All about Communication

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines communication as the act or process of using words, sounds, signs, or behaviors to express or exchange information or to express your ideas, thoughts, and feelings to someone.

This week’s topic is all about perception, and how I see myself as a communicator, how our thoughts and cognitions influence how and what we communicate to others. Based on the scores I got on communication Anxiety inventory, I noticed that I feel uncomfortable communicating when it comes to a number of communication context, and as such this does not make me a good communicator.

My listening styles profile places me under group 1, which indicates that I am an empathetic listener, people-oriented, action-oriented and time-oriented listener, which I believe makes me a good listener. Under verbal aggressiveness my score was 68.Going through the description I realized that, the description given about me was absolutely correct because I get similar response from friends and colleagues even before I attempted this evaluation

How others evaluated me was so much different from how I evaluated myself. Although I got a few similarities which made really understand that this is all about personal perception of what people really think about people around them. People with their different point of view concerning how someone communicates.

One of the things I gained in this evaluation is that, if you are sincere about your response, you will get the right answers that will get the right answers that will help you on the long run to become an effective communicator

                                   Communicating in a Diverse World.

 Living in a society that is different from mine in every aspect is tough; communicating with people that co-exist with me is even more difficult because, most time I don’t know the actual words to use in other not to upset an individual.

Knowing that diversity is all about different cultures, sexual orientation, age, race religion, political affiliation, social statue and varying abilities is something I just learnt. Prior to my enrollment in Walden University I have always known diversity to be people of different cultures, race and religion co-existing. But recently my knowledge about diversity has improved.

I come from a culture that has zero tolerance for people that are not heterosexuals LGBTS and other groups that fall under this category, and as such don’t recognize them in every aspect of life in my country Nigeria. People with disabilities are seen as liabilities and non-contributors to the society.

My various courses in Walden has taught me the unique nature of diversity, abilities in disability, the beauty about inclusion and being responsive to everybody irrespective of who they are, what they are or where they belong as per their social economic statue.

Nigerians are known to be loud in every aspect of our lives, the way we worship tells much about us, the way we speak at times people mistake it to be an argument. I came across an Ethiopian once in Dubai and he asked me why we Nigerians are so loud and it looks like we are about to fight whenever we are having a discussion.

But I have learnt the differences in culture, how people communicate, verbal, nonverbal cues and body gestures has different meaning in different cultures. I am still in the process of becoming a competent communicator, so I try as much as possible to be “Other oriented”.

I definitely communicate differently with people from different groups and culture. Being a competent communicator requires me to put peoples culture, believes into perspective for me to be able to communicate effectively, relate and to accept others as they are. So the way I communicate with my Nigerian brothers and sisters is different from the way I communicate with people from other groups and culture. Freeing myself from biases, inculcating the  Platinum Rule into me and stripping myself off of cultural myopia is the way towards communicating effectively with a diverse community.

                                       Body Language and Facial Expressions.

My assignment this week is to watch an episode of a television show I do not normally watch. I am expected to watch the show with the sound turned off, and later on watch the show with the sound turned on.

The television show I watched is called suburgatory season 1 episode 1, though it was difficult to understand what was going on with the sound turned off, I had to make assumptions of what I think was happening through body gestures and facial expressions.

While watching I decided to choose five parts that I had interest in, the first one was the school locker part where almost all the girls had band aid on their noses, the second was the part where a bicycle was shown to a girl in the show, the third part was the swimming pool area where the woman walked right into the pool and the   forth was the continuous appearance of the Red Bull drink and the fifth was the shopping part.

After watching the show with the sound turned off, I eventually watched it with the sound turned on. Apparently through the body gestures and facial expressions most of my assumptions where correct, the school locker part even though my assumption was not correct but I was close to it because I thought they must have gone for a beauty treatment but it was a nose job. I was correct about the assumption I made about the girl not giving her approval on the bicycle and I was right. The same thing goes with the swimming pool part where George one of the characters was trying to beckon the woman heading straight into the pool with his hand gesture. The continuous appearance of the Red Bull drink shows that it was an acceptable drink and I was right about that. The shopping part also gave a facial expression of Tessa not giving approval for the cloth she tried on but Dalia approved of hers through her body gestures.

My “aha” moments came after I watched the show with the sounds turned on and most of my assumptions were true, and I realized that in communication our facial expressions and body gestures can tell a lot of what we think even though most of the time as humans we are able to decode our facial expressions just to hide our feelings or to be deceitful.  

                                          Competent Communicator

Having the quality of a competent communicator is what I have always desired. I have always admired an individual educational plan teacher (IEP) in my son’s school. She has good quality of listening to parents that have children under her care, she is a good listener. She is always calm and calculative in every appointment with her.

She goes as far as putting our fears and worries aside by assuring us that no matter what, we can always get the best from our son if only we can put a little bit of effort by collaborating with the class teacher and herself.

Her communication skill reassures not only parents but also children that she takes care of. She is a good listener and also understands the emotions and fears of worried parents and she knows the right phrase to use in keeping parents calm.

I call her the miracle worker because with her lined up individual educational plan activities and ways of achieving academic success our son is able to cope well and fit into the same group with his peers.  These qualities are qualities I will like to have as a competent communicator because it will help me in my career as an early educator, by making the parents of the children have trust in me and at the same time feel comfortable sharing their worries and fears with me.