-No man is an island- . This statement is rather apt with regards to this module. We as transient, emotional beings cannot survive alone. We tend to have a level of dependency, high or low levels not withstanding. This brings in the concept of communication. Effective communication depends not only on speaking but listening as well. “To be understood and to understand” this was something that my dad used to tell me during my teenage years and it has been etched into the vials of my brain ever since and this to a certain extent has shaped the methods and ways in which I communicate with the people around me.
Thus with the knowledge of how important the process of communication means to me, there are several ways in which I go about developing my communication skills to overcome mainly physiological, emotional and the mental barriers that plague my everyday life in one way or another. Physiological barriers come in the form of people with hearing difficulties especially the elderly, take my grandfather for example. Whenever I speak to him, I feel as if I am shouting across the room when in fact I’m so close to him that I can actually know what he just ate when he burps. It was uncomfortable at first, but I began putting myself in his shoes and figured that I would want to be heard and hear what other people have to say when I am that old ( assuming that I live another 67 years or so ). Emotional and mental barriers come into play whenever I am deep in thoughts or whenever I am thinking about a problem that makes me “zone out” and hence I become completely oblivious to people talking to me ( I’m still working on that problem by the way). I tend to offend people when that happens and obviously I would want to stop that! Thus, development of such communication skills are of prime importance to me.
3 comments:
Timothy,
This is a good discussion. You certainly relate the importance of having effective communication skills to your personal situation. Thanks for sharing these personal anecdotes. However, while the focus on the physiological barrier you mention is clear, the way you describe the the mental and the emotional as separate then together seems a bit random. Other than that this is a decent effort.
I look forward to reading more of your ideas this term.
Hey! It's really kind of scary to imagine ourselves being so old. However, this is a common problem to many grandchildren I guess. Very well-written piece of work I look forward to read more of such interesting post from you!
I can relate to you, though the situations are slightly different.
My grandpa has the same hearing problems. We bought for him a hearing aid but he intensely disliked it, and would rarely put it on. Often, we would say something, to which he would nod in understanding and then seemingly replied about something else totally unrelated. We just sort of grew exasperated but never really pushed him on the issue, respecting his stance on his hearing aid.
As for the "zoning out", I frequently did that consciously. Most of the times, I had something I would rather think about, and figured that listening while thinking would be a great way to multi-task. Of course, that in turn cripple my understanding. Not something I am really proud of. Heh.
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