In her new book, Amelie Blankaert, a communication and influence strategy coach, extols silence as a condition for gentle, strong, and fair speech. Lighting.
Comment a comment. Respond hotly. Express yourself indiscriminately. Give your opinion on anything – a restaurant, an Uber ride, a store where you just bought a pair of sandals, you said sandals… Feel free, verbally or in writing, to share your experience, good or bad. In short, speak as we are comfortable. What if that time was over? after the success of Your word is worth gold. Amelie Blankaert, Associate Professor of Letters and Specialist in Rhetoric, publishes Shut up, we’ll hear you (Plon Editions).
Speak wisely
In a century-old environment, the temptation to speak louder than others in order to be heard is great. On the contrary, choosing to retreat can allow you to relearn the meaning of the words. A strategy not without risks, especially the strategy of being uneducated, uninterested, too timid, or even socially withdrawn. “Indeed, it is very difficult not to speak up,” the author admits. Because it is by formulating things that they exist. And that one should speak in order to share one’s beliefs.
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The communication and influence strategy coach continues. “It is also an element of strength and distinction in a world where, like the Anglo-Saxons, who are very good speakers, speech is increasingly important. Which does not prevent us from being silent so that this word can be conveyed. Talking doesn’t mean talking too much. That’s where the problem lies.” So the whole challenge will be to tone down the vocabulary, to sort out what we say. “Speaking like you learn to write or compose music, it’s not innate, it has to be perfected, it’s perfected,” says the specialist.
The merits of silence
Of course, economy of speech is an art. It has nothing to do with the fact that some people are unable to express themselves or, worse, have to remain silent in order to survive. “Yes, there are silences that kill. Associated with either trauma, such as rape, or incapacitation, shock. There are dramatic silences.” Not everyone is given the opportunity to express themselves freely. Of course, it is essential that “tongues loosen when there is drama.” Let the children “speak up when there is aggression”.
That women are being “liberated” through MeToo? “It is necessary, and it is not to be questioned at all,” the author insists, despite everything, emphasizing that if “words go in all directions, speech is as harmful as it does not express itself.” In shut up we will hear you He reminds that silence can also be a tool of resistance. Thus, the extraordinary role of pantomime Marceau, who taught children to be mute so that they could escape from concentration camps.
If words go in all directions, speech is just as harmful as if it is not expressed.
Amelie Blankert
Body language
There are many artists of silence. Let them be poets, like the Chilean Pablo Neruda, who considered silence a “wing” that allows speech to “fly.” Whether they are political, like the former president of the United States, Barack Obama, a master of eloquence, because he knew how to punctuate his speeches silently to emphasize his words or allow his audience to applaud the people he wanted to highlight. Without forgetting Fabrice Lucini.
He, the king of vowels if ever there was one, declared one day. But above all, it is for the above-mentioned pantomime Marceau that Amelie Blankert has infinite admiration. “It enables us to use the language of emotion through the body rather than through words, which in their more cerebral dimension surely cannot convey everything.” In this way, silence is a universal language “because it breaks down all barriers and allows us to understand each other beyond differences of culture or expression.”
Source: Le Figaro
