As far as I can remember, my mother used to tell me that arguments and unhappiness amongst people arise due to miscommunications. Even though I bore that in mind, it was only till I experienced such a situation myself did I fully understand what my mother meant.
Today, communication only isn’t enough. What is essential is to be able to communicate effectively. What does it mean to communicate effectively? Particularly in today’s fast-paced society, effective communication would mean conveying ideas, messages, feelings and emotions accurately and in certain cases, quickly. This is definitely not an easy feat.
In the light of globalization, with people of different languages and cultures are coming together, this is certainly posed a certain level of difficulty in conveying ideas accurately. Ideas get misinterpreted and the work gets done wrongly. Non-verbal cues are misread or in some cases, ignored and this could probably lead to the downhill of a marriage. Hence, gaining knowledge and understanding of different cultures and styles can help very much in minimizing communication errors and misunderstandings.
Effective communication skills are also important as man is constantly expanding and increasing the list of communication channels. Yet, with this increase in communication channels, comes yet another problem of deciding the appropriate channels to use at the appropriate times and situation. A wrong choice of channels could have varying degree of effects. It could very well mean a loss of job right down to a marriage breakdown.
As such, learning how to communicate effectively enables us to not only minimize misunderstandings but also learn to understand the original intention of the other party (many a times through listening) which enables a higher level of cooperativeness. This in turn leads to more efficiency in the work to be completed.
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4 comments:
Hi Youfei, this is Joyce here. I agree that today more and more communication channels are sprouting out. 3G video calls, skype and the list goes on. Indeed they leave me spoilt for choice when I wish to communicate with my friends overseas. MSN has been around for long, but I never really liked to use it to 'talk' to my friend who is currently studying overseas. The reason being it doesn'tconvey my emotions all that well (okay the emoticons helped abit). And when my friend takes a long time to reply, I get the impression that she is probably too busy and not interested to talk. Sad but true, because of this, I 'talked' to her less on msn, and we drifted. Then came along skype, which kind of salvaged our friendship. Because with skype I am able to see her facial expressions and detect the excitement in her tone when she talks to me. Perhaps she really was busy during that period of time and couldn't talk to me alot. It wasn't because she was the least interested to talk to me! Therefore, I agree with you that it is really very vital to choose the most appropriate communication channel, because it makes or breaks a relationship! =)
Being in a multicultural society, being familiar with the cultures, customs and religion of the various racial groups would help greatly in preventing misunderstandings between people from different races.
The point about the importance of communication in marriage is a good one. Often, couples drift apart or separate due to certain misunderstandings or due to the lack of communication which then leads to the lack of mutual understanding.
With the increase in the various kinds of communication channels, words that used to be spoken over a telephone could now be conveniently entered into a text message and sent. Words can be digitized but a lot of the feelings and expressions that come with the words will be lost in that simple text message. However, instant messengers such as MSN still provide me with a channel to communicate easily and conveniently with all my friends on my computer. Hence, knowing when to use which communication channel is definitely a skill that everyone should pick up and master in order to be a more effective communicator.
Overall a very informative post which touches on the various aspects of communication and what it takes to become a more effective communicator. -Shaun
I agree that with people of different languages and cultures coming together, there is a certain level of difficulty in putting ideas across accurately. In local context, Singapore is welcoming more foreign talents to work here. As a result, we have an influx of new cultures and foreign languages. Misunderstandings and miscommunications are prone to happen if we are ignorant of other's native practises. For example, the "OK" handsign indicates approval for many of us but it is considered obscence for certain cultures. Hence, i agree that gaining knowledge and understanding different cultures can minimize these problems.
And similar to Joyce, i have had the bad experience of MSN conversation. I usually have the impression that the opposite party is uninterested and too busy to be bothered with me if he/she takes very long to reply. This can be rather disappointing if you are talking to someone you fancy alot. haHA! =) But seriously, MSN may not be the best form of communication for keeping in touch with friends overseas. Nonverbal cues such as slow and short reply (which may be unintentionally due to slow connection) can be viewed negatively by receiving party.
I think it is good that you brought up this point on emerging commnication channels. It is really relevant to us as new communication technologies are being discovered even as I write this comment. It is something we can easily relate to as being part of the younger generation, we have more exposure to emerging technologies such as Skype and live video streaming through mobile phone which PM Lee used during his rally (www.qik.com Check it out!)
It was enjoyable reading and commenting on your post as I am able to look back on certain communications problem I had before and look for possible solutions. Nice job!
Hi Youfei,
I like your insight on the importance of choosing the right channel. Good! However, it would have been clearer if you had provided specific examples of how using the wrong channel could lead to a job loss or marriage breakdown.
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