Effective Communication... ... ...

“No man is an island.” Effective communication is as important as how much you agree with this statement. Allow me to explain. Unless you live on an island alone, in my opinion, there is always a need for interaction with someone else. Moreover, we are social animals in need of some form of affiliation. Even someone who is very introvert would have cried out for milk when he was a baby, a form of communication.

If “you are what you eat” then “you are what you say and behave”. If you are effective in expressing your ideas, you are probably effective, at least to the listener listening for the first time. There may be exceptions but, I believe, human interaction time is often too little for an in depth understanding unless he or she is your close friend.

Personally, I feel that one way to improve effective communication is to get a boyfriend or girlfriend. A study that I once chanced upon suggested that girls develop their left brain whilst boys develop their right brain more. If you subscribe to the left brain right brain theory, you will know that the left hemisphere of your brain is responsible for spoken and written language whilst the right hemisphere results in more pragmatic males. Therefore, your boyfriend may help you make your communication skills effective, or your girlfriend may impart some of her communication skills to your already practical reasoning.

I can vouch for that. Being a chemistry major often obsessed with theories, my girlfriend had helped me better express my ideas minus the boring technicalities.

Lastly, I do not work for the Social Development Unit. =)