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Personally, acquiring effective communication skills is important as they provide good guidelines to better manage interpersonal relationships. I love meeting and making new friends, but yet at the same time, I loathe getting into quarrels, and this is where effective communication skills would come in handy. Although effective communication skills such as 'Listening' and 'Non-Verbal Communication' do not strive to prevent fights between people, they are important because they teach me to respect another as well as one's feelings. I believe these skills can help me understand and connect with my family and friends to a deeper level, providing them the support when they need it. I have always wanted to touch and impact people's lives, but it is difficult if I do not even know how to listen! This is thus one area of my life I ought to work on.
In addition, I believe learning how to communicate effectively can mould myself into a better person. Have you ever been in that position where you have expressed yourself in a certain way or said some things to someone at the wrong time, which led to undesirable consequences? Well, I had had such experiences and I want to learn to be more tactful to avoid accidentally hurting another. In other words, learning how to communicate effectively is necessary as it teaches me to pay more attention to not only the body language of an individual, but also to how one's voice is being used. In this sense, I would become less ignorant of people's emotions and at the same time, train myself to be more patient. Truthfully, I want to be seen as someone who is accommodating, calm and composed, not as someone who rushes to speak with minimal considerations for others. Nevertheless, I still find myself losing my temper easily at times, which is precisely why I need to actively remember how to communicate effectively to be the better person: Quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry.
Well Clarence, all of us have our faults and to err is human. You should not dwell too much on your flaws and mistakes and focus on communicating effectively instead. In time to come,I am sure that all of us will see the change. Probably in the coming months,you can ask a childhood friend for his opinion on how much you have changed. You will be surprised to get an answer from him which will make your day!
ReplyDelete-Lee Xue Hui
Haha. You're right! It's always good to ask the people around you whom you've grown up with about yourself! What better way to know yourself than through the eyes of others right?
DeleteHi Clarence. I love the way you expressed your feelings on the facets of effective communication that you thought affected you most. Good stuff!
ReplyDeleteI think listening could actually prevent fights if it is done earnestly. It is definitely more productive than both people just yelling at each other.
Anyway, I hope one day you do feel that you are the person you mentioned in your last line, because I can feel that's someone you really want to become. Cheers!
Thanks for BELIEVING in me! Haha. Cheers!
DeleteHi Clarence, you DO seem like someone who's calm and accomodating! To be honest, I think anger gets the best of everyone at times (which was my main thought after last lesson's dvd on how to be a better communicator). Anyway, I think it's great that you set tangible and achievable goals for yourself. I believe that to be a good communicator, we have to identify the areas in which we are lacking in, then make a conscious effort to change for the better, and then one day when we practice it without thinking twice, that is when we become a better communicator. Which is basically what this course is trying to help us through, right? Through this course we learn that communication is not simply about what we write or say, but extends beyond that into our body language and tones, inflection etc, and even the listener (which is the role we often play) has to improve their skills. I honestly doubt we would be able to be a perfect communicator by the end of this course, but as long as we are aware of what we should and can do, we can go a long way. Thanks for bearing with me! See you in class :)
ReplyDeletekirstie
Sorry for the uber-late reply Kristie! But thanks for your encouragement! I sure do hope I can at least be better at communicating after this course. That would be good enough for me (:
DeletePerhaps it would have been usfeul for you to describe one of those experiences Clarence when you said the wrong thing at the wrong time to someone- it would have given a concrete basis for your discussion.
ReplyDeleteHi Clarence!
ReplyDeleteNice pose! sorry, this is my second time posting, I don't know whether you have seen my first post, but i'm posting again just for homework sake =p
I admire your determination to be a good listener! In this fast pace society, seldom do we have the patience to listen closely to what the person talking really wants to say. we just want to make the biggest positive impact with the least time. but sometimes we forget that the person speaking might actually just want us to listen. With your determination, I believe you will be a superb friend and a superb son, if you are not already. I think that you already are, having seen your determination of becoming even better and that you always reflect who you are all the time. But don't be too hard on yourself!
Secondly, I do know some friends who would step on the toe of someone without knowing it. For example, a friend of mine, A, was in Thailand and she said "This looks so much like Mong Kok in HOng Kong". B was there with her and said, "really? I don't really shop in Mong Kok". A then said "Right, it's not like people who live in Tin Shuai Wai come out often" (There's lots of public housing in Tin Shuai Wai and people often find it expensive to take public transport to go out). So A hurted B without even realizing it. Not only did she hurt B, she is also hurting herself by making enemies unknowingly.
What we say really is a representation of who we are, therefore i totally agree with you that communication is important!! =)
First post? Where! I can't seem to find it! Anyway, thanks for replying! I really dislike those awkward moments where you only find out at a later time that you've hurt someone unintentionally. But nevertheless it's not excuse!
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