Communication is an important aspect of life. At every point of time, we are communicating, whether we know it or not. In fact, communicating with others verbally or non-verbally paints a picture of yourself and sometimes your life. Why do I say that? Basically, people form impressions of you based on how you behave (non-verbal communication) and what you say. Now this is important! You would definitely want to impress your boss or even your future in-laws! Impression is a tricky business, once it's formed, it's difficult to change it! So effective communication is extremely important and it's a lifelong skill which everyone should master. With Facebook being a commonplace in many people's life (not forgetting how stalking people on facebook is a popular past time when one's bored), even the photos you post on Facebook communicates to others about you!
Apart from communicating to others about yourself based on your speech and behavior, the quality of the communications you have builds the world around you. Having quality chats with your family strengthen family bonds. Also, choosing to forfeit one or two hours of sleep to have breakfast with your family conveys how important your family is to you and even by saying nothing at all! Apart from kinship, communication is the basis to how we form our network of friends. It is through communication that you understand each other better and find common topics and interests. Communication is exactly how you find out if someone is of the "same frequency" as you. Definitely, it is through communication that you form strong relationships and understanding between friends and family.
Effective communications is definitely a vital skill for one's success. For me, effective communication is important to me because I value relationships with my friends and family. I feel it sad that for many people, they tend to communicate less with their family as they grow older. As for me, I constantly ensure that I engage in meaningful and quality conversations with my family members. Also, my friends are important to me. I communicate their priority in my life by taking time and effort to organise gatherings and regularly text messages to show that I care. My friends have always been there for me when I needed them and when I was in the pits, they stood by me and helped me regain my confidence. They have effectively communicated to me that they care, without saying anything at all, and I greatly appreciate it.
Effective communications is also the key to all romantic relationships. My boyfriend and I had been together for four years. We started out rocky as we choose to assume that the other party shoud know what to do or what to say. I'm happy to say we don't quarrel as much as we used to now after bothering to speak our minds freely and comfortably. I guess this is the problem with girls, we just expect the guys to know what to do and what to say and when they don't, we make a volcano out of it. I am ashamed to say that I'm guilty of it sometimes but I guess it makes life easier if we just tell the guys directly what we want. For example, instead of hinting, why not just tell him what you want for your birthday or christmas instead of dropping hints that he probably don't get at all. The most common example would be us (girls) asking the guys, shall we have western or japanese for dinner? He answers western and the our face will turn black (because we wanted japanese). Get the drift? Effective communication is important, I've learned to just tell him what I want! :)
Another reason for the importance of effective communication for me is with respect to my future occupation. I'm going to be a teacher and I choose to teach in a Secondary school. My choice of teaching at a secondary school is because I believe this is the time that teenagers face alot of problems and this is when temptations are strong and incentives to turn to deviance is high. Who I am today is very much shaped by the teachers and friends I have in my four years at Secondary School. Effectively communicating to students that you care about their life and future is important for any teachers out there who wants to make a difference. This can be done by having quality chats and even simple actions like having meals with students during their recess time as well as after school. Also, obviously being a teacher means having to effectively bring message across and helping students to understand their subject. In order to achieve the primary objective of a teacher, effective communication is vital.
In a nutshell, effective communication plays a big role in everyone's life. Like it or not, you're communicating to others all the time.
Alright, Happy Chinese New Year everyone! Have a great holiday! Don't forget that to communicate effectively this CNY to all your relatives and friends! (Even on the roads when you're driving! Yes, you are communicating to others when you cut lanes without signaling! So don't spoil the festive mood for anyone!)
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