Listening Essay Research Paper Listening Jiddu Krishnamuri

Listening Essay, Research Paper

Listening Jiddu Krishnamuri once said, So when you are listening to somebody, completely,attentively, then you are listening not only to the words, but also to the feeling of what isbeing conveyed, to the whole of it, not part of it. This is very true and occasionally peoplefind themselves not really listening to what another is saying. Listening is the processthrough which we understand, learn and help other people. It involves showing up,understanding, responding (verbally and nonverbally), and remembering. In order to showup a person must be attentive, in other words, pay attention. The next step in the listeningprocess is understanding. A person understands by making sense of the message he/shereceives from another person. It is the responsibility of the listener, not the speaker to makesure the message is understood. The next step in the listening process is responding. Responding does not always mean talking. It just means giving feedback to the speaker in away that they see and understand it. The final step in the listening process is remembering. Remembering usually comes with understanding however, this is not always the case. Mostoften, the messages that we do not remember are the ones we did not listen to. They are themessages that we only heard. Listening is very different from hearing. Hearing is when a sound wave strikes aperson s eardrum and cause vibrations that are then sent to the brain. Listening is theprocess that comes after that. Listening is the brain taking those messages sent from the earand forming them and constructing them, giving them meaning. Hearing is automatic;listening is not. Also, listening requires effort. Effort to understand and decode messagescorrectly. Hearing requires no effort and is a passive activity. In the conversations I had and observed, I occasionally noticed myself hearing andnot listening to the speaker. In our book, there are three types of listening listed:informational, critical, and empathic. Informational listening is the type of listening we usewhen we are trying to understand other people. Critical listening is the type of listening weuse when we are trying to evaluate the quality of a message so that we can decide if weshould accept it or not. Empathic listening is the type of listening we use when we are tryingto help the speaker solve a problem. In my first conversation (Appendix 1), I practiced mostly informational listening. As my mom told me the different things that were going on that weekend, I found myselfparaphrasing what she was saying in order to better understand what my responsibilitieswould be. I was trying to get some understanding of what was to happen for the days shewould be gone. I was also a empathic listener as my mom told me how worried she wasbout my grandmother and my dad and uncles. Instead of giving her my advice, I simplyprompted and supported her feelings until she came up with her own solution, one that shefelt would work best. I was trying to help her solve a problem. In my second conversation (Appendix 2), I was supposed to be practicing empathiclistening. However, I soon found my self practicing pseudolistening. I was pretending I waslistening to her while in actuality I was simply hearing her. I did however, occasionally offerher my advice as she did with me. Often during the conversation I found my mindwandering and I began thinking about other things. I would give the automatic uh-huh response most of the time there was a pause in the conversation. She was looking for advicefor what she should do about her problems and empathic listening is what was expected ofme even though I didn t exactly deliver. I advised occasionally but I did not prompt her orsupport her at all. In my next conversation, (Appendix 3), I was listening to a speaker during one of myclasses and I found myself trying to decide whether or not I should listen to them or not. Ipracticed critical listening for I was trying to decide whether or not to I should accept themessage. I did not agree with what the speaker was saying and I did find myself attackingthe speaker rather than the message in my mind. Also, I didn t feel the speaker was very intune with the times of today and so I kind of blocked out most of his message. I did notevaluate the speakers credibility, or listen before evaluating. I judged the speaker s ideabefore I heard the whole argument. I did examine the speaker s emotional appeals howeverfor I felt that his evidence was not recent at all. In my next conversation, (Appendix 4) the trainer was going over the things we hadlearned the previous day over, and over, and over and I was getting sick of practicing. Inthis conversation, I was supposed to be practicing informational listening but I was not at all. I was, in fact, practicing critical listening. I did not think that her message was of any valueand so I found myself talking to the other people around me and not really paying attention. I definitely was listening selectively because I only paid attention to the things that I feltwere important. My nonverbal listening involved looking at the clock constantly and notlooking at her or at the screen she was using. By using these nonverbal listening techniquesI showed her that I did not want to accept her message. In my next conversation, (Appendix 5) I practiced informational and empathic listening. My boyfriend was asking me for my advice and I was giving it. He also wasasking m