Listening Strategies

Listening to others and getting their feelings is a very crucial thing. People should learn how to listen to others and get their interests at heart. Having other people interests means caring about them and one can create the feedback from these people without getting information from them. However, if a person listens to others who does not care about, he/she will not grasp the tiniest and unexplained information.

From the story stories of the Arawak and other indigenous people's experiences with Columbus and his men we already know the story of the Columbus and his travelling in search of gold and slaves. We know that Columbus was a sailor and that he knew the world is round, so he travelled around to get to the Far East. The author tells us the experiences of Columbus. However, the reader lacks the actual experiences of the slaves. The experiences of the Indian slaves is missing in the story.

McCormick article

Listening closely to ordinary civic speech can help the public learn about deliberative failures of politicians. As according to the McCormick article, most Americans are excited about deliberative democracy but appalled by its actual practices. For a long time, the public address routinely delivers scripted bouts of discussion that ignores local political culture. In political culture, citizens can frequently participate in unscripted public debates. The unscripted debate gives the listener the chance to analyze different styles and figuratively used in the speech. Thus, the listener will end up getting a deeper meaning from the speech than when the listener fails to relate words selection and style with the speech. One of the important listening strategies from McCormick article is paying attention to orators' selection of words and the style of communicating such as the use of acoustic contours of delivery. As a listener, I should be able to tell the different meanings of speech using the same words but with different acoustic contours. I must involve both the ears and brain in listening as the brain gives meaning to different contours that the speaker uses.

Empathic Civilization Video

This video explains about how people can relate to the world without having to fight or violence. It describes that despite the races, religion, culture and much more, the world which comprises of billions of people came from two people i.e. Adam and Eve. Invisible hand strategy is the phenomena that I could use for me to listen to others and understand them well. This action means trying to connect to others through empathy as they are my fellow human beings. With these actions guiding me, I will learn what other people needs from me as I need from them. I will read their demands and desires very easy which will assist me in relating to them. The strategy helps one to read other people’s minds through their living status or the visible actions and know their demands.

While going to Cuba and Hispaniola, Columbus had one goal which was to get gold and slaves for trade in his home country Spain. Therefore, upon reaching to these areas, the people welcomed them warmly and introduced them to their culture. They did not hide anything from Columbus and his men. Columbus took these people’s kindness for weakness where he exploited them, took gold and slaves from them hoping to come back for more. With the invisible hand strategy that would connect from human to human, Columbus would have listened and learnt that these people required others to trade with and share ideologies. He would have known that despite their race, these people were human beings like the others, and they will do anything to defend their interests. Lack of this listening strategy by Columbus led to the death of many people and creation of enmity between them.