Wednesday, 29 August 2012

Realising the Power of Conversation

  In this contemporary and dynamic global village, interpersonal communication is a vital tool for survival for every citizen and is crucial in the business world as it creates the platform for the exchange of innovations and transaction of goods and services.

  Information Communication Technologies such as mobile phones and the Internet have played a fundamental role in the transformation of communication and socialization to an era where geographical boundaries offer zero limits and no longer inhibit contact with loved ones. 

  The adoption of Internet technologies and applications of social media has, in the writer’s opinion, led to the dwindling of face to face conversations. As such, it can be declared that the growing generation has since lost touch with the skills in successfully carrying out meaningful conversations.

                                                   What is a conversation?

   Conversations are an essential tool in personifying mental debates and tend to be a source of inspiration, paradigm shift and mentorship. Realising the potential in clever conversations leads to one tapping a mine of primary, secondary and tertiary forms of data, knowledge and wisdom. The Oxford University Press Concise Dictionary of 2012 defines a conversation as the following:

                     Conversation: an informal spoken exchange of news and ideas between two or more people.

                                 What do conversations do?

    Conversations have an inherent ability to give insight, life changing paradigm shifts and provoke thought and debate. Engaging in witty dialogue can alter a mindset, emancipate an individual, eradicate misconceptions and myths, stereotypes and stigmatization as it sets the record straight and gets facts established when the right participants are involved.

                             When can a conversation he held?

Anywhere and everywhere!!!

                                   Why hold a conversation?

   Conversations are a facet of communication and are crucial to mans’ survival in every interaction and transaction of ideas and views. Discussions offer the prospect of expanding one’s mind and thinking abilities as well as the discovery of new dimensions of reality.

                               How do you conduct a conversation?

   Greet an individual, with further care than just ‘Hello’, listen attentively and be empathetic. Question were you do not understand and also contribute and interject were relevant. Repetition aids immensely in getting a message clear and enhances understanding. By repeating, rephrasing and summarising a particular point, a participant in a conversation can gain their own understanding of the concept under scrutiny.

                           Who to conduct conversations with?

  Face up to your siblings on current affairs; quiz your parents on contemporary issues; chew a bone with relatives on mind boggling phenomena; intellectually interrogate teachers on concepts in and outside the classroom. Be trendy and reach out to friends on social networks through debate, empower colleagues with perspective and rediscover yourself through mental conversations with yourself.

  Taking a moment of your time from the hustle and bustle of life’s daily routines to strike a tête-à-tête could have an astounding effect on the rest of your day. Greet a person with the extra care further than just ‘Hello’, to ‘how have you been’. Strike a clever conversation with them and pick their mind. There is so much wisdom you can harvest from them and, you as an individual will be prompted to think on your feet to add on to the subject matter.

  Go beyond the ‘ndeipi’ ‘zkipani’ and ‘zisha ngani’ to converse on newsworthy issues that affect daily life, be it on Facebook chat, instant messaging on Whatsapp, tweets, discussion fora on LinkedIn, Gtalking, Skyping and face to face.

So don’t be a social recluse:
                     ‘I am, because we are’ ‘Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu’,

Go out there and converse. Challenge your peers and those gurus and experts in fields of knowledge. School goes beyond the class-room, it is imprinted in your mind, engineered by your thoughts and powered by your speech. The process of knowledge just started as I held a clever conversation with your mind as you read this article.

Tuesday, 28 August 2012

Troubled, silenced voices

Troubled voices:

Voice troubled voices,

Trouble in the voices,

                                     That voice the trouble that,

                                               Troubles many silent voices.
                                                      Voices silenced:
Voiced not,

Became voiceless
Less the silent voices;

Lest the voices silently become silent voices,

Unheard forever troubled and voiceless...