Another Thought From the Book

The book defines the study of a book as “understanding,” “interpreting,” and finally “evaluation”; but as the author defined them, let me also. “Understanding” is asking, what is the author saying? What are the words used and what does that say? “Interpreting” is asking, what does the author mean? What is the meaning behind the words used? “Evaluating” is asking, is the author right or wrong? “Most of us tend to do the third reading right away and often never do the first and second readings at all. We give a critical analysis of the book before we understand what it says. We judge a book to be right or wrong before we interpret its meaning” (p. 67).
This is what I would call “listening,” for I know that the author is talking about reading a book yet I feel this could and should be applied to communication as a whole. So often I feel as though people are so quick to judge what I am saying before they even hear what I have to say. I don’t know how many time people have cut me off when I was talking to tell me that I am wrong. I know I am not an amazing public speaker, but yet at the same time, at least think about what I am saying before you throw your unthoughtfull words back at me.
Can we at least think before we speak? It just seems to me that in our American Culture those who are slow to speak and quick to listen are few and far between. (or as someone told me when I showed them this, “those who are slow to speak and quick to listen are never heard) Why is that though?!