Question is more important than answer to judge a person

Some people say that English is a very tough language. Some say that English is a language that can’t be avoided for a bright future. Some say that English is a funny language like I am sure you must have seen Bollywood movie “Namak Halal” in which Iconic star Amitabh Bachchan” was seen reciting the same by giving logic that why BUT is pronounce as बट and PUT is pronounced as पुट,  not pronounced as पट in spite of having the same sequence of letters. There may be many more views/thoughts about English language, but one thing we have to accept that English is a language that is accepted most commonly in the world. There are some reasons for which peoples choose English over other languages, like

1)       Globally accepted and understood

2)       Easy to learn

3)       Easy to write

4)       Availability of maximum articles / write ups / books in English

Apart from above, English has one more beauty also, which is it’s Wh family questions, like What, Which, Who, Whom, Whose, How, Why etc.

Question means curiosity to know something. And we should always ask maximum possible questions to gain maximum knowledge. And most important is that these questions are way to resolve our curiosity. Which is very rightly expressed in below quote:

The best scientists and explorers have the attributes of kids! They ask question and have a sense of wonder. They have curiosity. 'Who, what, where, why, when, and how!' They never stop asking questions, and I never stop asking questions, just like a five year old.

Sylvia Earle

Why these Wh family questions are so important? Wh family questions are very important since our childhood because these words were asked from every kid like - What is this? What is that? The reason was that these questions were stimulating the children’s vocabulary development and these questions promote verbal reasoning skills of children because children are challenged to provide reason and verbal explanation through these questions. So this was about childhood, now move towards our teenage/young age, what is the importance of these wh family words at that age?

“He who ask a question is a fool for 5 minute; he who does not remains a fool forever”

Chinese proverb

Well, as we know there are always two aspects of everything, the Good side, and Bad side. Similarly, there are Good side and Bad side of Wh family questions?

Sometimes we have heard peoples saying that you should always ask your questions? Sometimes we have heard peoples saying that you should avoid asking questions so many questions? Even you might have faced situations in your life that someone has scolded you for not asking the question and in some different situation you might have been scolded for asking a question. Why is it so?

This is so because we have to understand the difference between various situations, where we should raise a question and where we should avoid it We should not afraid in asking questions. Also, we should not feel shy in raising a hand to ask a question. No need that their question should be wise enough. Don’t think that the audience will take you as a fool. The only thing you should try to develop is that you question should be right and reasonable as considering the situation and topic.

“Knowledge is having the right answer. Intelligence is asking the right question”.

Let’s understand by way of example: Suppose your senior is calling you to inform you that I will be late today. And you ask him why you are getting late today? This is the situation where you should have avoided this Wh family question.  Suppose your teacher is giving some lecture about the caste system in India and you raise a question that Sir, which caste is best or which caste is more educated in India?

Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers.

Voltaire

Now in another example: Suppose your senior is giving instructions to you to issue some cheque of Rs. 100000/- to one party XYZ Limited. Now you should ask a question that What will be the date of cheque? Is it a PDC or regular cheque? Suppose your lecturer of economics is saying in class that very low-interest rates are dangerous for the economy of the country. Now you can ask a question that sir, Why it so? What is the effect of the low rate of interest on the economy? etc. etc.

So the crux of the discussion is that if we have to grow, we have to develop a proper balance between two things 1. When to ask a question 2. When to avoid asking a question. When it is said to avoid a question it doesn’t mean that you should not ask because of fear of being treated foolish or due to shy but should avoid unreasonably and out of the topic question which is not relevant to the situation. If we develop this art properly, no one can stop us from moving ahead in our career but if we will not able to develop this art properly than this may be a big hindrance to our growth.

The Art and Sciences of asking Questions is the source of all knowledge.

Thomas Berger