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DateLine Sunday, 23 March 2008

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What you speak will determine who you are

Ability to speak is a distinctive gift to human beings from almighty God. Creatures in the animal kingdom are not blessed with such a supernatural ability. Some birds like parrots might be able to repeat what humans say, but unable to imagine and give tongue to their thoughts.

Moreover, not every human being is blessed with the ability to speak. You may wonder how fortunate enough you are to be able to voice yourself.

When you look at differently-abled people especially dumb people, they use their hand to communicate with each other. Sometimes they are unable to convey the full sense of what they want to convey, because in hand signal system there is no vast spectrum of meanings.

We often tend to sympathise them, since they are unable to do what others are able. There are people in abundance in society who do not know to manage what they speak.

They often try to put someone down by using harsh or foul language. They abuse the ability that they are uniquely gifted with. Even though people often tend to sympathise on those who are differently-abled-dump, I heard one of the professors were saying “These people would have been born dump, because they don’t know to mind their language. I don’t know why God has given them such foul mouths”. People often curse those who abuse their speaking ability to irritate others, without whom society will be peaceful.

Two ears and one tongue

“We have two ears and one tongue in order that we may hear more and speak less”. Thus said Deogenes. Do you have to always speak less? I don’t think so. If you have very IMPORTANT things to say, why suppress them in mind without divulging. If you don’t express what you have got to say, how will others know your important ideas.

If you have weighty and meaningful ideas you should speak more. Not proper to confine them to yourself, because no one would be able to know that you are such a person who has great ideas. If you know what the correct thing is, you should always speak to let others know what the truth is. Keeping quiet or letting someone else who knows little about the subject would ruin others’ comprehension.

Deogenes’ argument was that we shall always give all ears and give tongue less often. Listening is an excellent skill and an admirable quality. But if you have sound ideas why keep quiet? Let others know, that means speak... speak sense, express ideas which are worthwhile which you think would be beneficial to others. You don’t need to always speak less.

There are occasions that you have to speak less and listen more. If your ideas are antisocial, irrelevant or nonsensical. Then there’s no fault in remaining silent and listening to what others say. You should say what to say and what not to say. As Mathew Trump described “Diplomacy is the art of knowing what not to say”. Be diplomatic type! You don’t need to always speak less. If you have the ability to distinguish what to say and what not to say you would be one of the rare individuals. You will less often be embarrassed.

Lao Tze, the founder of Taoism said “One who knows doesn’t talk much, one who doesn’t know talks a lot”. I leave it up to you to refute this idea. I just let you know how I perceive that. Say in a classroom, lecturer goes on speaking over hours and students sit in silence during that time listening to the lecturer who may possess a doctorate on that particular subject. Here let you answer these questions. Who is well versed in the particular scope? who is not? Who speaks a lot? who is not? Compare with Lao Tze said with a sense of reasoning.

Those who know well on a particular area or scope they might go on detailing and explaining about it. Those who don’t know would have to just remain silent. Because he/she has no knowledge about that. Then how to speak about an unknown subject. The proper thing to do at such times is to show an eager interest of that subject and listen to the person who knows about it and learn something which you don’t know out of his talk by talking very less.

Plato, a famous Greek philosopher, said that “Wise men talk because they have something to say, fools because they have to say something”. You have to speak only if you have some valuable things to say. Not to just utter words because you have to say something. Talk only if you have something to say which is beneficial. Never settle for discussions just because you have to say something, that will be futile.

The quality of speaking, that means speaking less or much is not a criteria to determine whether the person is a fool or a one who doesn’t know or a wise or a one who knows. According to Demosthenes “Vessel is identified by the sound if it’s cracked or not, so, men are proved by their speeches if they are wise or foolish”. There is a famous Sanskrit saying “A fool can cover up his stupidity until he opens his mouth. It is not the quantity of speaking which matters, it is always the quality of speaking which matters.

If you can employ both your motor neurones of the mouth and faculties of brain simultaneously, in simpler sense if you are well aware of what you’re saying, there will be no trouble for you because “When your tongue slips you cannot recall words”

 

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