I am not a good listener

Today My confession is that I  am not a good listener. 

which  make me weak in carrying out a conversation. 

Here in Thailand, I find it very difficult to carry a conversation with anyone. 

Here I  was  thinking, that might be because of the language barrier. People are weak in English and it's hard to talk, but at this point,  I come to realized that, it's not the case.

I was listening  to a ted talk by  Celeste Headlee.  (She has worked in public radio since 1999) She was talking about How to have a good conversation . She pointed out 10 things. They are:

1- Be present  - I always do something else, when I listen to someone. I know I can multi-task if  I Had to listen without doing anything. That is like killing myself. 

2- Don't be a negative person ( I forgot the exact word)

3- Use open-ended questions.

4- Go with the flow. 

5- If you don't know say you don't know 

6- Don't equate your experience with them  it's not the same ( I always do this)

7- Don't repeat what you say ( I always do this )

8- Forget about the details when you talk ( name, years , etc ) (I try to remember them and I end up saying nothing cause I don't remember them.)

9- Listen  - carefully listening , don't make you mind go wondering around. ( I am lack of this ability)

10- Be brief. 

My listening power is my everything, I would rather listen to book review to avoid reading. but I am not a good listener for  people stories and conversation. 

Here after I will  improve my listening skill to improve conversation. I think I am gonna love it. :)