"When the First Voice You Hear is Not Your Own"

The article by Jacqueline Jones Royster was pretty confusing to me. I know her main emphasis was cross-boundary discourse and why it has failed and what can be done to make it possible. Subjectivity was her main tactic of making it possible, "subjectivity as defining value pays attention dynamically to context, ways of knowing, language abilities, and experience, and by doing so it has a consequent potential to deepen, broaden and enrich our interpretive views in dynamic ways as well" (611). One way to do that is by voicing our opinions and stories and being heard. "The call for action in cross-boundary exchange is to refine theory and practice so that they include voicing as a phenomenon that is constructed and expressed visually and orally, and as a phenomenon that has import also being a thing heard, perceived, and reconstructed" (612).

The three scenes used in the article depict different forms of 'subject'. They work together to show how we need to change our communication style to be better understood in more areas then our own community. Then, Royster goes on to explain strategies of doing so. One of the scenes shows the importance of voice. Being heard but not understood but it is sill better to speak. Too often we rely on others to do the talking for us, normally people in authoritative roles and/or experts. We can speak at any time and it may be perceived but how do we listen to others? How do we show others that we are engaged in what they are saying? Most times when I am in a conversation I can tell by the person's body language whether they care about what I am saying or not. It is one thing to speak and another to be heard, we have to find a way to do both.