Our Facilitator had started the class with an ice breaker asking that we decode the meaning of his name ‘Ohu’ and people went from saying English meanings like “Slaves, Help, See’ and all sorts.
It turned out that most of these responses were by Igbos who figured it was a language related to the culture. Someone wanted the name to be pronounced first to get a glimpse of what the actual meaning may be, lol.
You see, the truth is that pronunciation can change a name meaning and this can aid communication especially when the speaker and the receiver are in sync of what is being said.
Talking about communication, In communicating you must keep in mind ‘Audience & Purpose’.
Audience because, the nature of people you’re communicating with should be in accordance with subject topic, like discussing football with non fans may have the tendency of not wielding a good conversation or imagine gisting cooking with people who are uninterested, even pitching your business should be with the target customer. We were asked in class what we would tell Dangote in an elevator if we bump into him and here is what I said ” Good afternoon Sir, my name is Sally, if you would stay longer in Lagos or when next you be in Lagos, I will like that my beauty company offer our mobile salon services to you in your preffered location, to help you maximize time and allow you multitask if you have to and I would hand over to him my card”. The best thing to do is ensure that the conversation you’re having is with the right crowd.
Again, knowing the purpose of passing this information is key so the conversation is more precise and productive.
It will be nice to have a conversation when there is ‘shared meaning’, which is when your intended meaning is same as the perceived.
It is also more interesting to have conversations that yields feedbacks, this gives the speaker an information to holding down a conversation and allows the speaker know that the listeners are following and it’s an indicator that means ‘ride on’ or continue.
Ethics and a Folklore