Korea Toastmasters held its fifth conference and speech contest at Seoul Women’s Plaza on April 28-29.
About 250 members gathered to network, learn and watch the competition. Each of the eight contestants represented a specific area in South Korea.
Competing against other Koreans and native speakers, this year’s winner was Hyunju “Jules” Park. Second place was awarded to Ja-Hyung Angeles Oh, and third place was taken by Kevin Lahey.
Korea Toastmasters is still growing, and when 60 clubs have been established, the winner of the contest will advance to the next level and, if successful, eventually reach the world finals held each year in North America.
The first runner-up at last year’s convention in Las Vegas, Kwong Yue Yang, flew from China as the keynote speaker at the Korea Toastmasters conference, giving advice on speech writing.
International Director Balraj Arunasalam, who oversees Toastmaster events in Korea, Japan, India, China, Taiwan and his home country Sri Lanka, also attended to give advice and inspiration for leadership.
Toastmasters is a public speaking and leadership club that started in the U.S. in 1924. There are currently 39 chartered clubs in Korea, where the membership is about two-thirds Korean.
Members work to improve their public speaking and leadership skills by receiving constructive feedback from each other.
While most local clubs are run in English, some are also in Korean and others are bilingual, with one Seoul club supporting Japanese speech-making.
For more information on Toastmasters and to find a club, visit www.toastmasters.org.
By Kevin Parent
Kevin Parent is chairman of Korea Toastmasters Territorial council. ― Ed.