Beat the Fear of Asking Questions!

He who asks a question feels a fool for five minutes; he who does not ask a question is a fool forever. - Chinese Proverb

I learnt ‘how to be a student’ when I entered college, which is quite late. I hope you learn this at an early age. As a student, we are supposed to learn and be curious. The very important part of learning is QUESTIONING. But, it is very common that we students don't ask questions in class. That doesn't mean we don't have any questions to ask. Most of the time, we have many doubts at the end of the session, but we don't have the courage to ask, as we have a constant fear that we will look stupid in front of the whole class.

Here are the problems that I faced in the class, and how I resolved them.

Problem 1: I used to think ‘I would look stupid by asking a question'

I have spent my entire school days with a constant fear that I would look dumb in front of the whole class while asking a question. I feared that asking a question would reveal how little I know. What if everyone makes fun of me? What if I sound like an idiot? But, then I changed my thinking, “Not asking a question will definitely leave me being an idiot as I haven’t asked it”.

And, and, and it is nearly guaranteed that someone else in the class would be just as confused as you. There would be students who would shake their heads in agreement with your questions. So just raise your hand and ask that away!

Also, you should be open to listening to the questions of others, letting everyone clear their doubts without you judging them.

Even then if you are feared, you should figure out what is more important, someone else’s opinion or your desire to be successful.

Problem 2: I used to think that my speaking skills are not good enough

Earlier, I used to be afraid about my grammatical errors, pronunciations of words, while speaking. I always used to feel that if I would ask a question, everyone in the classroom wouldn't get what I mean. I didn't want to make fun of myself. To deal with this, the best solution was to just start speaking. While speaking, I accepted that I’m going to make mistakes, I even accepted that my classmates would make fun of me. Accepting these things helped me to raise my hand, and say what I want to. Of course I made many mistakes, but mistakes kept me improving. We’re students, and students are bound to make mistakes and learn from them. With my trembling voice, I started raising questions in class, but eventually I became confident while speaking.

Here at Adhyaapan, students are encouraged to ask questions; they're made to question their own thought process. Every question is patiently answered by our passionate industry experts and educators.

Don’t let your hungry brain die. So, go ahead being hungry and foolish!

Let us know your views and if you have overcome this fear too, tell us how well you did it in the comment section below!