Blog Post #2

     During the lecture about Dialogic Listening, I related a lot to a lot of the concepts and became very interested in improving my listening skills. Some of the concepts that we covered included Active Listening, Dialogic Listening, and some tips on how to become a better listener.
     The first concept that we explored was Active Listening. Being an active listener means that you need to repeat what the other person said, have an empathic goal in your mind, and means that your attention is focused on the speaker. Although this may seem pretty simple, there are many barriers that disable you from being an active listener. A good example of this is something that I encountered at work yesterday. I work in a residence hall at the front desk and a resident came up to me with really loud and distracting rap music coming from his phone asking me questions. I couldn't fully interpret what he wanted because of the loud music even though my job is to be an active listener. Another great example of distractions from active listening include other things going on in lecture halls such as people watching Netflix, texting, or even whispering to their friend next to them.
     The second concept that we explored was how to improve our listening skills. After watching the TED talk, I practiced a skill that he suggested. The first thing that I practiced was sitting down in a quiet place for three minutes with my eyes closed and listen to the very faint sounds around you to try to identify what they are. After that exercise, I felt very relaxed and focused on everything going on around me. To prove to myself that I was much more focused and ready to engage in active listening, I asked my roommate how her day was. I was able to recall every detail of her day and repeat it back to her including names of people and places she went.
     After this lecture, I did my own research on how to become a better listener in boring lectures. I came across a WikiHow article (Yes, I know, WikiHow isn't "academic" but it got the job done) and it gave me some great advice on what to do to stay focused and engaged. A couple of tips included things like reviewing the material before class and it makes it easier to follow along, put your phone in your backpack, sit in the front of the class so avoid the distractions of others, and even little things like eat a small snack before class but don't fill yourself too much and make yourself sleepy. I will be applying these tips to my everyday life and trying to train myself into becoming a better listener.