Humor Saves the World!

Strange…

The door is open.

I can hear some strange sound from within the room.

People are chatting, talking, and singing a song…

Who is it?  Burglars, maybe….

I made up my mind and dared to opened the door!

It was more than thirty years ago, when I was a college student of University of California, San Diego. My major was counseling psychology. I studied the subject in the graduate school. I had been staying in the same dormitory room during the period. And I did enjoy my stay there. Just then I had that incident.

Now, let’s go back to the scene I have just mentioned.

I opened the door…and…there, I saw more than a dozen young American girls are chatting, talking, and singing there…and that they are almost half naked!!

At first, I could not believe my eyes. I thought as if I were in the Paradise!!

But just then a sudden scream of the girls brought me back to the reality. One of the girls who seemed to be the oldest and a chief came running up to me.

We had a talk outside the room.

I said,

“Very sorry to have surprised you so much, young lady, but this room is mine.”

She replied,

“No, no no, this room is ours. This morning we did check in officially and we have finished bringing our baggage inside the room!”

Yes, there must have been a big mistake in the rooming list of the dormitory office.

So together with her, I went to the office. The person in charge of dormitory affaires is a young lady named Jane. I knew her very well. I explained the situation we were in and asked her to cope with the difficulty we were having.

Jane seemed puzzled and went backside of the room in order to check the list and to have a talk with her boss.

Seemingly it would take some more time; I was just waiting for her at the counter.

While I was waiting, I felt relaxed and kept calm, because I had done nothing wrong.

Instead I felt very sorry for the girls in my room. The mistake is on the office but the girls are required to move to another room in another dormitory building. It will take a lot more time and it will very troublesome. I felt very sorry for them

Just the Jane came up to us with her boss, an middle-aged woman with a very serious look on her face. The boss sad to me,

“Mr.Toyama, we are very sorry not to have let you know our campus schedule.  This week All America Cheerleaders Contest is going to be held on this campus. So more than two thousand five hundred cheerleaders, girls, are supposed to gather and stay on this campus for a week… Just think of two thousand and five hundred…we do not have and empty room available for you.  We are very sorry, Mr.Toyama, to ask YOU to move into another dormitory building outside the campus…”

My dear fellow members, suppose you are in my position, in my place at that time, how do you react to this situation? How do you respond to her statement?

I my case… I laughed!  Laughed and laughed and laughed… until tears came down from my eyes.  The ladies around me looked at me in an amazement and bewildered. They must have thought, “Oh, no, this Japanese guy must have gone crazy!”  But that was not true.

I said to them,

“My dear ladies, I thank you very much for this very rare occasion!  I am sure this must be a very good souvenir story for the students who are waiting for me back in Japan! Just think of it!  Two months ago, I came all the way from Japan to this university. Why? Just in order to be kicked out of the dormitory room by American cheerleaders!!

What a funny story this is! They will love my story very much. Thank you again. I move to another room, so do not mind!”

I seevery well how relieved they are! The boss of the office said to me,

“Mr.Toyama, we really appreciate your sense of humor…!”

From that moment of that day in my youth, more than thirty years has passed. During this time, I have had many hardships, difficulties, hard time, and tough periods. Whenever I have to face hardship, the sense of humor which I leaned at that moment thirty years ago, has supported and helped me to cut my way through the difficulties.

How?

Sense of humor is not just something to make people around you laugh at you.

Sense of humor is something

to let you look at the hardship you have

from a different standpoint,

from a different angle,

from a different perspective

and it gives you a different and renewed meaning of the difficulties.

That renewed meaning will always help you, support you to survive the hardship.

Ladies and gentlemen, let’s have and love the sense of humor, and it will surely love you back, and will support you always to survive the hardship you have in the future.

Thank you

(864words)

So many men, so many English(es)!!

Good evening, my fellow members.

Every year the Christmas season reminds me of one of my personal experiences in the first university. Christmas season memory as it was, it was anything but being romantic! Or I should say, it is very “practical” memory. You’ll see what I said “practical” at the end of my speech.

I entered my first university in the year of 1974. My major was English and American literature. I studied very hard but towards the end of the freshman year, there was a big “awareness”. That is, in the university curriculum, the number of practical English class is very limited, almost nothing, I should say.

In those days, English conversation school was not so popular, so I had to find a chance for practicing daily use of English inside the campus. One of my friends belonged to ESS and she referred me to the president of the club. I got in touch with President and got an appointment next week.

On the day of the appointment of interview, I went to the club house and visited the room of the ESS. I knocked the door, hearing “Come in!” opened the door and went in. After my introduction he said, “OK, Mr Toyama, we welcome you. Here is the rule for being accepted as a full member of the ESS. First you are supposed to visit and observe the activities of four sections, that is, subgroups of the whole ESS. Those are “pronunciation” section, “discussion section”, “dram” section, and “debate section”. After observing each section’s activity, you are required to decide to which section you are going to belong. And next week you are to come back to this room with the name of the section you decide to be a member of. That is what the admission is all about.”

“Easy.”

I thought.

So on the next day my journey began.

The first day, I went to the “pronunciation section”. I knocked the door of the section, hearing the voice of “come in!” from within, opened the door, entered the room, and introduced myself to some of the senior students in there. The section chief, I think he must be, said, “We welcome you, Mr Toyama, but to my regret, your ‘r’ sound has some difficulty. Also your ‘f’ and ‘v’ sounds have a bit of strange accent. So by the next time you come to observe our activity, you are required to practice ‘rabbit’ for ‘r’ and ‘five’ for ‘f’ and ‘v’ at least five hundred times!”

I said,” thank you” and left the room, thinking I would never be back again to the room.

The next day, I visited “discussion section”.

I knocked the door of the section, hearing the voice of “come in!” from within, opened the door, entered the room, and introduced myself to some of the senior students in there. The section chief, I think he must be, said, “We welcome you, Mr.Toyama, and what you said will be accepted as the first opinion. Is there anyone who would give the second opinion? “  The students sitting next to the chief said, “I will give the second opinion. Mr. Toyama said his major is English and American literature, so I wonder whether being a member of “discussion section” of ESS would be of importance to his study.” Section chief said again, “OK, Mr. Toyama, could you develop your opinion further as the third opinion, please?”

I said ,”thank you for your kindness. Give me some more time” and left the room, thinking I would never be back again to the room.

The next day I visited “dram section”.

I knocked the door of the section, hearing the voice of “come in!” from within, opened the door, entered the room, and introduced myself to some of the senior students in there. The section chief, I think he must be, said, “WELCOME!!!! WE REALLY REALLY appreciate your interest in our section. COME OVER HERE! And have a cup of COFFEE!!  HOW WOULD YOU LIKE YOUR COFFEE, black or white. OH! You want it BLACK! THAT’s great!”

I said ,”thank you for your kindness. Give me some more time” and left the room, thinking I would never be back again to the room.

On the fourth day I was almost tired of visiting such strange group of people. The students of the previous sections seemed to me as those who came to the earth from another planet.

But anyhow the promise is the promise. I visited “debate section”. To tell you the truth, the word “debate” was new to me, so I had a little bit more of interest.

As always I knocked the door of the section, hearing the voice of “come in!” from within, opened the door, entered the room, and introduced myself to some of the senior students in there. The section chief, I think he must be, said, “We welcome you, Mr. Toyama. Just have a seat and I will let you know what debate is and what you are supposed to do if you belong to our section. If you have any question, please feel free to ask any time you want.”

At last, I could see a man of common sense!

I enjoyed chatting and talking with him and other members in the room. I felt very relaxed and just then when I noticed it began raining outside. I just said, “Oh, it is raining outside!”

Just then, the section chief saw me with a sharp look, and said,

“Mr. Toyama, you said it’s raining outside, didn’t you.

I answered taken aback by his sudden interrogation.

“Ye…Yes, I did…”

“You said it is raining outside, but let me cross-examine you. Have you ever seen raining inside?”

Ladies and gentlemen, this is the “practical” memory of Christmas season of me. This experience taught me a lot about English learning. I realized English is just the language and it should be different according to the message we put in it. We don’t have to afraid of being different as long as we have a clear message worth communicating and sharing with others.

Lastly, my fellow toastmasters, which section, do you think, I chose. DEBATE. That was the very beginning of my almost ten years’ journey with dabete.

Thank you.

(1049words)