Communication in our everyday life is as important as life itself. Did you know that how you communicate to others tells a lot about you it can actually tell who you are, where you are from, what kind of parents raised you in some cases and even the tribe you may be coming from? Sometimes the country. The way you communicate can either make way or close doors in your life. Yes! communication is that important.
In Akan, you will hear it often being said of a person as “oonim kasa, nano kasa y3 tane papa! Sometimes you hear stuff like “nanum kasa bon!’ these are but a few of the bad comments you hear around. For those who do not understand the Ghanaian language, it simply means you often hear people pass comments like “ this person doesn’t know how to talk well or respectfully, at other times you hear comments as the words that come out of someone’s mouth smells bad! not as in odour but the words that come out.
Communication is that powerful. As earlier said, it can even break a home when it comes to marriages. It can make you lose a job at an interview, it can make people form opinions and perceptions about you. Watch how you communicate.
For example, in marriage, a man is the head of the family regardless of the position that’s the woman picks up. He deserves some respect as you give to your pastor or God. Then in communicating with him, you always speak to him with a high tone, the assumption will be that you probably are not respectful meanwhile, you may be. This simple act sometimes can even lead to marriages collapsing all in the name of my partner does not respect me or know how to talk to me. Poor communication has led to a lot of broken homes
Again in communication, parties involved must know and understand that whatever you say must be understood by the person you may be communicating with so that the person can be on the same page that you are. Make sure that whatever you say to someone is actually in plain language that the person can understand.
If you communicate to someone and they don’t understand what you meant, it can cause chaos or misunderstanding and in fact to a very large extent. You will hear people call it a misconception. Yes, we must appreciate that we are all different people and see and look at things differently. So in order for someone to understand your point of view, you may have to do It well for the person to understand
Communication can be through verbal or action or gestures as others may call it. You may be saying something to someone but your actions and demeanour will be suggesting another thing and that is one of the things that we must look out for. Your words must correspond to your actions.
In our family setup or even between parents and children, sometimes parents will mean well with what they want to say to the kids but the children may be looking at it from a different angle making them believe their parents may not like them or are difficult, whereas whatever they may be saying or doing is actually in the interest of the family.
Sometimes communication can affect the growth of a family, company or even friendship when it’s not properly done. Communication is a skill and all must make it a point to learn. Did you know that sex is a great form of communication between couples and if not expressed well can cause troubles? It can cause one partner to cheat or even leave a marriage.
In business, sometimes when you owe someone or took a loan and it’s time for the money to be paid back or you take goods and it’s time to pay and you are unable to pay before the deadline, communication has to go on between yourself and the other party but most often than not, no communication whatsoever and so the people or person you owe will get angry and sometimes bring the police on you to take what your owe or the goods whereas that situation could have been avoided if you communicated.
Communication is very important in our day to day lives and we must learn the act of communicating easily and making it a point to get our listeners or whoever we may be communicating to understand. In all these, let’s not also forget that the most important person to communicate with and to is God. Once we understand God, we may not find it difficult to understand His will for our lives.
May the LORD bless us and give us FRESHHOPE as we go about our daily activities and may He help us learn to communicate well such that our communication can open doors for us and take us before kings and great people.
Written by © Benjamin Freshhope Mensah
