Tag: EFPCirclework

Circle Work

Christabel - Lok Yan on

Christabel Wong

Ms. Graham

EFP 12

7 September 2023

Circle Talk Reflection

Learning is a journey that takes courage, patience, and humility. It is part of seven grandfather teachings which are love, respect, courage, honesty, wisdom, humility, and truth. In the circle talk, we need the courage to speak out, to explore new things, and to learn from our mistakes. In the process of learning, patience and humility are very necessary. Learning is a process that requires time and persistence, it allows you to pay attention to details during the learning process and pay attention to others’ opinions during the circle talk; Learning requires humility, humility allows you to maintain an open attitude towards new things. Humble people are more willing to accept their own mistakes and learn from them and are more likely to accept other people’s opinions about themselves. In the circle talk, we take turns sharing our experiences and getting to know each other, and in that moment when we sit together as people of different backgrounds, admiring and respecting each other, we learn and grow in this connection.

What is good listening? Did you see it today? What did it look like? Or not look like? How can you become a better listener? A good listener is not just about hearing what is said, the listener should try to feel what the speaker is thinking, try to understand and not interrupt the speaker. During the discussion, we focused on the person who holding the talking stick, and everyone else listened quietly. In the process, we thought about each other’s words in the Indigenous ways of knowing and being, learned from each other’s experiences and respected them. I think humility and patience are important points to be a good listener. We patiently listen to the other person’s words, tone, and emotions, understand what they are facing or what they want to express in their perspective, and try to think from their perspective, think about them rationally, and do not criticize the other person with your own ego.

EFPCirclework

Christabel - Lok Yan on

Reflection of Circle Talk

  1. How did this experience show you that learning is embedded in memory, history and story?
  2. How can one learn through aural and oral communication?
  3. How is this an exploration of your identity? Or What did you learn about yourself in this circle?

Learning is the process of gaining knowledge, we learn to grow up every period of our life. I agree the idea of learning is embedded in memory, history and story, it is hard to learn things if we lost one of them in the process of learning, it makes no difference between memory, history and story while you are learning, cause these three factors connect tightly to help us learn. Memory is the thing you experience and remember in your life, memory is also another definition of history, but it is your own history but not the one that is interpreted by the public. For example, the history of the First Nation is a story that passed through the generation and it is also a memory in our mind understanding, history helps us to understand how things work today and help to avoid making the same mistakes from the past, then the knowledge that we learn from history is memory. For the story, it can be both memory and history, a story that you imagine, a story with history background or even a way to tell the evolution of something, the First Nation passed down the knowledge and learn through story, so learning is embedded in memory, history and story.

Good conversation requires auditory and verbal communication and having the skill to communicate with others well is essential, but being a good listener and speaker is difficult because it needs a lot of patience and courage to hold a conversation. As a nonnative English speaker, a conversation using a language that I am not familiar with is challenging, one learns thorough aural and oral communication takes time to practice and learn, although I don’t think there is a person that has a one learns thorough aural and oral communication because things and the society keep improving every time, I trust practice and study always makes things better and you can get a better understanding every time you learn new things.

This is an exploration of my identity. During the circle talk, I recalled a lot of things that build me today, the mistake that I made, the memory I have, and my identity cognition change every second in the journey of exploration in my life. After constantly trying and failing, I learned that success is not inevitable, but learning can give you a higher vision and awareness to understand yourself better and a better exploration of your identity.