Listening

This week's reading were about listening.

I went to a play called Love Letters on Sunday. It had two actors. They sat at desks facing the audience and read the letters that they had written each other starting with notes in the second grade and ending with the death of one of them in old age. It was a very graphic example of the difference between written and spoken communication. The expressions of the actor being written to, often conveyed to the audience exactly what they were thinking, without saying a word. The reading of their written answer confirmed their body langauge.

It is more difficult to understand someone you cannot see.

Listening practice that is just listening to the radio or responding to the telephone is important in really learning a language.