Word, Quote, and Joke of the Day

    
In all my speaking/discussion classes, I follow a practice picked up from Toastmasters Public Speaking Groups. Every session, we start with a Word, Quote and Joke of the Day.

It's not hard to find a word of the day. Ask Mr. Google for "Word of the Day." some good sites include Merriam-Webster's English Learner's Word of the Day, the New York Times Word of the Day, and many others. Go to the main site, then find a Word of the Day. But remember,  I want you to be selective and find a Word of the Day that you think is useful and unusual. Please do not use the current day’s Word of the Day. I want to learn some vocabulary too, and if all my classes use the same word every day, it’ll get pretty boring.

For the Quote of the Day, you can google for a quotation or go to www.quotationspage.com. There, you will find quotations by authors from Einstein to Confucius (공자) on subjects from love and success to happiness and character. Please take a couple minutes to choose a quotation that is especially meaningful for you, and tell your classmates about the deeper meaning you see underneath the words. I suggest we use quotes that have a source connected, because in my experience, you can often learn a lot about what a message means when you also consider the source.

For the Joke of the day, I suggest you go to www.google.com and search for “ESL jokes” or “funny jokes” or “clean jokes” or something similar. Another good site I've found recently is Reader's Digest jokes page.  I’m not a prude, but in a classroom setting I think we should keep the jokes publicly acceptable. It is also important to try to find jokes that are funny, but not too difficult for most of your classmates to understand.

Remember, if you did the Word, Quote, or Joke of the Day, you have total power to pick the WQJ victim for the following week. If you forget to choose a replacement, or the person you chose does not show up for class, you will get another chance to show the class your W-Q-J presentation skills the following week all over again.

Thanks!

JBH