Humans communicate everyday in their daily activities. One of the many ways of transferring communication messages is through stories. Even if it is an important show in the theatre, or just a story for a friend, excellent story-telling skills are what make a story much more interesting for the audience. The skills become important that the world commemorates Story Telling Day every year. Today, March 20, is marked as the World Story Telling Day.
Different kinds of audiences need different approaches to understand the stories. We, as communicators, have to understand our audience so that we can deliver the stories perfectly. For example, the approaches from Kelompok Jatinangor 21 (KJ21), a student activity unit (UKM) in Faculty of Communication Science Universitas Padjadjaran focusing on creating a safe play group for kids. Fifi Alexandra Renata, a class of 2023 Communication Science student who is also the head of the coaching division in KJ21, shared her thoughts on story-telling skills for kids.
The main focus of KJ21 is to do community service by providing moral and material support for the “adik asuh”, therefore the 9 years compulsory education can be achieved. Story-telling skills are highly used in teaching-learning activities. However, sometimes Fifi faces a challenge in whether or not the kids understand what she is trying to say. Fifi then found an answer from a workshop about how to read together and make literacy fun for kids. We, as story-tellers, have to be present in reading and playing with the kids, so that they understand the message perfectly. After the message is successfully interpreted, we can create work from what we read together and make the story-telling activity more interactive.
Based on her experiences, Fifi understood that telling stories to kids needs sensitivity, more effort, and high initiative. When interacting with them, Fifi is more sensitive to explore more ways of story-telling. From using books as media to sharing her own experiences, both can be a perfect way to discuss and create meaningful story-telling activities with the kids. Fifi then learned that being a “kakak asuh” in KJ21 doesn’t only make her have the role as “sister”, but also a good story-teller for the kids.
Telling stories can be a fun activity for both the story-teller and the listeners. As story-tellers, we have to exist in the conversation and therefore create an interactive environment. Happy World Story-telling Day to all amazing story-tellers out there! (Ed)