels. Now we know our first step in creating a phrase. Los is the plural. Actually we have two words. 12 is Los.

13 Angeles - angels

How about learning one grammar rule and one sentence every day? You could do this with any language. Just for fun. This is something you can do waiting for a train or at a bus stop just to start or supplement your other studies.

But how about learning whole sentences by listening, or the basic grammar by reading?

I've also bought the Berlitz system Earworms. Under £20 in the UK if you buy the two discs together. Look for offers on ebay. You could play every day when alone. Or put them in a car with a player. If you are buying a laptop computer and learning languages, it is handy to have one which plays CDs, discs.

If you are into Apple, A MacBook Air is light to carry around but does not play discs so you need a supplementary device, or you can download your disc onto iTunes. `the same presumably applies to separate or linked devices such as an iPhone of iPad.

If you normally listen to a lot of music, you could add your Spanish language disc and a couple of songs. (I recall Fernando's hideaway Ole!) I want to find a Spanish nursery rhyme or basic song which teaches Spanish children simple words or numbers or weekdays.

I'll try to do that tomorrow for my next post. That reminds me.

14 mañana! - tomorrow!
***
About Angela Lansbury the author
Angela Lansbury BA Hons is a teacher of English, French and languages. Also author of ten books by regular publishers, such as Wedding Speeches and Toasts, originally published by Ward Lock, then Cassell, reprinted many times.

Latterly self-publisher of other self-help books such as: Quick Quotations; Who said what when.
(See Lulu and Amazon.) To see Angela reading her work and performing, go to YouTube or Toastmasters International  HOD Speakers Club and Harrovians Club sites and other blogs on blogger.com.

Angela speaks to various groups, speaking on radio and TV and giving workshops to schools, clubs, and universities worldwide, from the USA to China.

PS - If you are already a member of an English speaking Toastmasters Club, look for a Spanish speaking club. I think there is one in the UK, one in Europe and at least one in the USA. Toastmasters International has manuals in other languages.

More Information /links

For numbers - I just googled Spanish one two three and found this handy site
http://www.studyspanish.com/lessons/cardnum1.htm

www.earwormslearning.com/
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_words_of_Spanish_origin