Listening is essential to learning

Friday November 29th

Blog entry by: Kathryn Brody (Harris Y Leaders Club, Sophomore at South Meck HS)

From the time we are little we start to learn basic communication skills, such as how to talk, read and write. We quickly realize that these skills will help us get what we want, when we want it. But when and how do we start to listen? No one really teaches us how or shows us, it is just something that is programmed in us, an instinct. 

Listening is essential to learning. It is how you share and gather information from others. Not only is listening absorbing information but also analyzing and finding deeper meaning to what is actually being said. Very often listening is confused with hearing, which would bring me to assume that the deaf are unable to listen. This week I was able to see first-handed that is not the case at the school of the deaf in the Petri YMCA. Even though the participants are limited on physically hearing the words that are being spoken they are able to deprive meaning from motions, which is in their own way listening.

On this trip I have done a lot of listening. There are so many stories to be heard and so many points of views being shared and it really gets you to think about things in ways you would not have before. As the saying goes, “we have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak,” and that expression has never rang truer than this week. We have all, as a group, done our best to absorb every detail from our meetings with the Senegalese YMCAs so that we are able to understand them and better share their stories later.

In all, this trip has gone by very quick! I cannot believe we are on the last couple days and this has been an amazing experience. We have made great relationships with our hosts and we could not have done so without the power of listening.

-Kathryn Brody