Communication in Action

Mute on, Mute Off

One aha moment I had while watching the BFG (Big Friendly Giant) with my daughter, first in mute for the first half of the movie, and after replay and with music till the end was my assumptions. I began with the knowledge that the giant was friendly and lonely with no friends because of his circumstances. The little orphan girl walked through the house wishing for a different living situation. While she was snatched by the giant, I began to wonder if the giant was really friendly or not. After turning on the sound for the movie and starting all over again, it started to make sense. 

I began with some knowledge, what I thought I knew, and from there I build up all the assumptions regarding the movie and the characters. After the two main characters got to know each other, their friendship grew stronger and they started a mission to convince the queen to get rid of all the bad giants. At the end of the movie, I realize that we always tend to judge people by how we see them without giving them a chance to speak up for themselves. The big friendly giant, although big, he cared about everything, even the little creatures or "human beans" as they call them in the movie. Communication is important in life because we give people the chance to be themselves, and share who they are with others. I felt that even without sound, but with subtitle, I could have understood the movie without assumptions from the start. The greatest skill of communication is listening. We tend to not listen to understand what other people are saying instead we are always looking for and think about a response. Sometimes what people need is to be heard.