Speech communication. ( conversation that flow through my head when I was 'listening' to the lecture )

A : Why do we have to learn how to speak, doesn't it comes natural ?

B : Well, it is natural, but when you speak up to a larger audience, it takes more to convince.

A : To make it convincing ? Is that why we learn how to give a speech ? But, if what you are going           to say in the speech is the truth, why do you worry the audience won't accept it ?

B : Because not all truth are as simple as ABC. Some requires supporting evidence. You see, even             when Prophet Muhammad SAW tried to convince people of the message of Islam , people still           deny him.

A : So are you saying that it is Prophet Muhammad fault for being not convincing enough ? That he         need to learn speech communication to make it better?

B : No, its not his fault at all. He does not need to add, his message was clear enough. It's the listener       that were too arrogant to accept his message.

A : So the fault lies within the audience instead ?

B : Yes.

A : Then shouldn't we educate the audience how to listen critically instead ?

B : Yes that's true. But you have to consider there are some people that do not know how to speak the       truth convincingly, as a result, the audience is not able to trust him.

A : But don't you think that, if truth is spoken, it take less effort to convince people than otherwise ?

B : Yes, even that many are not capable of executing.

A : So why do we need to make this 'less' effort into a strenuous task. You have a syllabus to teach on       them.

B : But that is just for the sake of making it more organized to help these people that are weak.

A : Do you really think these people feel helped when listening to a 4 hour lecture a week on it ? Not       to forget , the assignments ? Because all I can see is that you are making it troublesome.

B : Its better to go through hardship now, and find yourselves at ease later.

A : I certainly agree on that rule. But it is not applicable to this one. A syllabus, assignments, 4 hours       of lecture, graded speech and exam is not hard but rather cumbersome. Increasing workload and         increasing difficulty is two different thing. It's like giving 500 simple mathematics question to a           student , and call it Calculus,

B : But all the things that we learn in Speech Communication can greatly improve our speech skills.

A : We learn a thousand and one tips from the lecture, even get to know some unnecessary trivia,             how much do you think of all of them is successfully employed into practice ?

B : As much as possible.

A : Yes, as much as possible, but that make up to nearly 10 - 15 tips per lecture out of 1001 shared           due to our limited capacity. Don't you think the remainders are just wasted and time consuming ?

B : I see your point here. You are asking us to remain focus on things that helps, and do not be greedy       with the amount of info we can absorb in a day.

A : Yes. Prof Syed Qutb once noted that, one of the criteria that made The Companions great                   learners were their immediate application of what being learnt, And most of the time, they never         ask for more lecture, because that will only make them feel pack, and lose their ability to  fully           apply what they have learn. Consider this stoichiometry, you learn 10 things a day, and an average     of 10 opportunity comes in a day for you practice them. If you learn 100 things a day , but the             opportunity remained the same, then what you leant are excess. The opportunity present for you to     apply this knowledge became a limiting factor.

B : But I still thinks its good that we are teaching people how to give a speech.

A : Let's put it this way. One man convincing speech does not guarantees the truth is accepted. But,          an audience full of critical listeners guarantees the truth is spoken.

B ; So you are suggesting, we should focus more on teaching people how to listen critically instead of       how to speak convincingly ?

A : Yes. what is the use of giving a highly structured speech when the audience itself is not critical           enough to dissect them.

B : But, first impression on a speech is psychologically important, You need to appear confidence of         what you are saying, and that's why you still need to learn SpeechCom.

A : All I can see is that, you are advocating the audience to engage with the speaker's outlook , rather       than the merit of his ideas in the speech. Appearance can be deceiving, but ideas are plain to               examine.

B : So you are saying that the outlook is not as important as the ideas the speaker is trying to put out ?

A : To make an important decision, on whether to accept a man's suggestion or to reject them, it               should  be solely on the weight of the arguments he presented. By putting gratuitous attention to           someone's outlook is ridiculous.

( the numbers used are exaggerated , to provide a real sense , but the ratio is the same )

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