Blogging for Communication journey

  One of the reasons why I find language and overall, communication, to be so difficult to grasp, are due to the many facets that are involved. The fact that communication is mostly done through nonverbal methods only really sunk in within the last few years and to me, that’s scary. For one, I have never been all that great at reading people. Many times, I have interpreted something to be a certain and it ends up being something different. This happens a lot with my mother. I would not be surprised if someone reading this think, “Dear lord, how do they not know their mother by now.” Well, I do, but the misinterpretations tend to be out of love. From experience, I know my mother is a talkative person. When she starts talking about a particular thing, she keeps going until she is finished. This leads her becoming quiet, which to me and my father, is bad. We start to think something is wrong, so we ask, and most of the time, she is fine. I think most of my misinterpretations come from...

  One of the most interesting parts of my day comes from going outside and listening to the conversations that go on around me. I don’t mean in an eavesdropping manner, but just as background noise. It adds something to the day in a way. One of my favorite reasons for that is how it allows me to freshen up my understanding of the dialects in my town. Dialects are essentially when people speak a particular language and add a little uniqueness to it that stems from a deeper part of their culture (ch. 8, pg. 205). To me, learning about dialects provides me with what I love the most: knowledge. I love to learn about new things, regardless of how important it is. You could tell me a fact about how a certain food is made and I’ll feel better than I did before because I learned something. Anyways, one time when I was out and about, a conversation really caught my attention. They were speaking English, but many of the words said were unfamiliar.   It affected me so much that when I we...

Listening can be a troublesome experience for some. Sometimes it can be the most invigorating time with the giver telling an epic story of a time long ago to a young child that wishes to learn more about the world. Other times, it can be a time slowing bore with a boss telling his employees about the weird thing his cat ate. I have found myself on both sides of this equation. When it comes to things that I have an interest in, I’m like a moth to a flame and you have my full attention. When it comes to things that I don’t care about, sometimes I don’t even look at the person talking. I will be the first to admit that doing that is rude as heck and I probably sound hypocritical if you have read any of my other posts. That being said, I wish to change that and become a better attender. This just means that I am willing to hear what the person talking to me is saying (ch. 7, pg.178). Of course, like most other things in life, this is not going to happen instantaneously. I will have to chan...

  Life is an interesting experience to say the least. It can be fun, especially when you spend your time with people that you love, and you get to do things that you enjoy. There are some things about life that are not enjoyable. As awareness as become a stronger thing in my life, I have begun to experience things stronger. Things just seem to be harder than they are, and it makes me not want to get up in the morning sometimes. Even worse, the things I feel also impact my personal life because I don’t know how to manage these feelings. Within the last week, I had multiple arguments with my loved ones because there are certain ways that I want to control in my life that they don’t understand. These arguments are never long, and we always make amends, but I could not help noticing my emotions left me with a dull feeling of stress. I feel it is time to change my outlook on life and bring back some of the good things that I used to experience. One thing I wish to do is strengthen my em...

  One of the things that I hope to change about the way I communicate is my ability to give people a chance. Over the years, between influences from the people I interact with the most to visually experiencing situations where people have been rude to the people I care about, I have become a bit cynical and judgmental. In my line of work, I have experienced firsthand the ugliness that some people have withing them when they don’t get their way and the fact that my coworkers must experience that ugliness and can’t say anything about it is infuriating at times. For example, a lottery machine was not doing what a customer wanted so my supervisors went to check out the situation. They told the customer nothing was wrong, which was the truth, and began to speak amongst themselves in a different language. The customer then preceded to get angry and berate my supervisors, calling them derogatory names. Normally, I have a hard time deciphering what is situational and what is personal with ...

  Over the last five years, I have been exposed to the topic of gender identity more frequently than any other point in my life. Truth be told, before middle school, I didn’t even realize that transitioning was even possible. To say that learning about gender and sex changed my understanding of how life can be is an understatement. Even now, I am learning to this day and will continue to do so well into the future. One thing I have learned about is the concept of gender polarization, which affects how people look at you based on your gender (ch.6, pg.150). I have been aware of gender polarization for as long as I can remember and my understanding of it only grew as I matured. At this point, I can recognize it without even having to think about it. I can also think of multiple points in time where people have directed it towards me. For context, I am a six foot tall man with a case of resting bored face. It with these facts that I can conclude that people have been hesitant to talk ...

Culture has been an elusive thing for me. As a multiple generation American, my most immediate culture is American. However, despite this, I have never really felt like I had a unique identity as a result. In a country surrounded by people from different backgrounds and ethnicities, I feel plain, with almost nothing to call my own. Perhaps I am wrong and I am just not aware of my culture, but it is my honest thought. One thing I am aware of is my co-cultures, which is essentially a culture besides the immediate culture you represent (ch.5, pg.126). This may sound wrong, but my co-cultures reflect my identity even more than my immediate culture. For starters, I am of mostly European background with a sizable portion coming from Germany. My biggest connection to German culture is my grandmother whom I call Oma. Whenever my family and I go to her house, the meals we eat are German based in origin, including schnitzel, Knodel dumplings, and sauerkraut. On occasion, we have also gone to loc...

  I like to think I have high self-awareness. This stems from my analytical nature and is the result of constantly monitoring myself and how I interact with my surroundings (ch.2, pg. 32). To many people, this is desirable trait to have. People with low self-awareness are considered foolish and ignorant and are often looked down upon, with good reason. Often times, they don’t even understand the things that they do have consequences that can affect others. For example, at my job people leave shopping carts all over the place, either inside or outside. The end result is more work for employees that could be doing other, more important things at that point in time. There have been several times when my bosses have asked me to go outside to collect carts and there have been not only carts everywhere, but also electric scooters left outside without power. The result is I had to drag the scooter back inside and hurt my hand in the process. With that, low self-awareness is a negative tra...

  Throughout the day, I am constantly interacting with others, in some shape or form. From eating dinner with my family at home, to talking with my coworkers about the schedule for next week, to interacting customers I need to assist at my job. Thankfully, I have an easy-going relationship with most people I meet, and I enjoy that. As a shy person, it keeps my mind at ease when things aren’t that serious However, there are times during the day where I have conversations and the things that people tell me cause a blank to form in my mind. To be more specific, I find myself at a loss for any meaningful things to say. When someone told me that they have a family member that has a difficult health condition, I was unable to think of anything to say that might have a positive effect on them and let them know I care. The thing that catches me is my fear that I will say something offensive unintentionally. I guess my problem is that I lack interpersonal communication competence. Essential...