I think my previous post about communications was a little inappropriate in certain ways but I liked it so much I think I will just leave it there. Meanwhile, this will be my second take on effective communication and myself.
Why is effective communication important to myself? Firstly, I want to start by talking a bit about myself. I wish to pursue my studies as far as I can and then after that, I want to teach at as high a level as possible. Teaching is something that I find very noble and meaningful and it has been my motivation to work hard so far in my university life. Aspirations aside, I want to talk about my weakness in listening. I guess that could be due to a short attention spam as I am often very restless.
This short introduction reflects two important goals that I hope to achieve. One is to become an effective speaker and the second is to become a good listener.
On the first aim, effective communication is vital for me to be able to present confidently in front of a group of people. As mentioned earlier, I have dreams to teach and conducting a lesson requires the speaker to be confident and comfortable. My weakness in these two aspects becoming glaringly obvious whenever I give team talks to my football team. At the start of the match, I often have to brief them on the formation and the approach to the game. While presenting to the players, I always wonder where I should look at, what and how should I speak and where do I put my hands. In everyday conversations with small groups of people, I feel quite at ease. That is, I am comfortable with talking but when I have to speak to a crowd, things just do not fall in place. Hence, effective communication is important to me because it would help me in my future aspirations and also improve me on a personal level.
Effective communication is also essential for me to really listen. In secondary school, my teacher once said that I am hearing and not listening. What does this mean? The two words are similar but yet very different. In hearing, words are being detected by the ears but you might not have understood anything. In contrast, listening is detecting the sound and understanding it. As mentioned earlier, I have a short attention span and this makes it hard for me to continually listen for long periods. This is not good. Often in lectures I miss out on important concepts. In conversations, I might miss out key instructions. Since effective communication encompasses of being a better listener, it is almost a neccessity for me if I were to improve my own flaws. Learning how to listen is, to me, an invaluable lesson in life.
I can talk but I need to speak; I can hear but I need to listen. Having the ability to talk and hear is a gift that many do not have and I hope that I do not waste the potential that these "gifts" can help me to achieve. Effective communication could just be the tool I need to help me in my own personal development.
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From this post I assume you might become a teacher next time. I always admire people who have the passion to pass on the knowledge to younger generations. As a teacher not only do you teach them knowledge you shape their personality. Teachers are always unsung heroes in society and i think they need to be more appreciated.
ReplyDeleteI can never teach... I gave tuition a few times to primary school kids. Twice and i was asked to leave before the final exam. How depressing...
Education is like filling a bottle that is capped. You cannot just start pouring the content without first uncapping the bottle. And every student is a unique bottle cap.
Thanks, Soon Yee, for this additional post (I might not comment on each one when you do multiple posts for one assignment). This is well focused, clear and concise. I also appreciate your astute reflection.
ReplyDeleteThere are a couple areas where your language use can be improved.
1) My weakness in these two aspects becoming >>> My weakness in these two aspects becomes
2) ...I always wonder where I should look at, what and how should I speak and where do I put my hands. >>> I always wonder where I should look, what I should say and how I should speak and where I should put my hands.
3) you might not have understood anything >>> the listener might not have understood anything
Hi Soon Yee,
ReplyDeleteWhen I read your post, I could senese that you follow TEES. Thanks for your advice! You give example with your personal experience and elaborate more on it which makes the reader to be able to read clealy. :-)
"... I am hearing and not listening.." I think this is a very good point. We need to be self-aware of ourselves to become more active listener as we discussed in active listening session.
I am not very clear about your last paragraph. You says that " having the ability to talk and hear is a gift that many people do not have...".Do you want to refrer to blind and deaf people? Or do you want to say that a lot of people cannot talk and hear very well?
Anyway, I hope that you can control the communication tool very well to fulfill your aspiration.
Oh thank you and hope my advice helped. Yeah I was referring to less fortunate people and my point is that if we have the good fortune to be able to talk and hear we should try to use it well and not waste it.
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