How often do we ignore silence in the midst of our busy lives? I could clearly hear Andrew’s message that evening: “Silence is Golden”, “Silence speaks Volume” and “The Deafening Silence is so Loud”. In his speech, Andrew used playful techniques through his choice of words “Stop breathing! I can hear you!” and his choice of actions “SNEEZE!” (without making a sound) to demonstrate the demand of silence. He cleverly brought out the essence of silence beyond what the word literally means; and he showed us its power in practice.

When we are so hasty in our conversations, do we often inject incomprehensible words like “um”, “er” and “you know” to fill those little snippets of silence? Instead of having those moments of silence to pause, breathe and gather our thoughts, have we filled the void with noise and deprive our listeners the time and space to process what we had just conveyed? Interestingly, in the art of public speaking, pauses also create suspense and tension. That is why pregnant pauses are necessary to preempt our listeners for what lies ahead, right before we deliver our punchlines.

A moment of silence contains thousands of words. Let silence has its say!

Mike Ng

If we truly respect the beauty of silence, let us enjoy those soundless pauses. We’ll be surprised at its magical wonders!

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