This article is originally written for the ManipalBlog under my weekly column 'Serenade of My City'. It appears here. Visit this site for wonderful articles.
The first thing most of us worry about when we go to a new place is
making new friends. Friendship is such an amazing bond we share with
others, it’s hard enough to leave our old friends behind while we shift,
but the thought of how the new people we are going to meet will be
like, can be perplexing at times. Especially for a person like me.
My childhood was a riot with my parents pushing me out to socialize,
while just the thought of saying a HELLO to someone freaked the life out
of me. Well, things have changed, and that’s not the case anymore. But
there’s a little part of that little girl still hidden inside somewhere,
who resists the thought of change of environment and people. I think a
lot of people would nod their heads in agreement to this and say – “I
know the feeling!”
Well, there’s no escaping from anything and you end up meeting all
kind of people. If making friends is difficult, keeping them is even
more! So at your new workplace, you will meet a lot of
people and the first thing you would ever exchange with them is probably
a smile. And the second thing, their NAMES! Can i take a
moment out here and tell you guys how important this step is? It’s
always nice to immediately map the name to the face, so the next time
you meet them, you won’t be tongue tied. Situations where one of them
calls you by your name, and you just cant remember their’s can be very
very embarrassing to both the parties!
People always love it when someone addresses them by
their names. And while you’re at it, please make it a point to learn the
right pronunciation of the name. It annoys the sh*t out
of me when people pronounce my name wrong and i’m sure i’m not the only
one with this problem. And let me tell you i get that a lot, like A
LOT…. Everything, but my name is what i hear! I keep correcting them
until they get it right and there are times when i’ve just given up!
Anyway… every individual depends on his name, though superficially,
for his identity. Nevertheless, it’s not good on our parts to mess that
up. We never know how sensitively a person is attached to his name. Especially,
while at work, we might be in a position where we’ll need to interact
with a foreign client. We surely wouldn’t want to annoy them or shame
ourselves by not knowing how to pronounce it. Some people even take it
as a personal insult!
This whole practice of remembering the RIGHT names of the people
around you turns into a nice memory activity if you choose to play it as
a little game in your head. It would also be interesting to know what
new names mean, don’t you think?
So there you go… enhancing your knowledge, increasing
your friends, strengthening relationships, building a solid base for
maybe a new budding friendship! Amen to that.
This article is originally written for the ManipalBlog under my weekly column 'Serenade of My City'. It appears here. Visit this site for wonderful articles.
