Since young, my language teachers have always reminded me constantly that language is a powerful tool. During the period of my early teens, I did not understand that the usage of language was influential, but I was definitely awed by how school debaters could craft an illogical concept into something convincing to the listener.
My involvement in the ongoing Youth Olympic Games (YOG) has allowed me to interact with athletes and coaches of various nationalities. During the period of involvement, I realised that though some of us may share the same native language (English), there were still instances where both me and the athlete did not know what each other was talking about.
Hence, the art of communication is indeed crucial to bring across the message. An individual may exude the confidence when he/she speaks. However, the pertaining issue is how the communication can be effective.
Living in a fast paced society, listeners have only a few minutes to hear about your proposal. Time being a factor, effective communication would allow the speaker to bring across the message clearly. Having the intention interpretated clearly by the listener, one would not need to spend extra effort in re-phrasing the initial structure of the phrase or sentence.
As much as we do not want to waste our efforts in trying to bring across messages accurately, we have to realise that communication is a mutual exchange of ideas within a group of individuals.
I have always enjoyed interacting with people of different nationalities and listen to the ideas that they bring forth from their countries. Hence, effective communication would allow such cultural and ideology exchanges to be made. In the process, we learn from one another and enrich ourselves through the use of communication.
I have always dream of being the school debater that gains the admiration of his/her listeners, but more importantly, effective communication would mean to me getting ideas clearly intepretated and being able to enjoy the cultural and ideology exchanges that effective communication would facilitate.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHey Jonathan,
ReplyDeleteIt must be real fun at the YOG? I am sure you got to meet many different people from all over the world. It is through these different situations that make us realize the importance of these life skills that we take for granted.
I guess I will see you debating over some issues in the near future with the school debating team? Work towards your dreams and best of luck! =)
Deleted the previous post as I saw a spelling error, so to add on...
"nationalties" should be "nationalities"
Cheers!
Jonathan,
ReplyDeleteWhen I first looked at this post I noticed the lack of a clear paragraph structure. There must have been a problem in the html, I thought. Having just read through your ideas though, I realize that this confusion is reflective of a bigger problem in the content. There is not a central focus, other than the fact that you are repeatedly alluding to the importance of effective comm skills. But the total effect is not equal to the sum of the various parts. In fact, this is not very cohesive.
A few other problems:
1) pertaining issue >>> pertinent issue
2) interpretated >>> ?
3) An individual may exude the confidence when he/she speaks. However, the pertaining issue is how the communication can be effective.
Living in a fast paced society, listeners have only a few minutes to hear about your proposal. >>> coherence?
I'm sure you can do better than this. Thanks!
hey Jonathan,
ReplyDeleteI totally understand what you mean. Sometimes it doesn't even need to be someone from overseas and communication can already be so difficult. How we communicate is affected so much by what we hear, see and experience that even for people living in the same country we can have very different styles of communication. I guess we really have to adapt and learn. Hope you had fun at Singapore 2010! :)
Cheers.
I feel quite joyful when I read through the part of your YOG experience. Even though some people speak the same language, the way we understand the language could be totally different. Take me as an example, although all the Chinese people speak Chinese, but the sound and tone could be very different through out the whole country. Even a simple word, the use in the Southern part would be different from the use in the Northern part. Haha, I think the YOG volunteer would be a very memorable part of your university life.
ReplyDeleteCheers
Yitong
@Stanley: It was a real joy going through YOG, especially meeting people from different nationalities. Although at times it may be frustrating to communicate with them, the insights that can be gained through the little interactions are definitely an eye-opener. You should participate in some cross national event or conference in the future, I believe you will benefit much from it. Oh, and thanks for the correction!
ReplyDelete