📘 Part 3: Talking

This episode's vocabulary

To talk something through (phrasal verb) - to discuss all the details of something, often before making a decision.

Sounding board (noun) - a person or group of people that you use to test something such as a new idea or suggestion to see if they will accept it or if they think it will work.

Interlocutor (noun) - someone who is involved in a conversation.

On the fly (idiom) - if you do something on the fly, you do it quickly, often while you are doing something else, without preparing and without thinking too much about how it should be done.

To guide (verb) - to influence someone's behaviour.

Solemn (adj.) - serious and without any humour.

Terminally (adverb) - if someone or something is terminally stupid, boring, etc., they are extremely stupid, boring, etc. and that will not change.

Anecdotal evidence (noun) - evidence in the form of stories that people tell about what has happened to them.

To back something up (phrasal verb) - to prove something is true.

Biased (adj.) - showing an unreasonable like or dislike for someone or something based on personal opinions.

Broad (adj.) - including many types of things; general.

Questions and Answers

M: Why might it be good to be talkative?

R: Well, thinking about it logically, two heads are better than one. So by talking things through with someone else, then things can be easier to solve. It gives you a kind of sounding board for ideas as well as an additional source of them, and experience, now I think about it.

M: What communication skills does a talkative person have?

R: Well, ironically, probably having active listening skills might be the most important of them, since you're more focused on what your interlocutor is saying, and that will inform your responses more effectively. Being good at planning on the fly can also be helpful since you can see where the conversation is going and think of ways to guide and continue it.

M: What kinds of professions involve* talking to groups of people?

R: Well, teaching seems like the most obvious one to me, having done it for the past 10 years, but there are others like performers who have to entertain en mass and anyone who gives presentations for people, like a manager. There must be a central concept determining that but I can't think of it right now.

M: How should parents encourage their children to express themselves when they are asked questions they're afraid to answer?

R: Well, setting a good example would seem like a good place to start. So demonstrating this lack of fear, and also an ability to cope with things like that. It would give them something to see and experience which they can copy. Since children have so many random questions, I imagine it wouldn't be hard to do, to be honest.

M: Why do some children talk more than their peers?

R: For the same reason that happens in adults, I would imagine. Everyone has different preferences and has been encouraged to different extents. And with that in mind, I don't even know what the main reasons might be. Maybe they just aren't interested in talking to other people or their parents didn't encourage this in them.

M: On what occasions should the child talk less than usual?

R: Probably the same times people are quiet in general, like when someone's talking and they have something important to say, or when it's a solemn occasion, like a wedding or a funeral. The culture and context usually determine this more broadly speaking, to be honest.

M: And should children be encouraged to talk more?

R: I think that depends on the child and where they're growing up, to be honest. Like for example, say that you've got a child who is terminally shy, then it will be important to encourage them to talk more, assuming the culture values this kind of talkative behaviour. But if it doesn't, or if the child talks a regular amount, then it's not so important.

M: Are people talkative in your country?

R: I would probably say more so than most of the other countries I have been to. This is just based on anecdotal evidence. I have no statistics to back that up. It just seems like people in my country talk more, but then I know them better than people from other countries. So I'm biased.

M: Do you agree that communication skills can't be learned?

R: Well, I mean, communication skills is a huge area. So, no, I don't agree. Because it depends on what kind of skills we're talking about. And who we're talking about developing them in. So that question is far too broad, or that statement is far too broad to have any accuracy.