Communication and metaphors

Introduction Communication is two way process, where there should be exchanges of information. This has not merely transmission of the information by speaker. This is process which involves both the parties & just when the both parties have been played the role well may we can say that an effective communication has been occurred. During conversation between the 2 people, both of these can play parts of speaker & listener at a point or the other. This is so vital that such 2 people have been equipped with skill of listening as well as ability for communicating the messages effectively & clearly to other party. Case of Miscommunication I have experienced a miscommunication in my job place. During discussion with my manager about the latest project, my manager said some-thing like this ” We require continuing supplying train with the coal in regard to give this power for continuing moving.” In such case here, my manager is referring actually to the project as train that has been already departed from train station & moving toward final stop that is ending results of the project. Though, the word ” coal” used here might be a source of miscommunication. My manager can have been referred to word ” coal” as the constant hard-work & diligence from me for making sure that speed of the train doesn’t slacken. On the other side I think that the word ” coal” has used for representing money which could be supplied constantly to project in regard to keep this going. As we may see, from manager’s point of view he may believe that there might just be an interpretation of metaphor on his own interpretations. People mostly see the things in different point of view from our-selves & we may never know for the sure when our ideas have correctly translated by another party. It is if ideas of communications theories may come in. In the General Semantics we have learnt that similar words may have several different meaning for the different people depending on background, culture or gender of the people. With such concept in the mind, we won’t suppose that the metaphors or words that we can use be received definitely in exactly similar way they had been wanted this to be. Safest way is so for always making efforts for checking with other party how information has interpreted. Another way is for minimizing use of metaphor during our conversation, particularly when we have been unsure of impact of these metaphors. The metaphors may be powerful tool for the public speaking goals and we should be careful always about use of these. When we feel that we have been understood the audiences very well & may make prediction of how audience could interpret the metaphors, then this could be good for using these. However we may not check with audience about the interpretations of metaphors un-like one to one conversation with the other person, we may give explanation of the metaphors. By giving short elaborations of why we chose specific metaphor for represent the current situations; we may put this in much explicit term a context in which metaphors had been used. If we talk about the communication of our message clearly, this isn’t only about choosing correct word & pronouncing these accurately. This is of putting our ideas in such a way which has not been misleading. We mostly use some metaphors in the language with-out realizing that the effect of using such metaphors. The metaphors may be misleading as well as confusing at the times, particularly if the interpretation of the other party of metaphors is varied from what we intended on the saying (Griffin, 2003). Other than putting the messages clearly, we also require making sure that the messages have delivered effectively. In the other words, has other party received our message & is other party convinced by us for what we have been saying. In this case, we may use communication theories which emphasize on means of the persuasion for analyzing the situations. Conclusion To conclude, an effective communication has made up of two essential functions. There has no effective communications with-out either one of these & we have to recognize it. Effective communicator requires for being able to communicate his/her message clearly & effectively. Study of the communication theories may help us with such parts of the process & if we grasp techniques of being able for applying theories for their situation, they must be able to bring across the intended message without failing.