Sunday, June 20, 2010

Effective Listening


Hello people, hope you guys have had a great weekend. Today is Father’s day; let’s wish all fathers, HAPPY FATHER’S DAY! Too bad I wasn’t able to celebrate with my father this year as I couldn’t get anymore tickets to go home. But, I promise I will next year.

Well, here I am again to update you with the stuffs I have learnt recently. This time, it is going to be different compared to my previous posts which were kind of too factual. More of my own ideas, experiences, observations and so on would be included in. Hope you could spot the differences in my blog and tell me whether I have improved or it still remains the same old style. This post will be about effective listening.

Before I go further in detail on listening effectively, let me share some facts with you. Do you know that actually, Americans spend more than 40% of their time listening? As you can see from the chart below, listening stands the highest percentage compared to reading, speaking and writing.


I have never realized that listening could be so important. I admit I am not a very good listener. I tend to be selective with what I want to hear especially listening to talks or speeches. I have these poor habits that lead me to tune off from listening. For examples, my mind wanders off easily due to boring topics or poor deliverance from certain speakers. I would either daydreaming during the talks or pretending to be listening. BUT strangely, I could be very attentive when listening to interesting GOSSIPS.

Video Example of Bad Listener


A good listener should listen with emphatic as well as being able to appreciate messages that are delivered to the person. Emphatic listening means listening with a purpose and attempting to understand the other person. I know that to be a good listener is not easy but it is not impossible either. It takes time to practice and practice makes perfect. Plasticizing to become a good listener is something I myself still have to improve.

Want to be Good Listener? Be a TV:)

In an article that I have read recently stated that, ‘Parents today are hooked on tech tools at home for communication or for work related purposes instead of paying more attention listening to their children’s need. In the article, it was mention that children felt hurt when their mum or dad fails to pay attention on them instead they spend more time on their devices. This is also a sign of bad listening. Parents do no realized that their action would eventually ruin the bonding between themselves and their children.

Example of Parents Not Listening to their Children



That's all for now. Hope you enjoy reading this post. I conclude this post with a few tips of becoming effective listener.

TIPS



7 comments:

  1. Indeed, effective listening is very important in our daily life especially workplace.

    Honestly, I also not a good listener.
    I am a selective listener.
    I still remember my mum said I always not listen to her order. When she calls me to cook this food, I will come out with another food on the next day. Haha...

    So, now i am trying improve be a good listener.
    Haha.. =)

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  2. Btw, this post is much better with the previous post~~ Keep it, cat!

    Next time can share some human interest article?

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  3. well would try to come up with some human interest article...thanks grace for the comment and advice:)

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  4. That's why teachers at schools often emphasize on listening.

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  5. I hope your mind does not wander too far off when you are in my class....

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  6. Hahaha, don't worry Miss Allison, your teaching is interesting won't cause me to wander:-D

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  7. Lol. Introverts tend to listen carefully. And I'm one. XD

    Nice post. Oh.. and the last video looks so fake. =_= Like they're just acting or something.

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