Say what you mean, mean what you say

COMMUNICATION SKILLS

Reading makes a full man,

Conference a ready man

and writing an exact man

(Francis Bacon)

Abilities in the area of language understanding, communicating effectively, expressively and precisely are the main features of any communication. Using communication skillfully with practical language skills coupled with precision and aplomb are identified as communication skills. This is a very important aspect of human life, since it is the communication that enables human beings to connect with each other as individuals and as independent groups. Communication is the very basis which drives the process of development in any field.

Communication is not limited to humans alone. In fact, all the birds, insects and animals also communicate with each other in their own silent gestures. If we have a pet dog or a cat, we can easily observe how they communicate their happiness or their affection, joy and agony etc., through their body language. Even animals in thick forests going in herds also silently communicate among themselves when there is any danger of attack by any predators or even during adverse weather conditions. Insects like bees, ants and others also communicate among themselves when they are searching for food.

If anybody wants to be successful in today’s competitive environment, one should develop communication skills to thrive and survive. It is important to all of us, as these skills facilitate everybody in the following ways:

• Information dissemination is possible through proper communication – news papers, radio, TV are some of the important tools of communication and they help us to gather information on any matter from any place on the globe within a short time. With the invention of computers, E-Mail, Internet and various innovations have made communications much faster and worldwide. As a matter of fact, the world has become so small and the distance between any to places in the entire world seems to have been truncated. Indeed these developments helped us to surpass and conquer all the communication barriers.
• Our emotions and ideals are easily expressed through our words (spoken and written). Expressions and even arts and crafts like painting, music, dance are also considered as good mode of communications.
• Education is perhaps the best channel playing a vital role in the process of learning. Proper interaction between teachers and students is made possible through communication called teaching. When I talk about education, I remember a beautiful quotation on teachers and teaching. “A good teacher teaches, a better teacher preaches but the best teacher reaches his students”. There is one more saying that “a good teacher teaches, a better teacher explains but the best teacher inspires his students”. Students having the best type of teachers, I mean, those who can reach them and inspire them are the luckiest of all. As a result of teaching from such teachers, they become good and successful communicators in their lives and prosper in their careers.
• Proper communication always helps us to maintain good relationships with one and all. It may be business or inter personal communications. It always goes a long way in building rapport among business associates, partners, clients and personnel. Good communication skills are always a plus point in Human Resources Management and overall development. They also help in improving productivity, increasing profitability.
• Communication hastens the process of decision making and makes it possible to convey to all the parties concerned about the decisions arrived at.

The word ‘communication’ need not be construed as a skill in learning and using of language alone. This includes public speaking, writing, which can be improved by listening to good orators and by following news bulletins of popular TV channels and Radio stations. These skills, if developed at school and college levels, would form a good foundation to build our future and career.

Where there is a will there is a way is the old adage. If we have a strong desire to develop our communication / language skills, we can do so by reading books on this subject. Books by Dale Carnegie, Robin Sharma, Shiv Khera and many other self help & personality development books by prominent writers would help you to improve yourself as well as your communication skills.

To be able to communicate well, we should concentrate on improving our deportment and conversation skills. It is not easy to develop such skills, unless we proceed with a strong desire to excel. Please remember that, “True ease in writing and speaking comes by art, not by chance; As those move easiest, who have learned to dance.”

I would like to summarize the essentials of good speaking abilities, leading to good communication skills which can be developed by practice.

·It is not so much what you say as how you say it. Sometimes the words used by you in a talk count. It is the flavor with which such words are delivered will be appreciated by your listeners.

· Many speakers do not bother to look at their audience. They just look into the sky or to a remote corner in the hall. This is not a good sense of communication. There will be a gap between the speaker and the audience. This kind of attitude would kill a conversation and kills interest.

· A good speech is like a baby. Easy to conceive, but difficult to deliver.

· Any speech should have a good beginning and ending, and not much time in between.

· Good delivery of a speech is conversational and enlarged direct approach. We should speak to the audience in such a normal way as if we speak to our kith and kin.

· It is important to see that a good speech is long enough to cover the topic and short enough to evoke interest.

· While speaking in public, please don’t imitate anybody. If you speak naturally and spontaneously in your own style, individuality and your own characteristic manner, you can feel convenient and get used to the same pattern as you go on speaking on various occasions.

· Put your heart into your talking. Real emotional sincerity will help more than any formal rules or protocols.

· If possible, add a tinge of humor to what you talk. This humor should be decent and should not be vulgar by any means. As already told you, brevity is the soul of your wit. Levity is to be avoided at all times.

· Make sure that the topic you are going to speak about is first as clear as noonday sunshine in your mind. Then only you will be able to present your points well to your audience and will be able to reach them properly. Choose what you say rather than say what you choose.

Words reflect our attitude. If not properly used, they can hurt feelings and spoil relationship.

A fool speaks without thinking - A wise man thinks before speaking.

Communication skills are very important, say what you mean and mean what you say.

That is the essence of good communication

NIMBLE AND ABLE

Today I am going to deal with words ending with 'mble' and 'ble'. One day one of my colleagues asked me permission to leave early, when I was the Branch Manager at Berhampur. He requested me 'Sir, please permit me to go early at 4.00PM. This is my humble request'. I noticed that he used the word humble and told him jokingly, 'O.K your humble request is considered, you can leave whenever you want. But can you tell me a few more words ending with mble, since you used the word humble just now?

When I asked him to tell me some more words ending with mble, he fumbled, mumbled, crumbled, grumbled and finally tumbled without telling me even a single word ending with mble. Then I told him don't worry, I'll help you - to start with, there are many words ending with mble, for example, amble, bumble, gamble, jumble, nimble, ramble, rumble, wamble, bramble, shamble, stumble, thimble, tremble, assemble, ensemble, preamble, resemble, scramble, dissemble are some words, which end with the suffix mble. I am not going to tell you the meaning of each word in this list, since I suggest you to consult a good dictionary about these words and their meanings. Dictionary is a place where industry comes before success.

I also told him not to get worried about these words but one should try to practice this type of words which are useful and helpful in building one's vocabulary, so that one can use them depending upon the situation and allowed him to leave the office. Next day he evinced more interest and prepared a list of these items within 3 days. He could find all the words and their meanings neatly prepared in a small note book and thanked me for igniting his interest in learning such words duly sorted and assorted. He also told me that his son and daughter in Intermediate level also helped him in this exercise and developed a fascination for learning and using new words on a regular basis.


Later on, I found that besides these words ending with mble, there are many words which end with ble. For example, able, bible, cable, fable, gable, noble, ruble,sable, table, arable, babble, bobble, bubble, burble, cobble, dabble, dibble, doable, double, edible, enable, feeble, foible, gabble, garble, gobble, hobble, kibble, liable, marble, nibble, nobble, pebble, rabble, rubble, stable, treble, unable, usable,viable, womble, warble, wobble, affable, amiable, audible, brabble, capable, curable, disable, dribble, durable, eatable, ennoble, equable, flyable, friable, fusible, grabble, ignoble, legible, likable, livable, lovable, mixable, movable, mutable, notable, parable, payable, pliable, potable, quibble, risible, salable, sizable, soluble, stubble, tamable, taxable, tenable, triable, trouble, tunable, visible, vocable, voluble, washable.

There is a vast scope to find so many words ending with ble. We can also find credible words like amicable, arguable, bailable, bankable, bearable, biddable, blamable, bribable, chewable, closable, clubbable, crucible, culpable, damnable, dutiable, educable, eligible, enfeeble, enviable, if we go on exploring these words, this list is extendable to infinite proportions and becomes tiresome to the reader.

I also observed that in their eagerness to use words, many people add the suffix 'able' to any verb to make it viable. That leads to so many bloomers and distortions - cookable, sayable, are some of the glaring examples. These mistakes are committed due to lack of common sense and also due to scant respect or ignorance in using correct language. Moreover, this type of transgressions happen only when the users start to think in their mother tongue and try to compare it with the English language, which is not their mother tongue. My father used to say that to learn any language, one should go on exploring just like a child who imitates his parents and siblings for learning the language in the initial stages. He also advocated the four faculties essential for learning any language, viz. reading, writing, listening and finally speaking. All these skills are interdependent and help us to learn and use the language with precision and aplomb.

The process of learning is to be initially encouraged by English teachers, who must also be good speakers themselves. But such teachers are very rare. The most disheartening aspect of this unsatisfactory state of affairs is the complacency with which ineptitude is tolerated at all levels. Inability to speak well is not a failing subject, but no effort is made towards a definite improvement or for learning by the so called aspirants.

It is only an attempt to share my feelings with well wishers like you.

Hari Krishna

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