What kind of Communicator am I?

This assignment was a little hard for me because I couldn’t get my results to come up, so I could read them. After talking to my best friend and my aunt, I found similarities between how I scored myself and how my best friend scored me. He said that I communicate very well with others, and I am an excellent listener. He also said, I don’t like talking in public, but I will if I have to. My aunt and I, on the other hand, had some differences between how I evaluated myself and how she evaluated me. She said her evaluation was based off of my involvement with my family. She said although I can communicate well within the family; I don’t always do so. She said if I would just voice my opinions more often than our family meetings will be less stressful for me at times. The thing that surprised me the most is how my aunt evaluated me because I thought I would have scored higher. I see now that isn’t always true because most people do communicate differently when they are with family than they do with their friends, colleagues, co-workers, etc. I also see that I have to voice my opinions more when I am around my family because my voice should be heard when the situation affects me. Although, this assignment was a rough for me because I didn’t get a chance to read my results, I stilled learned that people do see you differently then you see yourself. I’m glad I let my aunt do the survey because she has helped me to see something that I never noticed in myself. Hopefully, what I have learned this week will help me become a better communicator within my family and profession.

Communicating Differently with People from Different Groups and Cultures.

I have noticed that I communicate differently with people from different groups and cultures other than my own. I can remember my mom picking me up one day from school, and like any other parent, she asked me how my day went. As I was telling my mother how my day went my mother stopped me and said, “What are you talking like you are a white person.” I said, “How does a white person talk?” My mother said, “The way you are talking to me right now.” I said, “I just talking proper mother.” My mother said, “Well, you sound funny to me.” I said, “What did you expect when you decided to send me to a school where it is majority white.” I had a few African American friends, but the majority of my friends were white. At that time, I was in the fourth grade. Now, that I am older, I still find myself communicating differently with people from different groups and cultures other than my own because around my family, when I talk proper, they think I am trying to act like I am a white person. So, I try to communicate with them in a way that makes them feel comfortable, but even then I revert to my old self because I find myself correcting them when they speak, I know that is wrong, but it bothers me when a person mispronounce a word. Don’t get me wrong, I love my family just the way they are, and I wouldn’t change them for the world. I even encourage them to go back to school, so they can make a better life for them and their family. I think it is working because my sister just told me that she just enrolled in nursing school so she can become an RN, and my brother is also talking about going to school now because he has a daughter he has to help raise. I am so proud of them, and I wish them the best in all their endeavors. I believe I communicate differently with people from different groups and cultures because it allows me to adopt to whatever environment I’m in, whether I’m talking to members of my family, my colleagues, church members, friends, or students.

Strategies that I can use to help me communicate more effectively with the people or groups I have identified are:

Family

·         Learning how to be open, affectionate, emotional and instrumental supportive, mind reading, being polite, discipline, having humor or sarcasm, having regular routine interaction, and structural stability (O’H air & Wiemann, p. 166, 2009).

Friends/Colleagues/Church Members/Students

·         Being available, caring, honest, trustworthy, loyal, and empathic. The extent to which you and your friends share these characteristics helps build the relational contest of your relationship (O’H air & Wiemann, p. 167, 2009).

·         Studies have also revealed that children who form successful friendships with others perform better academically and demonstrate fewer aggressive tendencies than those who do not (O’H air & Wiemann, p. 166, 2009).

Reference

O’Hair, D., & Wiemann, M. (2009). Real communication: An introduction. New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s.

Communication (Jessie on the Disney channel)

For this blog assignment, I chose to watch an episode called Jessie on the Disney channel. It was very interesting to try to figure out what the characters’ relationships were based on the ways in which they were communication. While watching the show without sound, it seemed like Jessie was care taker because she was the only adult around besides the butler. She was the one waking the children up in the morning and making sure they weren’t killing one another. There were four kids in the house, and they were all of a different race. For instance, there were two Caucasian one Indian child, and one African American child. They seemed to be related to one another because they lived in the same household and they were showing a lot of affection towards one another when something went wrong. Also, they all had their own private rooms and pets in the house.

As I was watching for feeling and expressing based on the nonverbal behavior, I saw that they children loved one another. They seemed to be very happy and cared for by Jessie the care taker. The children expressed anger when they were being irritated. For example, Robby was mad at Luke because they used his lizard as a bowling ball to knock down pins. His facial expression was not happy; he seemed to be very angry at Luke.

After watching the show with the sound on; my assumptions about the characters were right. For instance, Jessie was the children’s nanny, and they children had close relationship with one another because they were adopted, which made them brothers and sisters. That would explain why there were showing so much affection for one another.

I think my assumptions would have been more correct if I had been watching a show I knew then I would have known the characters a little more, and their relationship with one another. The more you watch a show the more you will know about the characters and why they act the way they do.

Reference

O’Connell, P. (Producer). (2011). Jessie [Television Series].  [With Debby Ryan, Peyton List, Cameron Boyce, Karan Brar, & Skai Jackson]. Los Angeles, CA: Hollywood Central Studios.