【非文青N周一文】The Importance of Listening

受新声姐姐贴的Meryl Streep的interview和京北的发音帖子启发，做得这个烤面包的speech，因为中间有acting，就一个speech两用，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.