【非文青N周一文】The Importance of Listening

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受新聲姐姐貼的Meryl Streep的interview和京北的發音帖子啟發,做得這個烤麵包的speech,因為中間有acting,就一個speech兩用,做了CC#5 and 6.

God gave us two ears and only one mouth. He has his reason. He wants us to listen more and talk less. So today, I will try to use the least words to talk about how important listening is. I can’t cover everything about listening. I will go over two aspects that are near and dear to my heart: the importance of listening in terms of language and parenting.

Language

1.    Babies learn to listen long before they can talk. First and foremost, language learning is a process of taking in what you hear as input, and outputting it by talking, after your brain processes the input. Without the sound input, without listening, it’s almost impossible to learn to speak.

2.    It’s the same case with second language learning. For second language learners like me, listening and understanding what others are saying is as important as, if not more important than, speaking the language. Last year, I started an accent reduction class offered by my company. The best advice I got from the accent reduction specialist is to record myself and listen to my recording. Only when you can hear your accent, only when you can hear the difference between your speech and the native speaker’s, can you start reducing your accent and sound more like a native speaker.

3.    Talking about accent, Oscar is coming this Sunday. A lot of us are rooting for Meryl Streep for her performance in the Iron Lady. She can emulate just any accent. In an interview with Fresh Air, she revealed her secret of success: she said because she listens! She listened to the recordings of Margarate Thatcher’s speeches and knew when she would breathe and when she would pause.

4.    At the same time, there is something that written language can’t convey. You can only listen carefully to get the subtlety.
The movie is PRETTY good. Not good. The movie is pretty GOOD. Good.
For the same sentence, with the stress on “pretty” or “good”, the meaning is almost the opposite.

Parenting:

In terms of parenting, active listening is a very important skill in getting to know your kid better and knowing what’s going on in his/her life. Here is a conversation between a kid and his mom.

 

Kid: Mommy, I don’t want any dinner tonight.
Mom: Come on. Kids your age need to have three meals a day.
Kid: Well, I am not hungry. I am not going to eat anything.
Mom: What? What’s the matter with you tonight?!
Kid: Nothing.

 

The conversation ends there. The mom doesn’t know what’s bothering the kid and the kid’s problem is not resolved. If, instead of preaching, criticizing and judging, the mom uses some active listening skills, the conversation could go this way:

 

Kid: Mommy, I don’t want any dinner tonight.
Mom: oh?
Kid: I don’t feel hungry. I’m too stressed-out to eat.
Mom: I see.
Kid: Today, at school, teacher Jessica said she will have a talk with me tomorrow about the accident I had with Spencer….blah,blah…

 

The mom only said “oh?” “I see” , three words to let the kid know that she is listening and she cares. But a world of difference! She finds out so much about what’s going on with her kid at school.

We are at toastmasters to hone our public speaking skills. At the same time, listening is equally important. That’s why we have roles like ah counter, grammarian, and evaluators so that we can practice our listening skills. But we are geared to a talk society. Someone said, “The only reason we listen is so we can talk next!” Now you have listened, you can talk next! I will put on my two ears and close my one mouth; I will make sure I listen.



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  • 所有跟帖: 

    沙發! -beautifulwind- 給 beautifulwind 發送悄悄話 beautifulwind 的博客首頁 (0 bytes) () 03/09/2012 postreply 16:45:08

    文青的文章一如既往的棒!第一次知道PRETTY good 和pretty GOOD的區別。 -beautifulwind- 給 beautifulwind 發送悄悄話 beautifulwind 的博客首頁 (70 bytes) () 03/09/2012 postreply 17:05:26

    廚師書上抄來的,哈哈。 -非文學青年- 給 非文學青年 發送悄悄話 非文學青年 的博客首頁 (0 bytes) () 03/09/2012 postreply 17:06:35

    好文章! 關於國際英語演說協會 -sportwoman- 給 sportwoman 發送悄悄話 sportwoman 的博客首頁 (115 bytes) () 03/09/2012 postreply 18:02:52

    謝謝,這個烤麵包還是很有幫助的。 -非文學青年- 給 非文學青年 發送悄悄話 非文學青年 的博客首頁 (145 bytes) () 03/09/2012 postreply 21:48:24

    Read. Amazing! Keep doing what you are doing! :) -sportwoman- 給 sportwoman 發送悄悄話 sportwoman 的博客首頁 (0 bytes) () 03/10/2012 postreply 08:13:52

    Your progress is going on very well. Congratulations. -rockcurrent- 給 rockcurrent 發送悄悄話 rockcurrent 的博客首頁 (0 bytes) () 03/09/2012 postreply 18:36:03

    thanks, rockcurrent! TM's been very helpful. -非文學青年- 給 非文學青年 發送悄悄話 非文學青年 的博客首頁 (0 bytes) () 03/09/2012 postreply 21:52:23

    Wonderful writing as always. -EnLearner- 給 EnLearner 發送悄悄話 EnLearner 的博客首頁 (313 bytes) () 03/09/2012 postreply 20:28:17

    Thanks, Yugong! -非文學青年- 給 非文學青年 發送悄悄話 非文學青年 的博客首頁 (614 bytes) () 03/09/2012 postreply 21:59:56

    we might not be trained for, -tingfeng- 給 tingfeng 發送悄悄話 (182 bytes) () 03/10/2012 postreply 16:44:18

    青兒寫得真好,謝謝分享,周末快樂。 -斕婷- 給 斕婷 發送悄悄話 斕婷 的博客首頁 (0 bytes) () 03/10/2012 postreply 05:37:56

    謝謝紫兒!周末愉快! -非文學青年- 給 非文學青年 發送悄悄話 非文學青年 的博客首頁 (0 bytes) () 03/10/2012 postreply 15:08:47

    好文,條理清楚,絲絲入扣,鼎! -lilac09- 給 lilac09 發送悄悄話 lilac09 的博客首頁 (0 bytes) () 03/10/2012 postreply 09:54:43

    謝謝88後,等著讀你的新作! -非文學青年- 給 非文學青年 發送悄悄話 非文學青年 的博客首頁 (67 bytes) () 03/10/2012 postreply 15:10:53

    :-) -北京二號- 給 北京二號 發送悄悄話 北京二號 的博客首頁 (292 bytes) () 03/10/2012 postreply 10:52:16

    一切盡在不言中。。。謝謝姐! -非文學青年- 給 非文學青年 發送悄悄話 非文學青年 的博客首頁 (0 bytes) () 03/10/2012 postreply 15:11:43

    寫的太好了, 非常喜歡你對active listening的闡述. -tingfeng- 給 tingfeng 發送悄悄話 (309 bytes) () 03/10/2012 postreply 16:38:50

    謝謝聽風!u'r exactly right! -非文學青年- 給 非文學青年 發送悄悄話 非文學青年 的博客首頁 (0 bytes) () 03/10/2012 postreply 22:34:56

    好文筆。你是英語教授嗎? -cloudless- 給 cloudless 發送悄悄話 (0 bytes) () 03/10/2012 postreply 16:47:42

    好回帖。你是我師兄嗎? -非文學青年- 給 非文學青年 發送悄悄話 非文學青年 的博客首頁 (39 bytes) () 03/10/2012 postreply 22:36:24

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