SMART to Agree and to Argue

Everyone is certainly involved in various interactions. When people understand their interlocutor better, the better quality of the interaction will be.

Interaction through direct chatting may be formal or nonformal and it may take place everywhere, at the sport hall, schools, guard posts, workplace, etc. It is often assumed that different opinions are understood as a conflicting opinion attacking other person, although it cannot be understood in that way naturally.

To anticipate such cases, Stube-HEMAT Multiplication Program in Bengkulu held a discussion entitled "Making sentences of agreement or argument". This material is simply packaged and distributed to 15 young people in Margasakti village, on Saturday, 19 August 2017, at 19.00 WIB. These fifteen youth are from churches surrounding Margasakti village and they support actively the operation of Kemudi Semar Bulletin (a small journal published since Stube-HEMAT Multiplication program was conducted in Bengkulu). As activists in communication media, knowledge how to agree and argue well during discussions is required.

The first question launched to open the discussion is, "Have you ever had debate?" Half of the participants answered that they have ever experienced once and admitted that their debates often culminate in disappointment. "...a debate ending with  disappointment is not necessary to happen again," said Yohanes, a Bengkulu multiplier. Further the participants were invited to enter a new perspective in which people learn to understand each other. The real talk is how to understand and complement one another, not to seek enemy or to dominate talking as a winner. For example, the word "all" can be replaced with the word "some". In the sentence example: "All oil palm is transported to Central Bengkulu". How to make an argument of  this sentence? Participants began to re-read the guid-note shared before and hesitantly answered, "Some oilpalms are not transported to Central Bengkulu". To complete the argument, the sentence should be accomplished with one proof, such as , "... Some oil palm is brought to North Bengkulu".

Another sentence for examples, such as; "All water channels are not able to accommodate water during flood in the Tanah Hitam". Participants agreed to answer, "Not all water channels can not afford, there are some water channels still able to accommodate water during flood".

What will we utter when we want to make a statement? What will we say when we want to say something while other argue our opinion? Some statements may be argued, so we have to be careful to make statements.   The caution is considering : 1) avoid the word "all" if we do not know the whole contents or the form of an information, 2) avoid the word "every" and "always" if we do not pay attention to every detail of information that we received, 3) use the words "several", "part of", and "some".

Multiplicators recognize that there are some participants using complex words and difficult to define even hard to understand if we do not pay attention carefully. The word "many" is relative and should be avoided when we express our opinions in the discussion.

By considering all above during a discussion will minimize misunderstandings. This capability should be owned by anyone and it is not just monopolized by a formal educated one. (YDA)