Years ago, I was talking to a colleague of mine and said, it was disheartening to know that John is bereaved... and even before I ended my sentence, my colleague interrupted me and said, "What happened? I saw John hale and healthy the last evening." Little did my colleague and many do not realize that bereaved means that someone close to the person passed away and not himself.
This list is endless with many pitfalls in communication coming to light in our daily communication. It so happened in this poor lady's case that she went and spoke to her boss saying, "Kiran, I need you to grant me a leave as I am expecting." The boss in all ignorance responded, "Whom are you expecting?" to which the lady was perplexed and in all embarrassment said, "Kiran, I am pregnant." Kiran quickly responded, "Congratulations, what would you name the kid if he is a girl." The lady was taken aback and at the same time sympathized with Kiran as he did not know if there was a mistake in the sentence.
Over the years, communication has improved and extended to what we call today as native languages. Early man barely communicated and was able to communicate flawlessly. The deeper we go into communication, we start understanding that we are creating trouble for ourselves.
I remember a colleague of mine who once said, "There are few coins in my wallet." Can you guess what that means? This person does not have any coins with him. How could the person have said this to mean that there were a couple of coins in the wallet?
The person could have said, "There are a few coins in my wallet."
I remember a maxim, "Comma kills a man!" Surprising, how can a comma kill a man? Here is an example.
The judge sent a note to the person who hangs a prisoner which read, "Hang him, not coming."
Well the note could have read, "Hang him not, coming."
The 2 sentences have a sea difference between them, if you read them separately, the 1st one says, I am not coming, hang him. While the 2nd one conveys, I am coming, do not hang him.
Moving over to the current topic of communication in the corporate world, many of us have a misnomer that communication is English. When we see a person talking well in English, we pass a comment, "That person's communication skills are very good." What makes us conclude with such a statement just because a person can communicate fluently in English. Well, there are umpteen reasons why a person talks well in English or you think that the person talks well in English because you are weak. in your language skills.
What can be done to overcome this?
I recommend a few simple steps:
This list is endless with many pitfalls in communication coming to light in our daily communication. It so happened in this poor lady's case that she went and spoke to her boss saying, "Kiran, I need you to grant me a leave as I am expecting." The boss in all ignorance responded, "Whom are you expecting?" to which the lady was perplexed and in all embarrassment said, "Kiran, I am pregnant." Kiran quickly responded, "Congratulations, what would you name the kid if he is a girl." The lady was taken aback and at the same time sympathized with Kiran as he did not know if there was a mistake in the sentence.
Over the years, communication has improved and extended to what we call today as native languages. Early man barely communicated and was able to communicate flawlessly. The deeper we go into communication, we start understanding that we are creating trouble for ourselves.
I remember a colleague of mine who once said, "There are few coins in my wallet." Can you guess what that means? This person does not have any coins with him. How could the person have said this to mean that there were a couple of coins in the wallet?
The person could have said, "There are a few coins in my wallet."
I remember a maxim, "Comma kills a man!" Surprising, how can a comma kill a man? Here is an example.
The judge sent a note to the person who hangs a prisoner which read, "Hang him, not coming."
Well the note could have read, "Hang him not, coming."
The 2 sentences have a sea difference between them, if you read them separately, the 1st one says, I am not coming, hang him. While the 2nd one conveys, I am coming, do not hang him.
Moving over to the current topic of communication in the corporate world, many of us have a misnomer that communication is English. When we see a person talking well in English, we pass a comment, "That person's communication skills are very good." What makes us conclude with such a statement just because a person can communicate fluently in English. Well, there are umpteen reasons why a person talks well in English or you think that the person talks well in English because you are weak. in your language skills.
What can be done to overcome this?
I recommend a few simple steps:
- Be vocal. Be prepared to be assaulted. The benefit, when we learn something the hard way, the chances of repeating such a mistake are lessened
- Never let yourself down. Always note that you are never the best and never the worst. You are always in a place where your contemporary, be it a class mate in school, college or a colleague may be better off than you are or you may be better off. Now, it depends on you to draw inspiration or get glued to your thoughts of you not being better off
- Remember that English is not communication. As long as you communicate and the other person understands what you talk, you are good. Yes, there is always room for improvement and that is where your persona comes into picture
- Believe that you are the best and you always have to go that extra mile to achieve
The above list is not a 4 point program which can help you better your communication skills. It is just a starter and you need to tune yourself and your mind to better suit the need.
-VVN
