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By TaiTran, January 31, 2008 2:22 am

The Word form English lesson

English is not my native language, so I learn it my whole life.

From the lesson of word form, I learned that

• Verb is the most effective form
• Noun and noun phrase come next
• Adjective is less direct

For example:

• “The Beatles influenced many subsequent rock bands.” is more effective than
• “The Beatles was an influence on many subsequent rock bands.” which in turn is more effective than
• “The Beatles was influential on many subsequent rock bands.”

In a grammar test, the using of word form should be considered for effectiveness of the options given. Noun form, though commonly used, must give way to its verb counterpart in these test of standard.

How Verb is stronger

Maybe more than once you have heard a complaint about life. “My life has not been good lately…” and such. The fact is, these people may forget that they Live their Lives: they do their jobs, perform their roles, fulfill their missions. Their Lives are shaped by these actions. Reactive people accept the conditions placed upon them. Proactive ones, on the other hand, seize opportunities from challenges, and set things right.

The root is Live (verb). Life (the noun) is the product of the Action.

So if one takes the responsibility to Do and focuses more on Verb side, s/he is getting stronger toward achieving effectiveness.

Mapping to individuals

From the core inside, it’s what we Do (Verb) that shape our character. We commit, we response, we empathize, we love.

Character is reflected on the surface as personality by Nouns. We have commitment, responsibility, empathy, love.

Outermost is the interpersonal level, where we are usually described by others as committed, responsible, empathetic, lovable.

In conclusion, the root of all is what we take the responsibility to act upon.

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By TaiTran, February 17, 2007 11:43 pm

Reflective listening is an inter-personal skill that has been written by many authors in books, journals and articles.
I hereby put a focus on reflective listening when replying to messages via Internet-based media. It can be either replying to a personal email, or replaying a post in a forum, or commenting a blog entry.

I am able to see two parts in a message: the meaning and the expectation. Apparently, people post on forums and blogs with a hope that their readers will read, understand, sympathize and respond in the ‘right’ way.
However, my observations point out that the responders have the temptation to respond in their own way – with what they were able to see. The ‘real’ message and feelings the initiator conveys are easily lost.

Improving the skill in replying and commenting is improving interpersonal skills. How to improve reflective listening is a complete topic of its own and can easily be searched for. The purpose of this piece of writing is just to increase the awareness of communicators (including myself) of how we can constantly improve our communication in the right way.

A simple reminder: communicatioN, not communicationS!