“I did not want to ‘improve’ nor ‘replace’ the photos I DID colourize as some of you may think. I just wanted to show you a new perspective of the black & white old world, it used to be in colour, too. I thought famous photos would touch most hearts,” says Dullaway.

Via Visual News

Alright, alright, so maybe this post isn’t about improving your English, but it is about communication. This past Sunday one of the pastors at my church used this video to illustrate the importance of communication. Our words can be extremely powerful and yet they are also so fragile. They possess the power to encourage in one moment but can also also cause an incredible amount of pain in the next. I’m sure each of us can all recall a time when we spoke a word of encouragement that simply made someone’s day. Unfortunately we can also recall instances when we’ve spoken too quickly and wished life had an undo key.

Have you ever noticed that more senses you can involve in communication the less likely your message is will go misunderstood? Imagine if the sinking ship had the capability to video conference with the German Coastguard. The coastguard would have heard the message and, more importantly, seen the circumstances of the people and the ship that elicited their urgent call. Have you ever sent a text message that the recipient misread because they couldn’t hear your tone of voice? Or maybe you’ve sent an email that would have been better received in a face-to-face conversation? In each of these cases we end up spending too much of our time having additional clarification messages followed by a round of apologies. All of this simply goes to show the introduction of visuals to auditory and written communication can greatly improve comprehension and save time while eliminating ways your message can be misinterpreted.