Listen carefully.

At the primary school, a game which I disliked most was Game-Ka- Sip (Ka-Sip means whisper). After all students stood in a line, the first student began whispering a sentence to the second, and then he quietly told the third the same sentence. The rest did so respectively until the last said the sentence. If it was not changed at all, we won the game. I disliked the game because the sentence was easily turned into another; as a result, we always lost. Yet, this game is a good example teaching me a problem of ineffective communication. Unclear communication sometimes causes an acceptable problem like failure in the game. But sometimes, it leads to a serious problem like the decline of call centre industry in India.

According to India's call centre growth stalls, India’s call center business has grown rapidly in the past decade. Today, however, many British and American companies are moving operations back home. Because of the unfamiliar sound of an India accent, the customer faces hardship to understand simple conversations. Customs also feel frustrated and annoyed with misunderstanding. Often, conversations become heated, irate or even abusive. Consequently, international companies trying to maintain customers decide to turn back their countries. It is estimated that the number of call center workers has fallen drastically.

How do we avoid a problem resulting from ambiguous communication? For me, one of solutions is that we learn to be a good listener. If we listen efficiently, the massage will be clear enough to understand. Good listening also helps us know what a question means or what speaker really want. This paves the way for replying with a right question and making a lucid conversation. There is an interesting exercise for listening practice that I studied while taking an acting course in the university. Students had to describe a story by saying numbers instead of words. To illustrate, I might say “one-six-five” when I meant “I love you”. The professor explained that she taught students to focus on meaning, not wording. Sometimes people say something but they refer to another. When you listen to a sentence, you can miss a few words but should get a whole meaning. I think this exercise help me more deeply understand the way to listen efficiently.

I have another example; when my mother says “I have seen a bit of dust on your bed”, she means “Make the room clean, now!” So, listen carefully.

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References

Vaidyanathan, R. (2011, September 27).India's call centre growth stalls.BBC News. Retrieved September 28, 2011 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15060641