1). Think of a recent situation in which you found listening difficult. Which one (or more) of the four phases presented the most difficulty for you? Why? How could this have been overcome?
About a month ago I encountered a situation where listening was difficult for me. I was at work and I noticed that one of my co-workers was helping a couple that was using sign language. Now, I have taken 4 courses in American Sign Language and saw he was struggling so I thought I would try and assist. I walked over and told the couple that I knew sign language. They were excited to know this because they were not finding what they were looking for because they were not understood. Now, I have not brushed up on my sign language in a few years so I was a little slow to understand. I was trying to read all the signs he was giving me but did not understand or I was misunderstanding. The couple was a bit frustrated at first because in American Sign Language you are to be knowledgeable in the proper signing and facial expressions or it is consider rude. I let them know I forgot a lot of signs and I was slow. They were more understanding after I told them this. It did make it very difficult to understand them because I was not up to date on my signing. I did not understand or I was misinterpreting the signs. I also had to ask them to repeat themselves a few times and this is also to be considered very rude. It is like having a conversation with a hearing person and saying “what, can you say that again, I still do not understand, again please.” This can become very repetitive and irritating.
If I had to apply one of the four phases to my situation, I would have to say that evaluating the message context fits the best. During this process I had to form opinions and make judgment on what I thought the messages were. I had to take all the facts being presented and try and put them together to figure out what was being said. Since it was a difficult process because I did not understand some of the messages that were being said I misunderstood and made assumptions about what I thought it was.
A way to overcome this problem would be let the person know in the beginning of the conversation that I am not a fluent and this would avoid frustrations. I also could choose to refresh my skills and possibly become more fluent. And there would be less confusion about the messages being said.
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Sweetheart,
ReplyDeleteThe example that you shared was great example. Trying to translate sign language to a couple that was shopping, must of been very difficult even though you have taken sign language classes. I think that it happens a lot not with just translating sign language, but any kind of language. If I was put in the situation you were in I would have been frustrated also. Overcoming the problem, was the correct way you said, either letting the person know that you will try and translate as much as you know to help them out, and or you can try to refresh on the languages to make it a little bit more easier. Good job sweetheart.