Namaste. Welcome to the session on listening and notes taking. Many of you might have had a chance to look at our video on these two topics and today we are here assembled to celebrate our learning and also to catch up with each other to see if there are any questions on which we can learn together. I am here to put up my responses. So, here is a first question. What are the gana, vana have to in listening skills? So, this is the short form which generally young students use and I am trying to understand what does that mean? I assume it is what are the have to be things, what are good at what are the good things to be followed in listening skills? Listening requires attention and choice. I think the most important thing in listening is a willingness to listen, a willingness to understand what other person is saying. Even if the even if what I come across while listening is something contrary to my belief is still suspending my judgment and willing to listen, willing to look at what is the truth value in that statement and if required willing to question our own assumptions that is the essential part of listening. Listening is starting of the dialogue and dialogue dialogue is extremely important for understanding. So, what is my answer short answer to what are the have must have things in listening is my willingness to exercise my choice of listening. Even if what is being listened, even if even if what is being heard even if what is being said is contrary to my belief system and suspending judgment for some time. I am not saying we can carried away with whatever is told to us whatever is said to us, but holding for few seconds pause to appreciate what this person is saying and if required to understand what is the background of this person. What is the background of this thing being told and we are finding it contrary, but they might be that might be true because of the background or the context in which this is this is being said and if we can understand the context and background of whatever is being said we can appreciate what other person is saying and we can pick up what can enrich our own understanding about that matter. We can take next question. So, I have received one question from Nidhi that how can we try to hide our nervousness from the interviewer? This is very practical question. It is very natural to feel nervous. So, and it is also expected not to show your nervousness to a to some extent. How to hide the nervousness? Actually, it is very difficult to hide our nonverbal communication. Whatever is going on in our mind particularly in subconscious mind gets reflected on a phase on our body language and about that you must have heard very insightful things by Professor Fatak. But the question is I am saying it is practical. How to deal with the I think the better way of asking question is or better question is how to deal with the nervousness? My first thing is my first suggestion is that nervousness is an emotion and to best way of dealing with emotion is recognizing it then recognize where you are experiencing nervousness. Are you experiencing nervousness in your head? Are you experiencing nervousness in your heart and you can sense your increased heartbeat? Are you experiencing nervousness in your legs and sometimes your legs shiver in the nervousness? Look at that. Don't try to struggle with that and say to yourself this is the natural response of my body. I am going to perform my best even if my heart is beating fast. Even if my leg is shivering, I am going to give my best. I am going to be at my best. I am going to present my best self. I am going to put my best foot forward. Give this auto suggestions at the time of interview. You will feel strengthened. What you can do before interview so that you can deal with the nervousness more skillfully? One technique which is found to be very useful is visioning. Before actually interview take place, you write down the probable questions and your best answers to it. Try to assume, try to imagine the setting in which interview is going to take place. Put yourself and see yourself in the best performing way. See yourself, you are performing your best. How do you see yourself? Look at how are you talking? Imagine what is the tone of your voice? Imagine the kind of words you are using. Imagine what is your body language, your nonverbal and verbal expressions. So, before actually interview happens if you envision yourself in your best way of performance, that train our mind to give that performance when the actual situation arrives. One more thing is called role modeling. If you heard about or if you have read about or if you have seen some movie where person has handled the interview or any difficult conversations, any difficult conversation carefully or skillfully, see what you can learn from that person, what you would like to implement in your own conversations. So, visioning and role modeling, observing, these are the three ways you can systematically deal with the nervousness which we experience during the interviews or even normal but difficult conversations in our professional life or in daily life. If you have any questions, please press the hand raise button in a view and also the YouTube live chat is also being monitored. Please post your questions on that. In a view, please press the hand raise button at the bottom of the user list if you have any questions. So, I have this question on what are the interpersonal skills and how can we enhance them. Interpersonal skills starts with listening, assertive conversation, empathizing, sympathizing, conflict handling and having a productive working relationships or rather we can say productive long term working relationships. So, this is my answer to this question about what are the interpersonal skills. There is another question on what do the term critical and empathic means in the listening skills. I assume you are referring to the PPT being showed on the listening skills and I would like to bring the attention to the correct word that is not empathic, it is empathic. Empathic meaning my ability to experience what other person is going through or what other person is talking about. So, this word came in the listening positions. So, while listening we can adopt a position which is somewhere in between the two continuums. So, two ends can be active or passive means we can be very active listening when we are paraphrasing, we are clarifying or just passively listening. So, in between these two continuum we can situate at different point. We can also take the position about the critical and empathic. We need to be consciously choose our position and recognize that when we need to be empathic and when we need to be critical in listening. Generally, conversation need to start with empathic listening which arises from my willingness and involvement in listening to understand other persons genuinely. So, my genuine concern to understand other persons point of view starts with empathic position and if I see that there is something not good or something dysfunctional in the worldview of the person who is whom we are talking to. Then we need to recognize paraphrase what this person is saying and then put up our point assertively and if required we can be critical. But being critical without showing empathy in the beginning generally does not work. So, the real word the actual word used was not empathic it was empathic and it is a good position to start a start the conversation at least. But we should also be ready for the critical listening when it is required. But not always the critical position is not always required. We generally need more empathic listening than the critical listening. Hearing is just receiving the signal. If I am not hearing impaired means if my auditory system which includes the ears and the whole auditory system, ear canal and the hearing system. If physiologically it is sound then we can hear anything. Listening is the choice. Listening is when we give specific attention to listening. I would like to distinguish these points by playing a sound clip. I am playing a sound clip and you please listen this. So, you heard or listened this. Now I will request you to focus on one instrument. So, there is a whole orchestra being played. You can focus only one instrument or the voice of the singer. But just follow one instrument one voice out of so many being played in the orchestra. So, I would like to ask you heard this piece at after two instructions. The first request was you just hear this. And second time I ask you to focus on one instrument or one sound. Was there a difference in the experience of listening at these two occasions? Yes. Now somebody is discussing both the nine. Firstly, we listen all songs. We concentrate on the drums music. Yes. In that on drums music when we concentrate on the drums music we are cooperating with that music only related to the drums. But when we are listening the song we are just listen whole song with only instrument plus the voice of the singer. Very good. So, this example is a good example to distinguish between hearing and listening. Hearing when we just hear something is being played something is being going on we just hear. Whereas listening is when we put up our attention to something when we choose to listen when we engage to listen to understand something. So, listening is a choice hearing is not a choice it just happens. We can take the next question. What is your name? Hello sir, Pratamesh Gurao. Namaste. Golly. Sir, how we can become a good listener? By exercising our choice to listen. By suspending our judgment for some time when we are into the conversation. So, there are two things I would like to point out which we which I discussed in the video lecture. Number one was the pseudo listening. So, if you look at our PPT I have mentioned I mentioned about the suboptimal listening why we do not listen why we why the quality of our listening is poor. So, there are five six reasons being mentioned on the reason of suboptimal listening means our poor poor listening that is pseudo listening actually listening not listening but acting to listen self-centered listening means while listening other person we are framing our response what will I say instead of trying to understand other person. So, there are different things given which are the reasons of suboptimal listening which are the reasons for the poor listening if we give attention to these things and we avoid these things we can become a better listener. And then another thing I would like to mention in the listening skills PPT which was explained in the video lecture that was the four step process by adopting four step process we can be a better listener first step is receive second is appreciate third is summarize and ask. So, the acronym is RASA RASA is a acronym the RASA is a Hindi and Sanskrit word I think it is this word also prevails in Marathi it means juice. So, listening is being able to get the juice of the conversation but RASA is actually an acronym not the word and RASA stands for receive appreciate summarize and ask if we follow these steps in the listening we can be better listener. Initially it is not easy initially we feel tired we feel puzzled in applying this method. But with minor practice practice for some time and then you can develop this skill of receiving appreciation summarizing and asking if we can practice this we can master these skills and in this way we can become a better listener. Thank you sir. So, there is one question from the Anna University asking how can one improve their listening skills who is very weak in it the practice is the only method means no one is this no one is 100 percent skill and there is always the new heights of learning any skills. So, any skill can be mastered to any extent listening is also one of these how we can improve if I am very poor at it practicing it more often at least starting and there are some methods we discussed about the enhancing that learning skill the some methods one is my willingness so at least we need to identify few people who if I know that I am not a very good listener I can do at least one thing I can identify few people may be my mother may be my father may be my some close friend may be my teacher we can decide that we will listen I will listen at least to this person. So, I may not listen to everyone but at least I decide that I will listen to this person and try to understand what this person says even if I do not appreciate what he is saying or she is saying that is one method another way is some other techniques like silent sitting 10 minutes in a day sit silently without struggling with any noise or voice coming from any direction just sit silently silently for 10 minutes and observe listen your listen the mundane sounds or any sound which is coming we can practice this for a minute just sit quietly pay attention to your toes sit comfortably take a deep and gentle breathe and listen there is a sound for computer of computer there might be a sound of some people entering the room or exiting the room there might be sound of some people talking birds might be chirping sound of the vehicles on the road just pay attention to that without any judgment without any struggle without wanting to stop or silent these sounds just giving attention to these sounds again take deep breathe gently breathe out and if we can follow this process 10 minutes every day after few days we will see ourselves we will find ourselves and most likely others will find us better listener another way is paying attention to the different tracks so if you are in a party there are so many conversations going on for five minutes just focus on one type of sound as we did with music you can do it in any other set any setting focus on one track and then we can enhance our listening skills third method is giving attention to the mundane sound if you are sitting in the auditorium and there are a lot of mundane sound which we never give attention to just start giving attention to these mundane sounds sounds of birds sounds of machines sounds of computer sound of people conversing on the road just paying attention to these mundane sounds without any evaluation if we do it few minutes in a day in a very shortest span of time our general listening skills will be enhanced so there is a question on how can we raise confidence to speak facing number of people basically you are asking how to raise confidence in the public speaking by practice by first forming the group by first speaking in the front of group which with which we are most comfortable once we identify the group which are with which we are most comfortable we should start speaking in front of those people the best method is if there are some more friends of yours who are facing the similar challenge who are also not feeling confident in public speaking make the group meet every Saturday or someday in a week on a specific time and choose a topic and start speaking one after another everyone will if it is a group of five people everyone should take five minutes each no one should interrupt in those five minutes to other person the person who is speaking after that tell everyone what are the two good things these you have done and what one thing they can improve so please remember two plus one rule two things for appreciation one thing on the area of improvement after listening to each other give feedback on this in this process you also will develop confidence you will develop confidence and your friends will also develop confidence so that is a one way you can practice there is no one no other method but practice how do we practice how we set up practice for ourselves and other friends that is the that is a key thing hello sir hello i am vatash chitryi i am vatash chitryi my question is whenever the person we are listening whenever the person we are listening to goes away from the topic although listeners are getting confused so what will be the polite ways that we can inform you regarding one polite way is is what we call the we can simply summarize what this person has seen so we can say that okay so or we can appreciate this person okay i appreciate your concern about this thing but i do not think it is related to the topic at the moment you can see this another way is summarizing what this person is saying so you can start saying that okay so if i summarize what you are seeing is that and then you can summarize what this person is saying and that probably make this person aware that he drifted away and third way is to ask gently politely if it is in the classroom raise your hand a couple of times if not first time you get attention of this teacher or the facilitator and ask how what this person is seeing is related to the topic in hand there might be a situation where this topic is connected but i am not able to see the connection so i will get educated or if it is not if it is really not connected this will remind the speaker to come back to the topic so by summarizing and asking depending on what techniques will be appropriate in a particular situation by summarizing and asking we can bring this person to the topic which is the core topic of the conversation or the class of the session hello What is the difference between notes making and note taking notes making and notes taking very good question if you remember what we studied and discussed on the notes taking method particularly the five-hour method five-hour method starts with receiving that is notes taking meaning writing down when this conversation is going on or the session is going on so we write down the main points the central points or the main instructions in the notes taking process notes making is our own inside or our own questions our own summary about the matter so notes taking is taking the instructions or notes from the speaker and putting it down in our diary or notebook or maybe in the electronic gadget or notes making is get taking some summarizing or getting insights or noting down the insights generated out of that notes taking five-hour method is good at both notes taking and notes making similarly mind map is also a very good method you can use it for the notes making and notes taking both the techniques which we discussed can be useful for notes making and notes taking both I also do some consulting work with the organizations for the organization and leadership development work and generally all the consulting work starts with diagnosis where we try to understand what is going on in the organization what can be improved what is going on very well so the first phase is generally notes taking so we I take notes by in a in a mind map method I note down whatever different people in the organizations are saying so first I just simply note down as a different branches of the mind map and after I come out of the office after 3, 4, 5 conversations I try to see the connections in what different people have said and that is the phase that is the stage when I start when when I get into the notes making a stage where what other others have said I try to see a common point I try to see contradiction I try to see a big picture originated from those notes which I took from them so that is the notes making phase sometime mostly I use mind maps but I suppose this 5-hour method which I used to use before can also be useful for notes taking and notes making because both the techniques have this space and the scope for both these processes and both these systems yes sir we have one more question okay please go ahead hello sir hello and my question is sometimes as suppose the lecture is started and I distract my concentration then how to stable it how to stable my concentration okay most of the time I from the lectures okay so you are not alone they just we we all experience this distraction whenever I am reminded of my distraction I can just reassemble myself re recollect my energy and one simple method is take a deep breathe exhale gently another method is just pay attention to your toes just pay attention to your toes and the moment you pay attention to your toes and your foot and that and foot which is touching the ground take one deep breathe exhale gently and you can experience that now you are back to the present moment are you yes sir yes so this is the quickest meditation in the world you can do it with the open eyes as many times in a day you are reminded of thank you sir you are welcome I would like to take this one question which I which amresh mr amresh sahu has posed how can a student apply and use mind mapping in his day to day life where they have got very little time for this type of mind exercise mind mapping is generally I appreciate that mind mapping generally is possible when you have a copy when you have notebook pen and some time so whenever you have time generally in the classroom it is applicable whenever you are in the classroom you can use that nowadays people also take notes on their smartphones so there you can quickly make mind map in in earlier days when smartphones were not so popular we used to keep a small diary and in our pocket and pen is anyway always there so we I used to quickly take the notes and take the mind map because in the general conversations it is difficult to take the lengthy notes so suppose you are going out of the home and your mother is saying to bring some stuff or do some work of the house now you can quickly take notes of this this is really helpful to remember the task at hand on that day and if there is a if you if you have if you have so many other things to look at and to do you can take the instructions in the pocket diary or in the smartphone and there might be a pattern means there you can club two tasks if you make the notes you can club the two tasks if it is possible you can some find some creative way of handling more than one task in one go so these are the things possible but I agree that not always you can make the mind map but I will urge at least in the classroom start trying out if not in the mathematical courses at least in the application oriented courses at least in the theory courses you can certainly use mind map and that will be helpful to develop your comprehensive understanding about the subject and you also it will also help you to see the interconnections of the different aspect of that area so sometime you have the opportunity please use that opportunity more often I have one more question does it make any bad impression by only listening and not speaking in a meeting I am reminded of a conversation of a new member of parliament in Britain and he had a he had a conversation with the senior parliamentarian and there was a debate going on on some on some important topic and this person was getting ready to this new MP was getting ready to participate to go for that debate in the parliament and he asked his senior fellow do you think I should speak up during the debate so the senior fellow the senior MP gave a very good response and we can also learn from that response he said that speak and speaking is your choice but after you speak in such a way so that after you spoke people should not think that why you spoke so when you have something interesting something valuable something positive something which can contribute to the objective of the meeting please share that I will also say do not keep yourself quiet for meeting after meeting means please speak and think how by speaking out you can contribute to the group and contribute to the productivity of the meeting because if you keep keep if you keep quiet more often you will develop the habit of keeping quiet and your best capabilities will not come out so I will say if you are the person you are not habitual of speaking start building the habit of speaking by asking one question yourself during the meeting how can I contribute to the productivity of the meeting by saying something and you must say something may not be a long paragraph but maybe few points based on your observation insights of knowledge that will keep you away from developing the habit of keeping quiet if you are going to enter in the working sphere in the organization people generally make impression about yourself the way you speak and what you speak so not speaking has a risk it is even more risk even more risk it is riskier if you keep on if you keep just quiet for very long time so speak up but with one question in mind with one intention how do I contribute to the productivity of the meeting I see a few more questions coming up apart from processes for what other things can we use the mind maps mind map can be used for practically anything about which we want to know or about which we want to think it is a knowledge capturing tool but it is also a thinking provocation tool so more we use it more thoughts and particularly more creative thoughts and more lateral thinking is possible so when the more lateral thinking is possible that will open up our own creative thinking and innovative thinking so wherever you think knowledge or knowing or understanding is required you can use mind map hello sir I am Vijay hello Vijay I have a question related to listening skills okay when we talk about listening skills all that comes in there listening to a speaker or listening to an interviewer during an interview but I have observed myself when I listen to the uh petition news or something other program for other than this I have heard myself when reading the lectures I have a problem I don't see that problem but I think it is because even I know the English words I can't uh understand them clearly which if you do my vocabulary or do I need some more skills in listening so how to overcome this uh I let me try by summarizing what you have asked are you asking that you are not confident of your vocabulary or you are asking that I know the word but I am hesitant in using that word or I am hesitant in speaking English is this your question I think I am not able to listen to the words by the British speakers or the British languages when it comes okay okay so your question is the is about the accent accent is something which is developed by listening and practicing meaning uh different countries in different countries people speak different kind of English not only in terms of the sometimes they use different words for the same thing they also use different accent so don't hesitate if it is in one to one conversation don't hesitate in asking for repeating what this person is saying if you are genuine if you are asking genuinely a person would like to oblige secondly the accent is developed by listening people who use that accent so asking in the more immediate sense but listening and comprehending in general will also be of great help to appreciate other accents hello sir hello I am Pooja Beshle hello Pooja and my question is what is the extensive and intensive listening uh extensive listening meaning this these words are used about listening and about many other things extensive listening is extensive word is where we try to cover the broader arena means the what are the overview what are the overarching idea about uh what is being written or what is being said so extensive word is used for the broader area and to develop the understanding and appreciation for the broader area being touched upon in the conversation or in the writing intensive is going deep going in depth so these two words are used for not only listening but also reading these two words are also used for the research there are some research studies which are very extensive in nature for example Darwin's theory of evolution or Newton's law these are very extensive means they cover the wide range of the phenomena and intensive is which looks at the one thing but in in but in depth for example our theory of looking at talking about the value of the small g and 9.8 square meter square uh something so uh this is a example of intensive means looking at the concept in depth and extensive is looking at many concepts at the same time but having the overview of those thank you sir I have a one question by Raviraj Raviraj Kadam is asking how to eliminate listening barriers while writing or while taking notes uh how to eliminate the listening barriers this is a lifelong journey we all are practicing to become better listener how to eliminate the barriers first is being aware of if I am aware of I can deal with those barriers what can be the barriers can be what we discussed in the video lecture that is pseudo listening being self-centered filling in being defensive or being insulated so these are the ways we keep creating barriers around ourselves so being aware that when I am getting hostage off when I am subconsciously uh relying on the suboptimal ways of listening so that when I am aware I can deal with that when I am aware that I am not actually listening but acting to listen then the moment I become aware I start listening so being aware of the suboptimal listening and also consciously practicing the active listening these are the two ways so first is eliminating the obstacles and second is building a practice I think these are the two ways in which we can eliminate the barriers of listening while writing or while while while attending a lecture Raviraj is also asking while writing or while taking notes both ways we need to engage our mind when our mind is engaged when it is working fast it works more effectively mostly the fast working mind is more effective mind so while writing or notes taking don't write things blindly without understanding please don't write and if you have not understood and if you have made a resolve that you are not going to write if you have not understood generally you will ask this ask about it in the conversation or when you are in the class you can ask that in the class so this is the way you can eliminate the listening barriers there is one more question coming tell about the gate exam I am not the best person to talk about the gate exam and this session is also not about the gate exam but my suggestion is you can talk to other faculty members send your queries to them or ask your seniors those who have cracked the gate exam how they have done it and ask your teachers because your teachers might have seen some people some students cracking the gate exam with very good percentile with very good score ask the teacher what your students those who cracked the exam very well how they have prepared what they did how they were in the classroom how they were outside the classroom please ask these questions from the teachers who have actually trained the gate people and they probably are in the better position to answer this question and anyway this session is not about the gate so we cannot take this question right now but this question is important please do not keep it under the carpet ask people who have seen people who have seen students to cracking the exam or the students who have cracked the exam please ask them good afternoon sir good afternoon you have not been very audible so let me try like interview or Skype interview sometimes interviewer the sound is very low and the interviewer cannot able to hear it clearly so in what polite manner we can ask them yeah the very similar to what we have done just now when you are not able to hear don't act as if you are hearing properly or you are able to listen properly so don't act as if you are listening properly when in actuality you are not please convey this to your interviewer ask them to wait or request them to be clearer or request them to do some take some technical steps maybe by closing themselves towards the mic or if they can write the their question on the screen something like that can be done and believe me no interviewer will feel bad if you ask this interviewer to be clearer and to be more to be clearer and to be audible so that you can answer the question please don't act as if you are listening when you are not able to listen that is my advice and for that ask politely tell this person that sir or madam this interview is extremely important for me and I was waiting for this call unfortunately I am not able to listen you properly I want to put my best I want to put my best put down I want to give my best answers but I am not able to listen would you be willing to check your system or write the questions on the screen so that I can take these questions properly understand these questions properly and take these questions properly this is the way you can you need not to directly say that you are not audible please repeat it people may feel hurt or may but best thing is to first upfront say this or put up in writing most of the video conferencing softwares and definitely Skype has the option to write as well so you please write your inability to please write about two things how interview is important for you and your inability to listen properly you write both the things I think people will most of the people would like to oblige and take the necessary step to be clearer and more audible hello sir hello and my question is how listening will be better than ready writing and speaking Purnima I am not going to propose or suggest that anything is better than anything else however we need to we all have a different preference and our own learning styles some of us learn better by listening some of us learn better by reading and writing and some of us learn better by writing mostly so but the comprehensive understanding and success as a student or a corporate person we need to be good at all three and we should be able to use all three appropriately those who are able to those who are good at all three will naturally be more successful so you cannot hide behind the fact that you have preference for listening so you will not indulge into writing you have to practice writing because writing is your written expression writing is your authentic expression that is very useful you can it is also useful to reach to the masses it is also useful to present your thought objectively listening is important because if we do not listen others we will not be able to understand them whether it is my supervisor whether it is my teacher or my colleague I cannot understand them if I do not listen to them properly so listening is also very very important for building relationship and writing is important to convey your thoughts objectively and reading is important because if I do not read enough my knowledge will not be of sufficient sophistication my knowledge I will remain naive I will remain less informed if I do not read enough so all three are important Poenima please practice all three in your career you will see that those who are comfortable in all three the progress most they progress fastest I would like to quote one very famous statement of Shiv Keda he says that winners do not do different things they do things differently and he also says that there are many things which winners also find boring taking notes suspending judgment while listening putting an effort to understand other persons point of view when it is different from yours all these things are boring for everyone even for the leaders even for the very successful people these things are boring these things are tiring these things are sometime de energizing but still winners continue to do that and that is what differentiate the winners from others so wish you very best you please keep trying and keep doing all three here I see a question by Anushree with asking sometime taking notes and listening simultaneously becomes difficult how can we increase our efficiency in such a situation I I would like to share my experience here in 2004 I joined a PhD program and in the PhD program in management one has to write a lot one has to write project reports new articles or academic project assignments we also had to take notes and initially it used to be difficult for me to think and type for thinking I used to write in the hard copy with the pen and notepad notepad and then I used to go for typing this happened for sometime then I realized that we can practice thinking we can practice typing along with thinking we can think as we type and that faculty was developed so yeah initially it is difficult so probably this is the same thing with the listening and notes taking initially it is difficult but with practice we can develop like cycling it is actually also quite a few activities cycling has two very important activities handling taking control of the handle and keeping the correct direction and and so that the balance can be maintained and paddling so paddling and having handle in your hands and controlling the handle both have different activities but with the practice we develop it same way is listening and notes taking we can not if I am not expert in the shorthand the shorthand people are experts in taking this small science for the longer sentences if I am not expert in that still I can write down the keywords or show the connections in the different by different by different arrows and different signs in different concepts or different things being said so we can find the creative ways of capturing what is being told but this is excellent way of keeping your mind engaged particularly in the classroom and also developing your own content building the personal connection with the subject matter so it is a matter of practice Anushree we should buy best this is the year when you can practice these are the years when you can practice these things those things become very difficult when you enter the job market when you enter in the profession you may not be able to practice these but if you practice these things now they will remain with you throughout your career and they will give you the edge they will be beneficial to you they will give you competitive advantage over others so develop as many skills as possible during your academic years they are the generally the skills which stay with you year after year in your profession so give a try good afternoon my question is I am Komal Sardar hello Komal, my question is you went to the letter answering with some speed by delivering the lectures and we are unable to take the notes then what should we do Komal I do not think I have heard your question very clearly could you please repeat when the present with this sound speed while delivering the lectures and we are unable to take the notes then what we should do so you are asking if teacher is teaching in a very at a very fast pace you cannot take notes that is what you are asking yes is this the teacher whom you interact almost every day or is this a teacher taking the full course one particular course okay one particular course so if this teacher is taking the full course means the complete the credit in that course it will be good idea to ask the teacher himself or herself that can this person slow the speed so that we can take notes he can tell two things number one he may say okay you need not to take notes and these notes are available I will share you the PPT or I am referring this particular book you can just refer that book and that is as good as notes so there you can just write down the few words for for establishing your connection which are your code words to understand the topic you can just take those things and follow the speed of the teacher but if teacher thinks that taking notes by students is useful will be important for the success of his course I am sure he can or she can reduce the speed and you can have a truce you can have agreement if this person is willing to moderate his himself or herself you can have an agreement that if this person go very fast and you can gently raise the question or you can make some sign so that this person can understand that he need to slow down so if you have that trust in the relationship you can develop this code language so that this also help this person to be effective in his teaching and you can take notes if it is useful it is friendship I this situation brings into my notice one very important thing which we generally as a student do not give enough attention to what is that that is as students need feedback teachers also need feedback and as good students value feedback good teachers also value feedback so if you do it I was immensely benefited in my teaching by the feedback from my students when I started teaching about 12 years ago I still remember one very good student in the very first year of her course and I just started teaching and she gave me feedback that sir you teach lot of concepts why do not you give examples as well and I always remember that feedback I am grateful to this student and I am talking about her up to so many years in this conversation so like good students need feedback teachers also need feedback and if you do it gently politely most of the teachers will value that so it is not only about the pace it is not only about the speed you can give actually feedback about anything which this which can make this person more effective in his role in this way you are not only serving this teacher but you are also serving the future generation of the students so please look at it this thing from a very broader perspective it is a great students also have a immense potential and responsibility to get the best out of the teacher hello sir hello I am Hitesh Mali hello my question is what kind of material we prefer to become good speaker and listener what kind of material what material you should prefer okay what material you should prefer to be a good listener and good speaker that is what you are asking you can look around yourself who are the speakers you like the most and for the speaking particularly one very good material are the TED talks we all have some time while traveling to our college or some other time when we cannot read but we can listen some good good things I will urge you all to identify good TED talks I am sure all of you must be familiar to the TED talks so TED talks are given on wide range of topics choose your area choose your topic and download the very good TED talks and put it in the folder whenever you have time you can you can listen these TED talks while listening these TED talks please notice the style of speaking please also notice the vocabulary the choice of words the pace the nonverbal communication of the speakers of the of those TED talks so one thing is the content what this person is speaking another thing what you can notice is how this content is delivered and think what is that you are liking what you would like to follow or what you would like to learn or what you would like to incorporate in your style so gradually you practice bringing up you practice to bring those things in your style and after a few attempts in few days you will be able to imbibe some of those qualities so this is I think the easiest and the I think this is the easiest way of developing the speaking skills and of course the second is practicing it means one thing is noticing what are the good things you would like to follow and second is application please apply those and look forward opportunities to apply those if I want to become a good speaker I have to speak I have to look for opportunity for speaking in the group for example if I have to be a good cricketer what is the way out just by watching the good cricket can I become a cricketer no I cannot I have to net practice I have to play matches I have to practice matches I have to play some crucial matches and then only I can be a good cricketer so similar thing applies to the speaking skill first listen good talks identify what you are admiring what you would like to follow and then practicing it bring it in the practice in your conversations and in your and look for opportunity for the public talk maybe with the five groups and seeing are you following those things which you admire in the other speakers if you keep practicing and observing and reflecting and if and occasionally taking feedback from your colleagues surely you can imbibe lot of good practices and good habits of listening of speaking skills thank you sir okay so there is one question that if I am having conversation with someone in the formal content I think what this person is saying in the formal setting and I have some doubt or query then how to express that in polite manner first thing is recognizing first people want to be recognized and we must recognize what is the truth value what are the special things what are the correct things what are the good things being said so first recognize that what this person is saying by summarizing that okay so sir what I am hearing is that you are saying that and you summarize what this person has said and then you can ask question however I was not able to understand the meaning of this word or I was not able to understand this thought or I was not able to appreciate or what I am hearing is contrary to what I was believing till now can I put forth my thoughts on this so these are the different ways you can very politely ask the people with ask the people things which you do not agree or you do not understand and generally people oblige and permit to put up your thoughts and do not be very adamant but be responsive and be open for the suggestion but also be assertive in putting forth your point of view put up your point of view but before that one has to have his point of view so for having point of view you have to do reading you have to have experience you have to actually do things or read things then only you can have a point of view do not hesitate in acknowledging that this is your point of view what is the source of that and if required your willingness to change that point of view in the light of new knowledge or in the new perspective which was not available to you before you can carry on this conversation and reach to a very fruitful level of synthesis in the communication you know synthesis is a very very useful word in the dialogue it is a combination of thesis antithesis and synthesis that is the very essence of synthesis that the very essence of dialogue thesis means something is said antithesis means something opposite is put forth for the consideration and the combination of these two results in synthesis so synthesis if it is done with the positive attitude and right is spread elevates both the people both the parties and both the parties feel good after this conversation so do not hesitate in putting up the antithesis because if you put it up genuinely if you put it up authentically if put it up with the open mind it will read to it will lead to synthesis and that will be enriching for both the parties Dr. Pratima Shah is asking one question that serve the student at NIT where where I work are not at all to listening how to gain feedback from such an audience only few of the students are keen to listen and even ask questions even questions Dr. Shah I must say that you are not alone who is facing this situation probably we all are facing similar situations in our setting and we want people to listen but they we do not see them available for listening I can only share what we have tried and have been successful to some extent I can share what I have tried and which have made people to be engaged and also to listen and ask questions I will give you examples from the undergraduate class and the postgraduate class in the undergraduate class few years back I faced this situation I was teaching a course on human resource management to the BTEC students who took the minor degree minor course in the HR field they were all IT Bombay students and most of them as based on their body language and their involvement I thought that they are probably not listening and asking very few questions what really worked in that was I would make them make a pair of them would give a problem which they would have to and generally the management problem have two three possible solutions I ask them to write down think about your solution and ask your colleague means the partner learning partner what this person has written down so both the people talk about that concept when they started talking about the concept been discussed in the class in the classroom setting they opened up they opened up to ask questions from me and their interest level also came up a second thing we try in our PG courses which I have tried in the PG courses mostly giving them the exercise throwing them the chat throwing them challenge to solve some problems to solve some puzzles and that will that provokes them generally I have also used debates means you have you put forth a point and you organize a debate competition you ask for the show of hand who agree to this who do not agree to this who has one point of view who has a counterpoint and ask one after another to put up their points many times these conversations result in a very engaging debates so Dr. Shah this is the situation we all are facing we have to keep finding ways to engage students some students are more engaged and more involved when they are learning in the project mode so we have to create a small projects some students are engaged when they are given challenge some students are engaged when there is a debate funds some students are engaged when there is an opportunity for them to share own their thoughts with the teacher or with the colleagues some students are more engaged when they work in the groups so we have to try all the methods at least a large number of students will get engaged in some of these activities and we have to be very creative and experimental in our approach and we have to keep trying things to convey our ideas and making them involved and engage in the learning process once they are engaged in learning process they start asking question they start giving attention many time I also was surprised by the performance of some students whom I thought were not very good at listening or whom I thought they were not listening but they performed very well in the exam in the quizzes so sometime it is our perception also we think that they are not giving attention but they are actually giving attention and they are getting the gist of whatever we are teaching so Dr. Shah we have all these cases we need to be ready for all these situations and all these cases and we have to keep trying and so many methods of engaging students are now available to provoke them and provoke thinking amongst them as a student as a teacher now we are more student so our student ship is more intensive than the student ship of our so-called students so this is the situation of life we need to be ready to face that hello hello sir I am my name is Sushant I have a question that what things the speaker should keep in mind while speaking so that we can convey his message clearly to the audience I think there was a session on the speaking skills so these things must have been touched upon we have to engage and involve with the audience we need to look at what are their needs we need to be aware of their background we need to be aware of their learning requirements we need to aware of what excites them and what are most important thing in their world view we need to be aware of what are the preferred mode of communication for them and accordingly we need to design our message that is a very basic and very general level I can say but I will strongly suggest professor Seth he must have offered a session on speaking skills please go through that session he must have shared techniques and ways and approach of engaging with the audience while you are practicing the public speaking okay thank you sir sir my colleague I have a question okay good afternoon sir good afternoon I am sorry I have a question is that is there is there is there you need to keep your mind closer to your mouth yes you are audible but please keep the mic closer and then speak please speak hello sir I am sorry for that my question is that is there a gap in the mic in the listening slowly please are you asking general method attitude you are asking attitude or gratitude gratitude gratitude we are asking for gratitude okay a gratitude of course I think gratitude when we have gratitude for what we have got in our life or if we have gratitude for the person whom we are speaking to our quality of listening increases because we give attention to that person or to our life situation we are entering in the last minute of our session so I would like to quote one research study conducted in google using the gratitude so google has lots and lots of employees and they keep doing surveys to understand what makes people happy and satisfied in the job what they have found in one of the studies that the people who are satisfied in the job remain engaged in the job year after year one of the most important characteristics of those people who remain engaged and satisfied in the job year after year and remain energized in the job is gratitude gratitude meaning I have a reverence and respect for the things I have got in life and those people have the gratitude they have a higher propensity to remain engaged in the job in the long term so gratitude is not only useful for listening but it also impact the quality of our life and our engagement in job so thanks for asking this question gratitude matters a lot in many ways along with its importance in listening so thanks very much for your participation for your questions for your discussions these lectures are available to you you can if you find it useful you can talk about these with your friends as well and these things are a matter of practice wish you very best in practicing these skills and in in a very short time you will start if you practice even for some time it will start showing the positive result in your day to day life and your professional life so wish you very best namaskar