Communication today, has become one of the most essential characteristic, that every individual wants to master. Communication isn't just about talking but its about listening, perceiving, understanding and analysing what we see , hear and touch.
Avantika University was very fortunate to have two exceptionally accomplished individuals, Prof. Mo Riddiford and Prof. Ruth Tribhuvan to enlighten us with their experiences.
Prof Mo is a communication consultant ,Coach ,teacher, Activist ,Motivational speaker and Meditator .His life and career is devoted to an effective conversation in a global context on five continents. He is the creator of the BE-in-English System, including the ground-breaking Communication Trust-Power. He is also an Inventor of the TISL Game, for reading the language of a person's mind. He has co-authored an Amazon bestseller book 'Upping the Down Side'. He is former Chair of the Berlin English Language Teachers' Association (ELTABB). He is a peace activist onsite for 18 months in the successful campaign against nuclear weapons at Molesworth, UK.
Prof Ruth is a specialist in communication TrustPower and Globish for individuals and organisations. She has an extensive fieldwork in teaching and other environments. She has an expertise in intercultural communication and experienced software (SAP) professional. She is also a volunteer with the Robin Hood Army.
Prof Mo. and Prof. Ruth commenced the seminar with a five minute silent walk across the class room. While they silently walked around with a warm smile gazing at the eyes that were fixed at them, a few of us stared at them with minds full of questions while the others sat perfectly still and smiled back .Prof Mo. had planned this strategy to understand ,how many of us, had an open mind to interact with a stranger. Each of us were then asked to find a stranger in the room and exchange our ideas on what we wanted to take back from that seminar. This broadened our perspective of communication, since strangers are those with whom we'd learn the most from.
Prof. Ruth then explained the importance of connecting to a language rather than just learning it for a purpose. She conveyed to us that a language cannot make anybody superior, it is us that makes a difference. We must learn to love the language we speak.
Prof Mo spoke about how one must try and master the skill of knowing various languages. People in different continents have different speeds and accents for the same language, English. He advised us to master the skill of being able to learn and switch between several languages, accents and speeds.
He then touched on a rather interesting topic-Controlling emotions.
He explained how there are two different situations – one, being not knowing your emotions, and the other, being fully aware of them. In the first case one tends to lose control but, in the second case one has two options to choose from-either to lose control or to just remain in peace. Emphasizing on how important it is to know oneself, he conducted an exercise in which all of us sat still in our chairs trying to feel ourselves ,to understand ourselves better. One of the most important things that Prof. Mo said was “ emotions come and go, people come and go but your inner world will always stay with you.”
Prof Ruth then talked about trusting our gut feeling of “I CAN”. It would help us reach what we wish to achieve.
It was a very interactive and enlightening seminar. We learnt a couple of new phrases, terms and tactics with reference to communication TrustPower.
They concluded with their motto of helping the eorld speak Globish so that we one day live in a world where there are no barriers in communication.
Swarali Hindlekar
Campus Editor