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The benefits of effective listening
The benefits of effective listening
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More handpicked essays just for you.
The benefits of effective listening
The benefits of effective listening
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
The general ability of language to influence people has always been astounding. The number of lives changed every day by mere sentences. Even the lack thereof, silence, is a very powerful linguistic device which conveys some strange mythical strength. This power is harnessed and used to convey messages in speeches, books, songs, and even just commonplace conversation. Words having this much weight is a little strange for one to think about but all throughout history they have defined and separated humans from everything else.
Joy Kogawa's Obasan is a representation of the silence Japanese Canadians experience specifically in the past as they have been repressed from telling the stories of the internment camps in Canada due to the government's pressure to not talk about what happened to them, leading to the negative and generational consequences of silence as a trauma response. In addition to showing how Japanese Canadians have covered up traumatic events through silence. Obasan also demonstrates how silence has not solved anything, but has made the traumatic events worse, and that healing can only occur when people begin to speak about them. Silence is shown by the family secret about Namois's mother being absent, as well as Namoi never wanting to tell anyone about her sexual assault from an Old Man Grower, the difference between Namoi’s aunts in how they choose to be vocal or silent in their life. Finally, how Joy Kogawa herself uses Obasan as a way to use language to share her story as a Japanese Canadian.
Simone Van Iderstine was 16 years old when she became pregnant with her first child, Eve MacKinnon. Eve was an accident, she was not supposed to be a result of what happened that night at the party. The first person she told when she found out she was pregnant was Jessica MacBeth. Simone then had to face what she would find the most stressful out of the whole pregnancy; telling her mother, Tanya O’Connor Flynn. Tanya was not very happy with that news.
There is a lot to be learned from silence. Psychologists and religious leaders, in fact, often encourage their patients and congregation members to seek out the answers to their questions and problems through meditation and quieting the brain. However, silence can also be ominous. Silence can create fear in people. It is a lack of expression, emotion, and sometimes concern.
Language is first learned as an infant by absorbing and mimicking one's environment, surroundings, and daily life. For some, like myself, more than one language is spoken, and learning how to balance multiple languages can be a challenge. Trying to integrate language with culture and environment at times can be interesting and other times demanding and tiresome. Maxine Hong Kingston describes her struggles in coping with the differences in her languages, coming to terms with herself, and accepting how her culture uses language in her essay, “The Language of Silence”. Although similar struggles are had by Christine Marin, she writes in her essay “Spanish Lessons”, about how she discovered her culture through language, how it empowered her, and how she learned to love that part of herself.
No one is able to speak; disputes are settled with fists; society has crumbled. This scenario forms the basis to Octavia Butler’s short story “Speech Sounds.” No one knows how or why, but everyone present on earth is mentally disabled in some fashion. These disabilities include—but are not limited to—speech impediments, hearing impairments, illiteracy, and an inability to reason. Butler tells the story through the eyes of Valerie Rye, one of the few humans who can communicate.
1 Deborah Tannen, Ph.D. That’s Not What I Meant!. Amazon, 1987. Reviewed by Shelby D. Slocum, Pittsburg State University, KS. This book provides an explanation of the common misconceptions in communication.
Reid and Hogan make very clear the pitfalls that preachers can find themselves in. There is a temptation to compromise the purpose of preaching. “There is significant pressure on preachers to energize, engage, and entertain listeners while also sharing profound insight.” (19) There is one thing missing in the previous statement, a need keep the Scriptures in mind, because preaching without the Scripture is not preaching anymore, it is just public speaking.
HEADLINE: You’re Invited! Attend the 14th Annual Black History Month Event DFW’s Employee Resource Group, African Americans Collaborating Towards Inclusion Outreach and Networking (AACTION), invites all board employees to learn more about the national landmarks significant to the music industry in honor of Black History Month. Venues such as the Apollo Theater in New York City and Hitsville USA in Memphis were the backdrop to some of the biggest African American musicians – James Brown, Ella Fitzgerald, the Temptations and the Supremes – to bring a divided nation and segregated society closer together through their chart-topping music.
For he declared that “It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than speak out and remove all doubt”. Lincoln illustrates that the less that is being spoken the more ahead that person is. When speaking without thinking, it often leads to saying things that weren't meant to be said. Silent people observe by listening to what is being argued so that when they get a chance to speak they can voice what they were thinking. People argue that the quiet people are the ones that don't think.
Fortunately, words span the known world. After all, without words, expressing ourselves would become much harder. Not surprisingly, words are powerful, and when words are put together, they can have exquisite meanings. After reading, Learning to Read and Write, by Frederick Douglas, I was astounded by his use of words (not to mention how he learned to use them). The grouping of the words was wonderful and powerful.
Silence is known as the lack of sound: the lack of words. It is also a well known fact that words can be dangerous, as people can spread false rumors and hate speech. However, silence, though it is a lack of words, can prove to be even more dangerous than the words of hate themselves. Reason being, though the silence can not be used to spread the hate, it does not do anything to prevent or stop the hate from happening. One of the best examples of the danger of silence is the Holocaust.
However, people must listen to each other, no matter anyone’s opinion, since that’s how new ideas are created, how people come together, and how people become educated. The way people are able to create distinct ideas in the world is by communicating and in return listening. If someone was to truly ponder about how things have been created, they would realize that it takes communication. For example, if someone
Someone may misinterpret what they have been told or read. Because this happens on a daily basis. This equivocal language can be humiliating and uncomfortable. When the
Every voice is a gift to the human world, whether you use it to speak, sing or whisper. It can be used to inspire others, or to coax a person into submission. If used wisely, it soothes the deepest wound and yet it is the most powerful means to instill fear into human hearts. Our voice is our power. So be it a radio jockey on your favourite radio station, or the voice that you turn to when you hit the road, there is a sense of elation that spangles your heart with joy.