Did you know?
Read these facts and discuss the most surprising ones with your partner.
Over 55% of face-to-face communication is non-verbal.
In a survey carried out in the USA, over 82% of people said their opinion of a company was influenced by the way the telephone was answered.
In a work situation, men talk more than women do, whereas women talk more than men do in a home environment. At work, women are generally better listeners than men.
The Oxford English Dictionary has nearly 700,000 entries, though this does not include some scientific words. This is between two and three times more than the number of words in any European language.
The most widely spoken language in the world is Mandarin with nearly one billion speakers. English has nearly half a billion native speakers.
The average person speaks for a total of about ten minutes a day, and the average sentence lasts about 2.5 seconds.
Early typewriters had the keys in alphabetical order. The most commonly-used keys were relocated so that the metal bars attached to the keys wouldn't get trapped together. Hence the strange QWERTY keyboard.
Americans say ‘hello’ when answering the phone, the French allô, some British say their phone number, Germans often their last name, Italians pronto (‘I’m ready’), Spaniards digame (‘tell me’), Russians slushaiyu (‘I’m listening’), Japanese moshi moshi (‘hello’), and Chinese wei (‘hello’).
The Concise Oxford Dictionary records 36 entries of ‘set’ as a verb, and 24 as a noun.
70% of management tasks involve dealing with people.
Do the quiz about communications, choosing more than one answer where appropriate. Then discuss your answers in groups.
Check out what kind of relationship you have with your partner by choosing answer for each of the questions below. Then look at your score. How well are you communicating?
1. Your partner asks your opinion of a meal he/she has prepared for you. What do you say?
a) Say it is delicious and praise his/her efforts.
b) Tell the truth at all costs.
c) Say it would probably have been cheaper to eat out.
2. If you have been watching a TV play or documentary together, what happens afterwards?
a) You both voice your opinions even if you don't agree.
b) You try to avoid a discussion since you already know his/her viewpoint.
c) You seldom enjoy watching the same type of programme.
3. Your partner has a habit, such as smoking, which you hate.
a) Tell him/her how happy it would make you if he/she could give it up.
b) Threaten him/her with dire consequences if he/she continues.
c) Flush his/her cigarettes down the toilet.
4. What are most of your disagreements about?
a) Small matters easily resolved.
b) Money.
c) Basic misunderstandings.
5. Navigating new territory, your partner, who is driving, takes a wrong turn. What do you do?
a) Get out the map and trace a new route,
b) Pretend not to notice you are going the wrong way.
c) Sit back smugly, and tell him/her what a fool he/she is.
6. On your birthday, your lover buys you something you don’t like. What do you say?
a) Thank him/her for the gift and comment on his/her general kindness.
b) Tell him/her honestly the damaging truth.
c) Say it's about time he/she knew what you wanted.
Score: 2 points for every (a), one point for (b), and no points for (c). 10-12: Excellent. You appear to have a very warm and effective level of communication with your partner and the betting is that your relationship is a very happy and comfortable one. 7-9: Reasonable. Yours is a fairly typical relationship; for the most part you understand and empathize with each other, but there are occasional lapses (probably on both sides) and these lead to slight misunderstandings. 4-6: Less than satisfactory. You are not giving as much time to communicating effectively as you should. You should consider ways of improving it. 0-3: Disastrous. Oh dear! It appears that your ability to communicate is not all it might be. Time to take action!
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