To be Outspoken or Not?

Time flies. It seems that I just arrived in London but in reality, I have been here for more than a month. I have adapted well although I haven’t found the time to really explore the area yet. Well, at least I am confident enough to continuously find the shortest way to school, provide directions to places that I am familiar with and engage in conversations with everyone (in the beginning, I couldn’t really catch their slang and to prevent embarrassment, I decided not to converse). I have slowly learnt the behavior of the people here as well.

One particular character which I think is ubiquitous everywhere is their outspoken nature. Unlike classes in Singapore where the only person talking is the lecturer, classes here are very lively. Hands are put up after almost every slide to the extent of distraction. And when the lecturer asks questions, people will be fighting to answer them.

Although I am impressed with this character of theirs as it builds up your self-confidence, I also find it rather annoying at times. Occasionally, people will put up their hands during lectures to make unnecessary comments without realizing. Once someone actually put up his hand to ask why the school has decided to name its online networking programme “moodle” before adding that he found it inappropriate.

I find that by being too outspoken, you end up making people think that you are arrogant and that will definitely change their impression about you which I do not think is good for building long-term relationships. I have several classmates who boasted that they had tried all the problems and found them simple. The same people also said that the mid-term exam questions were too easy in front of the entire class and shared that they were considering not attending the final exam since their result in mid-term exam should be more than enough to get them a pass in the course.

I personally feel that being outspoken is good in general but there are certain things that you should just keep to yourself. Sharing your knowledge with others is a good thing but boasting about their performance is not. This is because not everyone could solve all the assigned problems and similarly, not everyone found the exam questions easy. These people would be hurt if they heard such comments.

If I am them, I would have think twice, thrice or even more before making such hurtful comments. Readers may say that this is London and people here are not so easily hurt. Well, that may be true but regardless, I prefer to stick to my Asian mentality.