We Need To Talk!

When hearing the words “we need to talk”, it’s instinctual to connote this to a break up, losing a job or medical results.
This isn’t our fault.
Walk into a café and you’ll see smartphone have a place at the table, and we jump to the sound of a single “ding”. Do you look at the person taking your order?
Sitting on the train, an older person will strike up a conversation and we will think the person has a mental illness and move to a different carriage.
Leading retailers have introduced scan and go, where customers scan an item with their mobiles and leave the store. This has eliminated the simple conversation starter, “How has your day been?”. Are we sacrificing communication for time-saving? Are we perpetuating the take over of smartphones?
Sadly, it has become a reality that starting a conversation is a skill that needs to be taught. Communicating through a box of light in our hands rather than face-to-face are different languages and require different sets of skills.
Face to face conversation is becoming obsolete where the idiosyncratic nature of verbal communication is being assessed in schools and universities.
To avoid ridicule from communication professionals, Facebook has labelled itself as a networking site to build relationships. The foundations of these relationships are weak. As distractions multiply, fewer connections receive our full attention, nuances are neglected and replaced with a cartoon character to demonstrate our expression, our prestigious language has started becoming colloquial, with the word “LOL” becoming a verb.
If you have say 543 friends on Facebook, do you speak to these people regularly face to face, or have they become pulses of light on your smartphone?
The ubiquity of the internet certainly makes communicating with others convenient, but the loquacious pyrotechnics people that bombard your cyber playground impact your self-esteem, and we don’t realise. Even in innocuous situations, growing numbers of us seem so scared of saying the wrong thing, that we say nothing at all. We think we’re shy.
What is less known to society, is that studying the craft of conversation improves thinking all round.
The Trinity Guildhall Diploma course run in Australia by the Acting and Communications Academy encourages students to learn about the craft of communication. Drawing reference to communication practicians such as, Stanislavski, students will be taught the traditional forms of communication.
Not only will the program teach students how to lead in a cyber world through employing their deeper knowledge of communication but will leave high school with a Diploma in Acting or Communications.
Acting and Communications Academy Managing Director, Kathryn Borg this year celebrates 10 years of the Academy. Through this time, her company has grown with teachers who have previously graduated from her diploma course.
2015 MLC graduate, Sophie Pyrgiotis says the course was a valuable experience for future life.
“Although the professional qualification looks impressive on my resumé, the course furthered me with my future endeavours as a journalist. The course equipped me with the necessary skills to build an interpersonal relationship with mayors of the Central Wests’ country towns.”
“While other journalists from my year were communicating via email, it was instinctual to call the contact. Not only did this build a relationship with a contact but gave me an opportunity to write the leading story from a different angle.”
“Kayte was a great teacher, she would ensure her classes were tailored to target the weakness of each student, and would constantly prepare us for exam pressures. She was encouraging, helpful, approachable, and would consistently provide feedback quickly.”
“The prospect of adding a professional qualification to your high school studies might seem daunting. But the course did help me with my internal subjects. But the most substantial impact the course had was it gave me the skills I needed for an interview and therefore opened opportunities for me heading into the workforce that set me apart from others applying for the position.”
One of the first students to complete this course, Chelsea Giles has continued using the skills she acquired through the program.
“My ATCL diploma taught me essential communication, organisation and life skills. As a performer, I was encouraged to research more widely and be curious about character work beyond the written text. As an educator, I learned the importance of holding yourself accountable to continually find new and more beneficial exercises/solutions for my students, own skills and my ability to share them. If you want to feel more confident, be an effective communicator and commit to the rigorous practice of craft and curiosity – I highly recommend the programs offered.”
One of our core ACA teachers, Lily New enjoys sharing these tools with her students.
“It’s a really exciting experience to work with a student who is passionate about their craft, whether that be public speaking or performance. I’ve had the pleasure of working with such a range of kids and I believe that there is something in what we do for all children, outgoing, shy or otherwise. I am regularly referring back to the work I did in my performing and teaching diploma’s, teaching has given me the flexibility to do something I really love and also explore other passions through study and travel.”
This course will be useful to students who have begun their communication training at the Acting and Communications Academy, however, if this isn’t you, you are still encouraged to begin the course from Pre-Diploma level.
If you feel this course will be beneficial for your child’s learning, you can enrol on the Acting and Communications website.