COMMUNICATION
GOOD communication skills get you the gold.
Or, communication skills are gold. You will go places.It took me a while, a few decades actually, to come up with these lines.
And, you will understand why after you complete reading this article.
Journalism and communication
In my previous article, I discussed how journalism as a field of studies is interesting, and valuable. It allows students to develop their communication skills, a set of skills that is in-demand today as it was for thousands of years.
In some journalism and media programmes that are offered by universities, students cover a lot of topics in communication.
And that may include writing copies for different audiences, public speaking, or science communication.
I have taught some of these courses in the past few years as a teacher in journalism and media courses. And the more I teach these courses, my appreciation for communication skills continues to grow.
Four skills
Any textbook in communication or languages will state that the four communication skills are reading, writing, listening and speaking.
A good course curriculum will better guide students to develop all four skills. Reading and listening are the passive skills while writing and speaking are the active ones.
Many people have developed two of the four skills and do not know how to improve the other two.
Most people do not like to write and many more detest speaking, particularly in front of an audience.
However, it is important to note that someone who works to improve his or her writing and speaking skills will be recognised and can lead a team better, and get the promotion and gain other privileges in the workplace over a knowledgeable person who remains quiet or cannot communicate their ideas.
I should make an important point here.
Writing and speaking are skills, and skills can be learned and upgraded.
If you give the time to actively work on your writing and speaking skills, you will improve them.
And, if you want to be promoted, get recognised, get privileges and go places, you have to learn to be effective in all four skills, not just one or two.
Improve one improves others
This is also important.
As someone who has taught languages, communication and media courses, I realised that when you improve one of the four skills, it improves your other three skills as well.
When you actively listen regularly to good English or French, you will speak the best kind of phrases and use correct pronunciation in the language.
When you take the time to write good English or Spanish, you will also speak good English or Spanish.
When you write, the structure of the language gets into your system.
I had a French tutor who stress that; he said keep a journal and write your descriptions in French to be better speaker of the language.
Are PNG scholars too quiet?
Do you realise that often the brightest people in a class are often too quiet?
I realised that many decades ago when I was studying science in university.
I had a roommate who was in the social sciences, and who was a few years older than me.
He told me that expatriate lectures said that students from Papua New Guinea are too quiet and hardly ask any questions.
It was a surprise, but it was true.
Over the years, I realised that that may be due to two main reasons.
Firstly, most students from PNG come from a traditional society where young people are not supposed to talk when adults talk.
That culture is ingrained in most students from primary to secondary schools and beyond.
And, people do not realise this.
The other cause would be to do with the curriculum that is used.
The curriculum that PNG uses in the primary and secondary levels does not help the students to better develop the four communication skills, including reading and speaking.
With my experience or teaching in an international school for several years, I realised that a school that uses a New South Wales or Victorian curriculum from Australia will develop their students in using English confidently and effectively from the preparatory level to the higher secondary level.
That is why a student from an international school will generally do better in public speaking, presentation and related tasks than a student from any other school in PNG.
It is not because the students from the government-run school are less intelligent; it is because they were never guided by a curriculum that develops their speaking and presentation skills.
As someone who is exposed to Australian universities, I see that students from the developing world, as in Asia where a lot of traditional societies still exist, are generally quieter in class discussions.
They may have come up through similar kinds of learning experiences that PNG students have.
But being quiet does not mean students are less intelligent or creative.
Give them a chance and they can add unique contributions to a topic under discussion.
Fruits of having skills
Are communication skills that important?
Here are some reasons why anyone who wants better times in the future should improve their communication skills.
1. You will do better in many courses in school.
You will communicate your ideas clearly and confidently and be assessed well for your effort.
2. You will need good communication skills to apply for jobs.
That includes being confident in your interview session where you may have to face a panel and convince them in proper English that you are the best person for the job you are applying for.
3. If you want to win a scholarship to go study in an overseas university, you will have to convince a panel that you are the best person to be awarded that privilege – over the 30 others who are also in line and waiting for the same interview.
4. If you want to start a business and need an investor to help with start-up capital, you have to convince them with your proposal.
Your business pitch must be clear and convincing.
5. If you want to become a teacher, lawyer, journalist or other professionals who use speaking and writing skills daily, you need to start developing your skills today.
6. If you want to be a leader in an organisation or society, communication skills are vital.
This is stressed by many books on leadership.
In the Bible, leaders like Moses, Caleb, Joshua, Paul and Luke were good communicators, if not in oratory, at least in writing scripts which are still used today in churches.
Remember this: If your communication skills are well developed, you will win a job, gain a scholarship, or get many privileges because you are able to articulate your ideas succinctly and confidently.
How to develop the skills?
Recently, I noticed that there was a company charging people fees to take speaking classes.
They also realise that people need to develop the four communication skills.
Here are easy tips for you, if you want to develop your communication skills.
(Although I will use English as a language, the same can be applied to any language that you want to use to communicate in.)
1. Read a lot and read regularly in the language.
You have heard your English teachers say this: Read a lot.
When you read more, the structure of the language gets into your system, and that is true for English, French, Japanese, German or Spanish.
2. Listen to good programmes where people use good English.
Do not listen to radio programmes or follow content creators where people are mixing English with Tok Pisin or other languages. That is bad.
3. Speak English more.
Use that with your peers, if you are in school, or with your colleagues at the workplace where English is the main language.
A tell-tale sign for people who need to improve their speaking skills is when they start a discussion in English and cannot conclude it properly so they switch to Tok Pisin or some other language. That is bad.
4. Revise your English grammar knowledge. If you want to master the language, you have no choice; you have to do it.
You can go online and review concepts like parts of speech, use of figurative language or avoiding common mistakes that people make in English.
5. Keep a journal, or use a notebook that you write your thoughts and experiences in.
Just like what my French tutor told me, write to improve your use of the language.
And, write complete sentences.
6. Take a few minutes a day to read aloud a script in English.
This is for people who want to improve their speaking skills.
Take a text and read it aloud to yourself.
Better yet, write the script, which maybe your view on an issue, or something about your own life.
Read it loudly.
Read that while sitting, or when standing.
You can also record yourself speaking, and then play over the recording and listen to it.
Listen, evaluate and try to improve.
7. And similar to the last one, speak while in a room with a recording device is a few metres away.
That should help you with learning to speak louder, when speaking in a room filled with people.
Learn to raise your voice to be audible.
Stand up straight, and work on your voice projection.
Do not whisper – as when you are talking to a group of people.
Speak loudly and evaluate the recording and improve your skill.
8. Find YouTube videos where people are offering free tips on how to improve your communication skills.
Watch, learn, pick up tips and use them.
Learning a language
The tips I have offered come from me working on English concepts and also studying French formally.
That helped me appreciate the four skills more.
I also noticed that when I studied French grammar, it also improved my English grammar.
The same can go for other languages as well.
Here is an additional tip for you, if you are travelling to countries or island states where English is not the main language, or is one of a number.
If you are travelling to any French territory, such as New Caledonia or Tahiti, learn some French phrases before you go.
It will heighten your experiences of the place, the people and moments.
If you are travelling to Fiji, learn the basic greeting words in Fijian.
If you are travelling to West Papua, learn the basic phrases in Indonesian as well.
It will help.
Last words
In my curriculum vitae (CV), I state that I am fluent in English and Tok Pisin.
I can give a talk in English or proper Tok Pisin for 10 minutes or more.
In my CV, I also state that I can get by with Motu and French.
Learning a language (such as English or any other) and improving your communication skills in it will require time and effort.
Nothing comes easy.
You have to be committed and complete homework regularly.
The fruits will come.
If you want to be recognised, get the job, be seen as the better candidate, and enjoy other privileges, you have to start upgrading your communication skills.
Communication skills are gold.
They are vital.
