Personal Narrative: Improving My Listening In The Classroom

There are several major ways that I could easily improve my listening in classrooms, for me sitting still in a college class for even an hour is so difficult for me to do. When I read this chapter i was reminded of several things that I do that are making it harder on myself to listen to what is going on in my college classes. Starting with the process of listening, jumping to the second stage which is understanding I know that this is a huge flaw that I have and that is assuming that I understand what is being said. Another area that I seem to fail at is asking questions, I hardly ever ask questions unless I am forced to otherwise I try and just figure it out on my own (pg.151). One of the main problems I have especially in my Anatomy lecture
class if being able to remember the information. We are told fo much information in such a short period of time it is so hard to retain all of that, one thing that does help me is writing word for word what my professor says down and later going back through it and deciphering it (pg.152). When it comes to listening barriers a major listening barrier that consumes me almost all of the time is having my best guy friend being in the Marines. Most people would not think this is a listening barrier but it is, because it causes me to be constantly distracted and unable to focus fully. A few ways that I could improve my listening behaviors with my boyfriend are by focusing on him and not being distracted or on my phone. I am also totally the person that listens to the first 30 seconds of what my boyfriend is saying and then just finishes his thought with what i think he will say. I can easily fix this by shutting off my own ideas and actually paying attention to what he is saying and his thoughts. I can improve my listening behaviors with my best friend that is in the Marines by seeing his messages from his point of view as a Marine 4,000+ miles away from home vs. my point of view. Since we mainly talk on the phone and text it is really hard to focus on him sometimes when he has had a terrible day and wants to talk about everything but I also want to tell him about my day I have to remind myself that I will get my turn to talk instead of interrupting him (pg.154-155). Listening to someone that I dislike happens unfortunately this is just part of life and of course I have to be mature about it. When it comes to listening to someone that I do not like some of the things I can do to help are putting all of my biases, prejudices, and thoughts about that person to the side (pg.155). This has actually helped my suitemate I told her to try this and pretend as though she had never met the person she disliked before and then try to listen to them. She said it actually worked and made listening to the person she disliked actually bearable. A specific example that I can think of for surface and depth listening is focusing on both verbal and nonverbal messages. I try and use this this concept as often as I can, especially when it comes to communicating with people that are close to me. An example if this is when my suitemate comes into my room crying after her biology class. I have to take into account that I am not in her class and I do not know what else has happened throughout her day (pg.160). Another example that my suitemate has brought to my attention is interrupting her when she is talking, I tend to get a little too excited about a topic and end up interrupting her while she is in the middle of a sentence. She reminded me that I need to “avoid trying to take over the speakers turn. Avoid changing the topic.”(pg.161). There is times when I just become so excited about what I want to say next that I end up interrupting and changing the subject.