Season 1 Episode 8
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Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of Grapholistic Podcast. You are now listening to Episode 8 of Season 1. This episode is the continuation from the last episode which I will be sharing with you on how to improve your comprehension skills, which contributes a big part of the process when you are trying to build a strong foundation in your communication skills.
Let us look at comprehension skills first which covers a wide area in building an effective communication skills foundation. There are several ways to build your comprehension skills.
One way to start sharpening your comprehension skills is by reading.
Reading is in fact a proven technique that I can guaranteed you it will work out well to start building your communication foundation and for this case to improve on your comprehension, writing and your conversational skills.
I knew this method since years ago but no one told me why reading needs to be in the highest tier of our go-to habits until I found out the reasons myself and its usefulness over the years.
I started to step into the world of reading books constantly when I was 12 but I did that for the purpose of getting better grades for my exams. Only when I was 15 years old that I started the habit of reading because I love and enjoy doing it. It became my go-to habit that changes the things I do during my free time. Or I can say I will try to do my school works as quickly as possible just so I had the time to read my novels and books that I borrowed from the school library or the public library. This habit not only improved my comprehension, conversational and writing skills but also on my vision and perspective towards life and the way I imagined my life to be.
When you read, you will look at another individual’s perspectives that is the Author’s and the other world that you never could have imagined in your own day to day life. For instance, from a page in a book I can know what it was like behind-the-scenes of a presidential election and how the candidate feels on that day waiting for the results, what was in his mind and how he perceived the overwhelming support.
From a page in a book, I can feel free to feel and understand why the poet decided to leave her lover instead of staying with her. From a page in a book, I can learn how to use my subconscious mind to find something as simple as finding my house key which I had misplaced in my house. These are all simple examples from only reading a page in the books I had read. Can you imagine how your mind can wander to the infinite perspectives of others?
How reading actually helped in day-to-day life including other communication skills like your conversational skills?
Whenever I have presentations the next day, I will make sure that I will read at least 10 pages of a book, whatever book I was reading at that time. Whenever I have a meeting that I need to be the main person to communicate the agenda, plans and ideas or even do presentations, I will do the same. Whenever I am recording a podcast episode like this, I will read a book the night before even though I had written scripts that I could read out, I realized that the flow of my voice and speech will be much better, clearer and more confident when I read a book the day before. I had tried several times when I forgot to read both intentionally and not, my podcast episode sounded so cramped like as if I am so scared to speak out loud. Same goes when I had presentations.
Whenever I will be going out with my friends the next day, I will do the same. Read a book. The difference was so significant when I didn’t. I don’t have ideas to chat about. I will stutter because my thoughts, feelings and expressing my ideas were all jumbled up. This is not about sharing the topic of what I was reading the day before. It is about the fluency aspect between the thinking process and communicating what is in my mind easily. If I do not read, I will end up with verbal blockage and keeping quiet most of the time.
Then how about improving your conversational skills?
If you are aware that your conversational skills are not as good as your friends’ who might be speaking more fluent than you do maybe because it is their first language, first you have to realised it and acknowledge it. Remember the steps I shared in Episode 7. Please acknowledge it first and then start implementing your improvements strategies.
So apart from reading to improve your conversational skills, you can also start watching interviews which are available for free on YouTube. You can also watch movies and listen to the actors speak without subtitles and then do it again with subtitles. Most of the time I will watch with the English subtitles because of the accent. I can say for my own journey, I learnt more usually from watching interviews than movies.
Also when you listen to music, start first listening without reading the lyrics to sharpen your listening and comprehension, and then read through the lyrics. See whether you had listened to the lyrics correctly in the first place because sometimes it is quite challenging to understand what the artists are singing. And if my favourite artists like Taylor Swift released her albums, I will sit for at least 2 hours depending on the number of tracks which could be 18 tracks in one album that might take me at least 3 hours to listen to the music twice. First what I did was I will usually listen without reading the lyrics. Then, continue listening second time with lyrics on my screen. I had also learned to analyse lyrics too since I started listening to her songs ten years ago. This process actually had sharpened my analytical and investigative skills.
Apart from listening to music, listen to public speakers speak in seminars, it does not matter on videos or live. You can use these methods for any languages you need to improve on. I used to do this too when I was studying for my German language. It is the same process and normally it worked out so very well.
The process when I kept watching talk shows interviews, what I did was more like copying or replicating the way a person speaks. There is no need to follow them exactly. It is like you are trying to imagine yourself speak in that way. The first time I found out this technique was by chance. I started to watch talk shows like Ellen DeGeneres, Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Letterman, Conan for the past 13 years. I will watch the interviews in 2 ways meaning from the talkshow hosts perspective and also when the celebrity guests speak. I focused more on their fluency, the way they express themselves, how to be comfortable when speaking to someone or how to play with humour and many others. There are many interviews out there to be used as a tool to sharpen your conversational and comprehension skills so you can try that too.
The entire steps that I did eventually make a lot of difference to the way I speak to people over the years. I am not talking about being friendly to say hi to strangers or neighbours. I am looking at the fluency and articulation and the energy of confidence when I speak to people.
And then the other point is the courage to speak out my ideas and thoughts has significant difference compared to before. I used to hold myself back when I wanted to present for my own businesses especially during that time on the handwriting analysis skills to people. I had no confidence because I felt like I lacked something when I communicate with others. But nowadays for nearly ten years now, basically, I do not have any worries anymore if I made a mistake on my grammar which I will do sometimes both in my business and personal conversations. I will focus more on what I wanted to say instead because if I were to focus on correcting my grammar in my sentence, I will end up disrupting the flow of my speech which then made me forget what I intend to say. The same as writing, you have to first prioritize on the contents on the first draft. Then, you can edit the grammar later.
How can simply by reading help you in developing other areas of your communication skills?
Well, reading can also help you to write your ideas into words. If you are currently writing an essay or thesis for school, or script for your videos, podcast or even presentation and suddenly you don’t have any ideas or the words in your mind are stuck. Go get something to read.
While writing this script few months ago, I was reading a book by Thomas Erikson Surrounded by Idiots and Surrounded by Psychopaths. These books I kept in my home so I will read it at night. And a book by President Barrack Obama, The Promised Land which I keep it in my office. For two days, I had writer’s block while writing a script for my first fiction. I couldn’t continue writing for whatever reasons, maybe because I was exhausted or my mind was giving excuses to delay it.
Then, when I spend about an hour reading a chapter of The Promised Land about 30 pages or maybe more because the book is quite addictive, automatically I was able to continue writing my script fluently and completed it.
Same when I was writing this podcast script. After the first draft which is like the skeleton from the surface of my thoughts, I could then write it much more detailed than before. Everything flows well especially after reading. Anyway, if you are interested in fiction, the one I recently had completed after a month of writing and editing the scenes, it is called Between Love and Reputation which is now available on YouTube. That is considered my first fiction writing.
I will share with you more on how to enhance your writing skills in the next episode. So, at the meantime, before I end this episode, this is an excerpt from the latest book which I had published Be Brave: Uncensored Motivational Quotes which is now available on Amazon and any online bookstores.
Throughout the journey of attaining your purpose in life, be observant.
Open your mind and emotions to learn how your body works and harness this knowledge.
Observe how you make decisions in life. Analyse the patterns of how your mind and feelings work in situations
– By S.Sulianah, Author of Be Brave: Uncensored Motivational Quotes
Have a great week and see you in the next episode.
Let us look at comprehension skills first which covers a wide area in building an effective communication skills foundation. There are several ways to build your comprehension skills.
- You can start to build your comprehension skills through training to read and most importantly understanding the message from what you are reading. Both what the authors are trying to convey and also analysing your understanding of that message.
- Then, when you listen to someone speak, you can also train yourself to fully listen without interrupting or inserting your own stories, analyse the message and understand their perspective and emotions which are also part of building your comprehension skills.
- These methods will then link to your conversational skills which means that if you need to explain what you had read and understood from an article to someone, you need to also look into explaining it with clarity and then you will have the confidence to speak about your ideas. Take the main points and then tell your story.
- And when you are listening to someone speak, extracting the information that you listen and then sharing the details to someone else. Which means that information are not to be either extra or left out. Also take note the importance of the use of your tone of voice. Tone of voice made a lot of difference. The wrong tone of voice could make that story become a rumour or gossip instead of genuinely sharing information to one another which eventually can lead to miscommunication and conflicts.
One way to start sharpening your comprehension skills is by reading.
Reading is in fact a proven technique that I can guaranteed you it will work out well to start building your communication foundation and for this case to improve on your comprehension, writing and your conversational skills.
I knew this method since years ago but no one told me why reading needs to be in the highest tier of our go-to habits until I found out the reasons myself and its usefulness over the years.
I started to step into the world of reading books constantly when I was 12 but I did that for the purpose of getting better grades for my exams. Only when I was 15 years old that I started the habit of reading because I love and enjoy doing it. It became my go-to habit that changes the things I do during my free time. Or I can say I will try to do my school works as quickly as possible just so I had the time to read my novels and books that I borrowed from the school library or the public library. This habit not only improved my comprehension, conversational and writing skills but also on my vision and perspective towards life and the way I imagined my life to be.
When you read, you will look at another individual’s perspectives that is the Author’s and the other world that you never could have imagined in your own day to day life. For instance, from a page in a book I can know what it was like behind-the-scenes of a presidential election and how the candidate feels on that day waiting for the results, what was in his mind and how he perceived the overwhelming support.
From a page in a book, I can feel free to feel and understand why the poet decided to leave her lover instead of staying with her. From a page in a book, I can learn how to use my subconscious mind to find something as simple as finding my house key which I had misplaced in my house. These are all simple examples from only reading a page in the books I had read. Can you imagine how your mind can wander to the infinite perspectives of others?
How reading actually helped in day-to-day life including other communication skills like your conversational skills?
Whenever I have presentations the next day, I will make sure that I will read at least 10 pages of a book, whatever book I was reading at that time. Whenever I have a meeting that I need to be the main person to communicate the agenda, plans and ideas or even do presentations, I will do the same. Whenever I am recording a podcast episode like this, I will read a book the night before even though I had written scripts that I could read out, I realized that the flow of my voice and speech will be much better, clearer and more confident when I read a book the day before. I had tried several times when I forgot to read both intentionally and not, my podcast episode sounded so cramped like as if I am so scared to speak out loud. Same goes when I had presentations.
Whenever I will be going out with my friends the next day, I will do the same. Read a book. The difference was so significant when I didn’t. I don’t have ideas to chat about. I will stutter because my thoughts, feelings and expressing my ideas were all jumbled up. This is not about sharing the topic of what I was reading the day before. It is about the fluency aspect between the thinking process and communicating what is in my mind easily. If I do not read, I will end up with verbal blockage and keeping quiet most of the time.
Then how about improving your conversational skills?
If you are aware that your conversational skills are not as good as your friends’ who might be speaking more fluent than you do maybe because it is their first language, first you have to realised it and acknowledge it. Remember the steps I shared in Episode 7. Please acknowledge it first and then start implementing your improvements strategies.
So apart from reading to improve your conversational skills, you can also start watching interviews which are available for free on YouTube. You can also watch movies and listen to the actors speak without subtitles and then do it again with subtitles. Most of the time I will watch with the English subtitles because of the accent. I can say for my own journey, I learnt more usually from watching interviews than movies.
Also when you listen to music, start first listening without reading the lyrics to sharpen your listening and comprehension, and then read through the lyrics. See whether you had listened to the lyrics correctly in the first place because sometimes it is quite challenging to understand what the artists are singing. And if my favourite artists like Taylor Swift released her albums, I will sit for at least 2 hours depending on the number of tracks which could be 18 tracks in one album that might take me at least 3 hours to listen to the music twice. First what I did was I will usually listen without reading the lyrics. Then, continue listening second time with lyrics on my screen. I had also learned to analyse lyrics too since I started listening to her songs ten years ago. This process actually had sharpened my analytical and investigative skills.
Apart from listening to music, listen to public speakers speak in seminars, it does not matter on videos or live. You can use these methods for any languages you need to improve on. I used to do this too when I was studying for my German language. It is the same process and normally it worked out so very well.
The process when I kept watching talk shows interviews, what I did was more like copying or replicating the way a person speaks. There is no need to follow them exactly. It is like you are trying to imagine yourself speak in that way. The first time I found out this technique was by chance. I started to watch talk shows like Ellen DeGeneres, Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Letterman, Conan for the past 13 years. I will watch the interviews in 2 ways meaning from the talkshow hosts perspective and also when the celebrity guests speak. I focused more on their fluency, the way they express themselves, how to be comfortable when speaking to someone or how to play with humour and many others. There are many interviews out there to be used as a tool to sharpen your conversational and comprehension skills so you can try that too.
The entire steps that I did eventually make a lot of difference to the way I speak to people over the years. I am not talking about being friendly to say hi to strangers or neighbours. I am looking at the fluency and articulation and the energy of confidence when I speak to people.
And then the other point is the courage to speak out my ideas and thoughts has significant difference compared to before. I used to hold myself back when I wanted to present for my own businesses especially during that time on the handwriting analysis skills to people. I had no confidence because I felt like I lacked something when I communicate with others. But nowadays for nearly ten years now, basically, I do not have any worries anymore if I made a mistake on my grammar which I will do sometimes both in my business and personal conversations. I will focus more on what I wanted to say instead because if I were to focus on correcting my grammar in my sentence, I will end up disrupting the flow of my speech which then made me forget what I intend to say. The same as writing, you have to first prioritize on the contents on the first draft. Then, you can edit the grammar later.
How can simply by reading help you in developing other areas of your communication skills?
Well, reading can also help you to write your ideas into words. If you are currently writing an essay or thesis for school, or script for your videos, podcast or even presentation and suddenly you don’t have any ideas or the words in your mind are stuck. Go get something to read.
While writing this script few months ago, I was reading a book by Thomas Erikson Surrounded by Idiots and Surrounded by Psychopaths. These books I kept in my home so I will read it at night. And a book by President Barrack Obama, The Promised Land which I keep it in my office. For two days, I had writer’s block while writing a script for my first fiction. I couldn’t continue writing for whatever reasons, maybe because I was exhausted or my mind was giving excuses to delay it.
Then, when I spend about an hour reading a chapter of The Promised Land about 30 pages or maybe more because the book is quite addictive, automatically I was able to continue writing my script fluently and completed it.
Same when I was writing this podcast script. After the first draft which is like the skeleton from the surface of my thoughts, I could then write it much more detailed than before. Everything flows well especially after reading. Anyway, if you are interested in fiction, the one I recently had completed after a month of writing and editing the scenes, it is called Between Love and Reputation which is now available on YouTube. That is considered my first fiction writing.
I will share with you more on how to enhance your writing skills in the next episode. So, at the meantime, before I end this episode, this is an excerpt from the latest book which I had published Be Brave: Uncensored Motivational Quotes which is now available on Amazon and any online bookstores.
Throughout the journey of attaining your purpose in life, be observant.
Open your mind and emotions to learn how your body works and harness this knowledge.
Observe how you make decisions in life. Analyse the patterns of how your mind and feelings work in situations
– By S.Sulianah, Author of Be Brave: Uncensored Motivational Quotes
Have a great week and see you in the next episode.
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