January Blog

Amy Windmiller

January Blog Post

Comm 160

February 2, 2017

I really enjoyed the reading; Between Speech and Silence: Reflections on Accountability by, Ann Russo. After reading it a couple of times one of my favorite sentences from it is, “I am learning to speak not as an authority, but as a learner, and to speak with humility.” This sentence makes me think about my own life and how many times I’ve had a predetermined thought or opining in my head before even listening to the other side of the argument. I think a lot of people struggle with thinking their opinion is right instead of actively listening. Being aware of what others are saying is important because we should be able to see from other people’s perspectives and points of view to ultimately be able to learn. This sentence makes me think about how in this course we learn about communicating with different cultures and backgrounds and how this is possible. In order to listen effectively we need to take into consideration that we should not speak as an authority but as a person who can learn something from every conversation.

From personal experience of being a soft spoken person, I usually can listen well and see who is dominating a conversation. It is easy to see in big group discussions who is not actively listing but only saying their predetermined ideas without thinking about others ideas first. This makes the discussion go in circles when one person cannot take a step back to listen and learn from a new perspective. I think in this class it will be important to listen to everyone’s thoughts, think about it, learn from it, then decide what you want to say. I think from this we can learn to understand each other better and learn from each other.

From an article online called How to Become a Better Listener by, Henrik Edberg important tips are listed about how to improve listening skills. Edberg starts the article off with a quote from Ernest Hemingway saying “I like to listen. I have learned a great deal from listening carefully. Most people never listen.” This quote goes along with Ann Russo’s entire idea, that most people are not actually listening. One of the tips I like is to just listen and be present in the moment. Edberg says; “listen fully to what the other person has to say and let him or her speak until the entire message is said.” Keeping this in mind will allow us to become better listeners and let the person speaking know they have our full attention.

Another tip I thought was helpful is; “Keep that smart phone away.” Edberg says “browsing the internet while trying to listen usually leads to missing some part of the conversation.” This is 100% true and I’ve done it many times. I will be on my phone while someone is talking directly to me and just not hear a word they say. This is not only rude but it makes the person speaking feel like you don’t care.

Social media impacts our listening skills more than ever before. We are always being preoccupied on our phones and laptops not fully engaged with the speaker. We all feel like our opinions are always right and true without even hearing what the other person has to say. In order to over come this we should listen to Russo’s when she says; “learn to not speak as an authority but as a learner with humility.” Learning to listen to each other can be a big improvement that will benefit each of us personally and all together at the same time.

http://www.positivityblog.com/index.php/2016/01/20/better-listener/