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| Taken from http://www.state.gov/m/a/os/65759.htm |
As such, effective communication is eagerly desired, so that every encounter is - no, not always a delightful one, for effective communication is not practiced to eliminate sorrow towards despairing news or heated exchanges, but definitely can prevent misunderstandings and hence unnecessary negativity. Effective communication then, is eagerly desired, so that the fullest potential of every cordial greeting to hour-long discussion, small talk to heart-to-heart talk can be brought out.
For me personally, effective communication is a key to understanding and appreciating individuals, each one of them a unique person who enjoys community, loves acceptance, cherishes relationships, and wants to be heard. I am not excluded. So is not effective communication the way to enhance relationships, whether the preciously-valued or the highly-essential ones? The impact is not only within the realm of relationships. In many other aspects, the fruit of effective communication are bigger, juicier and sweeter, the results better, the grades higher, the familial ties stronger, the friendships deeper, sales higher, the employers more impressed and the listeners more influenced. Amazing isn't it?
Er, I had no idea how to include the list of 'skills I need to refine in order to improve my ability to communicate', as instructed in skillbuilder 1.1. I dont know even if it is necessary to include. So I'll just list them here:
ReplyDelete1) My pronunciation.
2) I've to learn to be comfortable with silence; use it to my advantage.
3) I could use some story-telling , and illustrate concepts/ideas with scenarios when appropriate, so that people can understand an abstract idea better.
4) I also understand that long emails and facebook posts arent valued much more highly than short, bite-sized ones in some situations; some people just dont like reading, or dread the complexity of details; many are too busy. They just want to get the main drift, and move on to another activity thats calling out for their attention. So I've to learn when it is appropriate to write long, intellectual mails.
Hi Jerick,
ReplyDeleteYour post was very intersting and I feel that it caught the true sense of communicating, beyond the practical reasons why most of us (atleast me) wish to learn effective communication.
I liked that I was able to relate to whatever you were saying. Also, you had one idea for your entire post, which was that effective communication enhanced relationships and helped one to understand and appreciate each other better. This was very clearly explained.
Perhaps another aspect that you could cover would be non-verbal communication (which is something that I failed to talk about in my post too). Most of us fail to consider our body language or facial expressions when we communicate with others. When these are contradictory to what we are saying verbally, I think communication may not be effective as well.
Hi Priya, thanks for your encouraging comments : ) I guess why I did not focus on the practical purposes of communication, but the general day-to-day purpose is because I'm by nature idealistic, as opposed to allegedly 90% of the world, who are pragmatic/practical. Hence, I tend to see the big picture in everything. I'm not saying that the idealists' point of view is always better; I believe that there should be a fine balance, and idealists and pragmatist complement each other, just as how your post complements mine and mine, yours.
DeleteIn response to your closing comment, to clarify, I actually implicitly encompassed non-verbal communication when writing the post. When I mentioned communication, I meant all forms of communication.
Hi Jerick!
ReplyDeleteA very insightful post on how effective communication improves relationships! I especially love how you did a bit of research and came up with the Chinese character for "listen", which is very appropriate for your content! My first impression of your writing style was that it reminded me of the musings of some ancient philosopher - very flowing, contemplative, but sometimes random thoughts that take a few reads to fully absorb (it's a compliment). Personally, I cannot write in this kind of style at all. I guess I'm more of a logical science person, so all my ideas are structured in separate paragraphs with main point, elaboration, supporting evidence, etc. And no offense to you, I usually dislike reading this kind of style as well, since it just doesn't click in my mind, but I'd have to say this is an exception!
Bokai
Ooh thanks Bokai! (I hope 'ooh' is not too informal haha) Anyway, thanks for your compliments : ) I do enjoy writing to share my ideas with others, and I intentionally put in effort to make the article interesting so as not to put the reader to sleep; I probably was that kind of enchanter a few years back, and realising that, I quickly retired. I reasoned that groundbreaking ideas and life-transforming stories, if delivered in boring fashion, would go unnoticed, simply because the means of deliverance is such a turn-off. As I took the pains to revise my writing style, I was strongly influenced by writers who lived during the Age of Enlightenment, whose writings I frequently peruse for illuminating knowledge. That's why you'll see some rather long, unending sentences, their parts jointed by this ';' (I don't know what to call ';' haha)
DeleteAs for your writing style, I must say that I definite appreciate its organisation. All in all, there are definitely pros and cons to our various writing styles, and we continue to refine them over the years.
Thank you, Jerick, for this entertaining post. You wax quite poetic as you generalize on the value of effective comm skills for each member of the human community. You also seem to move toward a specific discussion of your own needs; however, that never quite achieves the level of a concrete example that would have made your personal focus more robust.
ReplyDeleteUnlike the opinion of one of your readers, I do often appreciate such writing, and I especially like this "musing." I just think a more personal focus would have been a good finishing touch.
I look forward to reading more of your posts!
Thanks Brad! I most certainly will try to include concrete examples and stories more often in future posts : ) I might also experiment with a couple of writing styles.
ReplyDeleteHi Jerick!
ReplyDeleteYou raised some very interesting points from something that at first glance would look quite mundane. Yes, effective communication sometimes means having to reign in one's desire to be too verbose or too concise and instead conform to the listener's desires. That requires tact and I guess is an integral part of what effective communication is. Thank you for opening my eyes (:
Abdullah
My pleasure : ) Yea, like we concluded in class, understanding and appealing to the audience is indeed very vital.
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