Who Am I as a Communicator?

Through doing the inventories, I found two very surprising things. I found that while I scored myself as having some anxiety in communicating, both of the people that also took the inventory scored me in the low anxiety category. That leads me to believe that I am a decent communicator that does not show the anxiety I may be having in some situations. The second very surprising thing I found was in the aggressiveness scale. I scored myself in the moderate category, as did my co-worker. My husband, on the other hand, scored me a bit higher. It was a bit surprising to see, but when I think about it I realize that I am more aggressive with him that with others. Mostl likely it is because of the comfort I have with him and his unconditional love for me. I had to, however, make it a goal of mine this semester to be more respectful and thoughtful when it comes to arguments and disagreements.

Communication and Culures

I have realized that I don't communicate any differently with people from other cultures. Through the discussion postings and resources this week, I have realized that I should be. I have always taken pride in being open to cultures and to people, but have realized this week that I should be communicating differently by asking questions and sharing information about my own culture to help the other person feel comfortable. We discussed this week about the Platinum Rule in order to get people to share with us and be comfortable doing so, we have to be willing to share and be comfortable. The most important part of communicating with people of other cultures is to listen respectfully and not be afraid to ask questions respectfully if you don't understand. It is also important to share information about my own culture, but do it in a way that is respectful and not making the person feel as though my culture is better than theirs.

Commumication Skills:Language, Nonverbal, Listening

For this week's assignment, I decided to watch a show my husband watches on a regular basis, but I do not watch with him. I had a hard time convincing him to watch it with me with no sound, but he agreed when I told him it was for school. We watched Storage Wars on A&E. Initially, I could see that the majority of the characters were serious at the start of opening each storage unit. I observed all but two characters kept strait faces and as the camera went from character to another and back again, they were each showing narrowed eyes and deep eyebrows, which made me believe they were all unhappy with each other. Two of the characters were happy all of the time, which I observed through smiling faces and open eyes. I also observed the two kiss at one point, on the cheek in a light way. It led me to believe they were in a relationship of one kind or another. One was male and one female.
When we watched the episode again, with the sound on, I observed that I was correct that all but the two characters did were not happy with one another. They were bidding on storage lockers and when the camera went back and forth between the two characters, it was because they were bidding each other up. The two that I observed kissing lightly I realized were in a romantic relationship because the man called the woman,"babe". My husband informed me that from a different episode that they were actually married. Without knowing that, I still would have been able to see they were in a relationship. Since my husband is familiar with the show, he already knew what the relationships were, and he knew that the majority of them didn't like each other while they were bidding. If I had been watching a show I knew well, I would have known what the relationships were, and would not have been looking for nonverbal cues to determine the ralationships.

What is Communication?

I have the opportunity to communicate with many different people, both professional and not. The one person's communication that I find to be positive and competant is that of my coworker when she is conducting child care referrals over the phone. She takes the time to listen to the parent and picks up bits of information and expands on that information to help the parent feel at ease. She uses active listening skills by repeating back what she hears to ensure she undstood what the parent was saying. I have heard other referral specialists speaking to parents and only getting the minimal information and using that. This one coworker makes an effort to truly listen and makes that parent feel like they are unique, their situation is unique and demands special attention. I would like to model my communication techniques after her because while I do not generally do referrals, I do speak with providers and parents often for other things. I would like to be able to focus more on what the person is saying and be able to use that information to draw more information out of them instead of getting the bare minimum information.