Good day fellow steemians.
At some point, you’ve probably had the internal struggle of whether or not to ask for help because you think you should know it already.
Before University, I avoided asking questions in class, especially if it seemed like everyone else understood what was being taught. A lot of people also feel they are too slow and might hold the whole class back if they should ask their questions.
At the University, I used to lead a study group. What I realised was that my group members would ask me questions they could have easily asked in class during the lesson. But then, I came to realise that they were probably too ashamed to ask the questions whose answers seemed too obvious. I must admit, I did not always have the answers when they asked me, so I devised a strategy.
Somehow, I was able to tell the point of confusion of my study mates during lectures and ask questions for them. Despite doing this, they would still ask me the same questions when we meet to study. How this helped me was that I got a reference point to the answers I gave them. I saved myself the time of doing research and making guesses.
In essence, I decided to 'bear their shame' of asking obvious questions in class, to help myself and them. Sometimes, I would see the expression of shock from my lecturers' faces when I ask these questions, almost as if they least expected a question like that from ME. It was too obvious. But I knew what I was doing.
I admired people who were bold enough to ask even the most obvious questions because the answers always brought new perspectives.
Those questions even showed that most of us did not fully understand what we were being taught.
I remember my junior high school mathematics teacher used to say to us in class “He who asks a question in class remains a fool for five minutes. He who does not ask remains a fool forever."
Lesson found from this
No matter how scared you are, be bold to ask questions because you paid school fees. People will appreciate your curiosity to a lot of things. If you don’t ask, you will not be able to find out the answers. And probably in the future, who knows? You could be asked those questions you were afraid to ask.
Thank you for your time, have a nice day.