Understanding

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What do you usually do when you do not understand, have not listened or do not thoroughly understand what you have been asked to explain?

Hm.. I either don't recognize it, and screw up royally, then realize I must have misinterpretted something, or I just ask the person to please explain again. If it gets to be happening too often, I will attempt to find the cause of the problem.

For example, one of my apartmentmates mumbles, and I have a very hard time understanding his words, so I always tell him he either has to speak louder or speak to me in the same room. When I have an especially hard time, I just tell him "I'm having a hard time hearing speech today" and he usually can speak more clearly for me if he tries. It's an effort on both of our parts.

Another example, I was talking to someone I know online, and I did not understand most of what he said (this time the meaning of his words). He became frustrated with my incessant questioning, and we eventually worked out what the problem was. He has a tendency to be rather vague in his speech, and refer to things without actually mentioning them. This is something I have a lot of trouble with. Once he started to be more concise, we had little problem communicating.

If I have trouble understanding a teacher, I don't like to ask questions in front of the whole class, so I usually ask them afterward, or, even better, send them an email. If it is a reoccurring problem, I will explain to them what I am having trouble with, so hopefully they can help me. I often don't realize I misunderstood something until after I've left the person, and that is why email is so good for this.

I just go and screw up stuff. Sorry to be so vague. I seem to have an ego when it comes to requesting help from others, so because of that, I'm barely surviving high school.

It is a VERY rare occasion when I ask for clarification. Mostly, I have become very good for faking understanding and simply nod. Usually only my mother catches me on agreeing to something that I haven't heard, and she calls me on it. "You didn't really hear what I said did you?"

I am left saying "Um... no."

But I would rather be embarrassed in front of my mother than anyone else. Kinda like, once someone has wiped your ass, there's not much else you can be embarrassed about.

i've become pretty excellent at soliciting clarification of what i have just heard.

i look at asking for clarification as a kind of "preventative medicine."

it snuffs out any future difficulties before they occur.

that's the only reason i can do it. however, when i am selectively listening to someone, i tend to lose a lot of pertinent information. /:

haven't figured out how to stop the drop in attention level when someone is trying to speak to me about something that doesn't interest me at all.

My employer has this repeating issue.
I would hear a request and ask can
you repeat that. For example:

Person A)...Move that!
G.H)...Move what?
Person A)...The boxes!! !! !
G.H)...Oh! Ok! No Problem!

This is just a simple example....

"See a HANDFUL OF SPOONS for
more clarification of literal meaning
examples"

Sincerely,
Ghosthunter

This is also usually the time, especially when this happens to me in class and I have missed something of the lesson, that I go and do my own research. Sometimes I cannot bear to ask the professor, many times because they will just repeat what they said in the first place and I am still left wondering. It takes enough guts to ask them to clarify it once, and when they repeat what they said, I am STILL lost. No hope in my asking for a second round of clarifications. oi.

So, I do my own research. I go online and look up as much as I can until I am thoroughly satisfied that I now understand it. Or sometimes I'll do this to make up for an entire lesson in which I just blanked out and stared off into space.

I used to say 'Sorry, I don't understand what you're saying' but then my therapist told me that he found it confrontational so now I usually try to make a joke out of it and go 'uuuh... what?'

I have problems sometimes understanding what I've been told to do, especially in work.

I fake it ~ works most of the time but I do get caught out.

If it's one of my parents or few close friends, they'll know when I'm not paying attention. One thing that I've done at school in the past is I've always known a teacher (or multiple teachers, depending on the subject content) who I can ask to clarify and/or give an alternate explanation. So far, it has worked quite well, because the teachers who I have asked all know me pretty well.

Or, I just go read the textbook (being self-taught for all of elementary school really gave me practice at reading and understanding textbooks that wouldn't be understandable for most people) or do my own research, either at the library or online. I have some trouble with confrontation, especially with people who I don't know very well and don't know me in the same way, so I generally don't ask unless they ask first.

My mind goes into a freeze, often times I fake that I "got it", but it usually causes me more trouble in the end.

hmm. Now that i think about it, I often say "what" then I suddenly "get" it and then I apoligize a bit and ask them to continue.

odd.