Tolerance for Ambiguity

Paul Kei Matsuda, one of the featured speakers at the 2011 ETA Conference, gave a talk on Globalization & the Teaching of Written English. As usual, he impressed his audience with his famous style. In his talk he proposed some questions for us to think. Of all the principles he mentioned, "tolerance for ambiguity" hit me hard. As a person, I've always shunned away from ambiguous conversations or conversationalists. Why? I'm a person who can't tolerate ambiguity. I'm a person who's sensitive to words. I mean the message the words convey. You can  imagine I am a teacher who can't tolerate ambiguity at all. However, Matsuda challenged the audience to tolerate students' ambiguity when we teach writing. Once there's tolerance, there's negotiation. I'll find out what he will say today.