You totally said that!

You have got love those discussions between brother/sisters, parents/child, husband/wife, etc.

Especially when its between a guy and a girl.

Since both genders see the world so different, often times words/phrases/expressions are misunderstood by the opposite side.

A: "Whats going on here?"
B: "She said (insert words here)!"
C: "I never said that!"
B: "Did too!"
C: "No I did not! I said (insert different words here)"
B: "No, You said (insert words mentioned by B before)"
C: "I did not say that!"
B: "Yes you did!"

Its kind of funny what we hear and don't hear isn't it?
In one of my institute classes we were talking about one of the talks given in General Conference.
-It was a Priesthood session talk that talked about a scorpion stinging a boy on the foot.
People were like "Okay He was stung."
Then one voice spoke up. "Where was he stung?"
lol, it was amazing all the different answers that came.
"he was stung on the back of the ankle."
"No it went through the flip-flops into the bottom of his foot."
"No, no. it didn't go through the sandals."
"I heard he was stung on the arch of the foot."

lol, after a minute or so of that, many of the class decided to go back and read it over to see what the actual phrase was lol.
It was:
"I felt something like a thorn going into the arch of my foot."


Why do we hear things differently then others?
You could get a group of people together and have them all listen to the same speaker, then when asked what was talked about, you would most likely get a variety of different answers.
There are the over encompassing answers "They talked about Righteousness."
But if you ask people "What were your impressions, thoughts, what did you write down? What was important to you?"
Then different things come out.
Certain lines had alot of meaning for one person, but not so much for someone else.

Its just another confirmation.
We are not robots. :P lol
We think, understand, hear, and respond to things in different ways. Words and Phrases can be added or dropped depending on what the listener decides to 'tune into'
Why does one side of the argument hear something totally different then what the the other side meant?
Its tuning.

In one of my Business classes we talked about "I view" and "You view"
And how in sentences if the first part and last part of the sentence is more important then the middle of the sentence.
So if you say.
"I don't think you're understanding me."
The person will remember "I and me" more then "You." Which might put the person you're talking to on the defensive.

But if you do "There is a misunderstanding here." -where you aren't accusing the other person. Just stating fact, most likely they don't get offensive.

I've been told in this class.
"If its good news for them, emphasis the You more."
 "If its bad news drop the You all together."

The I point of view talks about me.
The you point of view talks about them.
So even if you mean a phrase to be good....if worded in the wrong way. Focusing more on "me" then on "you" then its easy to understand why there are misunderstandings. What you're saying is making sense to you because you know your thoughts behind your sentence. The listener only gets the words. And has their own thoughts comprehending and decoding what you just said.

Soooo
There will be misunderstandings.
But its life. ;) We think different, we use our word choices differently, and we hear things differently based on our background story (culture, thoughts, schooling.)
You can't get mad at people for taking things in the wrong light. Emotions, Thoughts, Distractions make us miss, and catch, add and delete parts of what people are saying.
There will be misunderstandings.
Its life. :)
But it certainly is interesting to hear a person say what they thought they heard. :)

Until you next read these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi