Enhance your public speaking skills with Toastmasters

September 4, 2010 · Filed under Education · Tagged Arab, club, glossophobia, presentation, public speaking, skills, speech, technique, tips, toastmasters

Do you want to become more competent and comfortable in front of an audience? It’s much easier than you think: join Toastmasters!

I am member of my local Toastmasters chapter, and have benefited tremendously from my experience in the last year. It helps me give more effective presentations at work and be more at ease in big social gatherings.

I was curious to survey the clubs in the Arab region (I had already heard of a club in BAU in Tripoli and another in AUB in Beirut via YouTube a few months ago). I found that there are no less than 315 Toastmasters clubs in the Arab countries, the oldest being in Manama in Bahrain (established in 1964!), they’re distributed as follows. Click to see the club locations and schedules:

Country	Number of clubs
Saudi Arabia	110
UAE	68
Bahrain	56
Qatar	34
Kuwait	24
Oman	14
Jordan	11
Lebanon	3
Iraq	2
Egypt	1
Tunisia	1

What is Toastmasters?

Toastmasters is an international nonprofit org with around 250,000 members offering a proven way to practice communication skills. The Toastmasters meetings are very structured, yet fun, and are typically comprised of approximately 20 people who meet weekly for an hour. Participants practice and learn skills by filling a meeting role, ranging from giving a prepared speech, or an impromptu one, to serving as timer, evaluator or grammarian. There is no instructor; instead, each speech is critiqued by a member in a positive manner, focusing on what was done right and what could be improved.

If you’re interested in improving your public speaking skills, and in the process become a better critical listener, I strongly recommend you join Toastmasters.

Fear of public speaking no more!