Monday, July 9, 2012

HOW TO COMMUNICATE - Who Are You Communicating With Must Decide Your Communication Style


LEARNING EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION SKILLS
Ancient Wisdom - A Teaching Story - Teaching a Donkey How to Read
By
VIKRAM KARVE  


When you communicate, your communication style should depend on who you are communicating with. Here is a Teaching Story which illustrates this principle:

TEACHING A DONKEY HOW TO READ 

A wise man, a renowned teacher, once publicly vowed that he would eradicate illiteracy and he would teach everyone to read.

Some mischievous boys brought a donkey to the teacher and asked him if he could teach the donkey to read.

The wise teacher stunned the students by taking up the challenge and said, “Give me the donkey for a month and I will teach it to read.”

The teacher went home and began to train his donkey to read. 

At first he put the donkey into the stable and gave him no food for some days. 

Then he found a thick book and put some food between the pages. 

In the beginning the teacher turned the pages and gave the donkey the food between the pages.

After a while the donkey learnt to turn the pages with his tongue to find and eat the food by itself. 

Each time when the donkey finished the book and found no more food between the pages it would bray: “Eee aah... Eee aah...Eee aah...”

Then the teacher would reward the donkey with some food.

Three days before the one month period was over the teacher stopped feeding the donkey.

For three full days he did not feed the donkey.

The poor starved and famished donkey, after fasting for three days without a morsel of food, was voraciously hungry.

On the fateful day when the whole school assembled to see the miracle of the donkey reading. 

The wise teacher brought the ravenously hungry donkey onto the stage. 

He asked for a big book and put it in front of the donkey.

The hungry donkey turned the first page of the book with its tongue and when it could not find any food the donkey brayed: “Eee aah... Eee aah...” 

Then the donkey turned one more page, and again not finding any food, it cried: “Eee aah... Eee aah...”

The famished donkey kept turning the pages of the book one by one with its tongue and when it could not find any food between the pages its braying grew louder and louder and soon the hapless donkey was turning the pages and shrieking in a loud voice: “Eee aah... Eee aah...” till it reached a crescendo.

Proud of his achievement the wise teacher gave a said to the gathering: “You all have seen that the donkey has turned the pages of the book and he read it.”

One of the naughty students asked: “But we could not understand anything.”

The wise teacher replied: “Of course you could not understand what the donkey said because it was in donkey language. If you want to understand what the donkey speaks you have to learn donkey language. Come to me for tuition in the evening. I will teach you donkey language.”


Moral of the Story:

If you want to communicate with a 
donkey, you have to learn donkey language


When you communicate, for every message there is a sender and a receiver. 

For example, when you talk to the donkey, you are the sender and the donkey is the receiver, and when the donkey talks to you the donkey becomes the sender and you become the receiver. 

The sender and the receiver will perceive, experience, and interpret things differently. 

You cannot take for granted that the receiver will perceive the message the same way as the sender intended it. 

That is why for effective communication, it is important that the sender and the receiver “speak the same language” and understand each other.

I always remember this story while “talking to my pet dog Sherry. 

In fact, not only have I learnt her dog language but I have taught her my human language too. 

This helps us communicate effectively. 

Yes, I will tell you how to do it sometime later in my blog. 


VIKRAM KARVE
Copyright © Vikram Karve 2012
Vikram Karve has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.
© vikram karve., all rights reserved.

Did you like this story?
I am sure you will like the stories in my recently published book COCKTAIL comprising twenty seven short stories about relationships. To order the book please click the links below:

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http://www.apkpublishers.com/books/short-stories/cocktail-by-vikram-karve.html

COCKTAIL ebook
If you prefer reading ebooks on Kindle or your ebook reader, please order Cocktail E-book by clicking the link below:
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SMASHWORDS
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About Vikram Karve

A creative person with a zest for life, Vikram Karve is a retired Naval Officer turned full time writer. Educated at IIT Delhi, ITBHU Varanasi, The Lawrence School Lovedale and Bishops School Pune, Vikram has published two books: COCKTAIL a collection of fiction short stories about relationships (2011) and APPETITE FOR A STROLL a book of Foodie Adventures (2008) and he is currently working on his novel. An avid blogger, he has written a number of fiction short stories and creative non-fiction articles in magazines and journals for many years before the advent of blogging. Vikram has taught at a University as a Professor for almost 15 years and now teaches as a visiting faculty and devotes most of his time to creative writing. Vikram lives in Pune India with his family and muse - his pet dog Sherry with whom he takes long walks thinking creative thoughts. 

Vikram Karve Academic and Creative Writing Journal: http://karvediat.blogspot.com
Professional Profile Vikram Karve: http://www.linkedin.com/in/karve
Vikram Karve Facebook Page:  https://www.facebook.com/vikramkarve
Vikram Karve Creative Writing Blog: http://vikramkarve.sulekha.com/blog/posts.htm
Email: vikramkarve@sify.com         
© vikram karve., all rights reserved.
© vikram karve., all rights reserved.

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