Notes by Om Shreejay

Review of last week

We reviewed the virtue of Karmaparayana — one who does meaningful actions.

We reviewed the RAW from last week — to have a conversation with our family and ask “How is the work you are doing helping society or world?” For example, if I study well, I can get good grades and be able to work in area that I can become better at and make the world better. If I clean my room and make sure paper and plastics are separated at trash, then I can make the environment better and set an example for others to do the same.

Today’s class — Virtue of Communication

Om Aanglabhasha viduttaya namaha — means I admire the one who speaks very good English, or the one who is very good at communicating with others. Communication is how we speak with other people, share our ideas and feelings in a way that others can understand.

How do we build the virtue of communication? By following 3 rules of communication –

1. Think before you speak — about the words we want to use, what we want to say, listen carefully before we speak, make sure that what you are saying is not going to hurt the other persons feelings.
2. Try and see the other person’s perspective. Perspective means point of view. We should try to see things in the same way as others see them. For example, if I show someone the number 6, it may look like a 9 to them (upside down). We should empathize with other people and pay attention to their feelings and emotions. See the situation from others’ point of view.
3. Give the other person your full attention. You should be doing nothing else at the same time (not thinking about what you are going to say), look at them, listen to them and make them feel that they are being listened to.

Practice and its significance

1. Think before you speak — We played the game of Taboo, where the goal is to explain a word using references so that others can guess it. We formed teams of boys and girls and played to a tie! The lesson from the game was to think carefully before giving an answer.
2. See others’ perspective — We watched a short clip from the movie “Inside Out” where the characters of Sadness and Joy talk to BingBong after he lost his rocket. Joy tries to cheer BingBong up by making funny faces so he would tell her where the train station was and get what she wanted. This did not make BingBong feel better as she was not understanding his feelings. However, Sadness tries to understand how BingBong is feeling and makes him think of memories of his friend to make him feel better. In this way, Sadness sees BingBong’s perspective.

RAW for the week- Learn 5 new English words and teach them to someone else.

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Notes by Pranavi Ananthanarayanan

Name:Om Aangala-bhasha-viduttma

Meaning: We admire the one who speak good english, like being a good communicator

How do we be a better communicator?

1.Think before you speak.

2.Try seeing other people’s perspective.

3.Give full attention to others.

Practice/Activity: we played taboo card game.

RAW: learn five new words this week