Week 7 Post 3

I absolutely loved reading chapter five. Learning about nonverbal communication opened up my eyes to so many things. I really found so much of the information in this chapter to be profound and important. For example, I learned that I am an externalizer when it comes to my emotion and it is very difficult for me to keep things bottled up. My best friends Chrisitna is an internalizer. The reason I know she is an inernalizer is because she doesn't want to burden people with her problems and she has to deal with other peoples drama all the time. Christina lives in a soreity house with like 50 other girls and they all come to her with their problems. Unfortanetly she doesnt really have people who will listen to her when she needs help because I don't live in LA.

Tonight was a really big break through because she was able to let go months worth of emotion. All day long our communication was not clear because her words were saying one thing and her body, facial displays, eye behaivor, and tone were saying something comprelty different. She was trying to deintensify what she was feeling on the inside by what her bidy was doing on the outside. However, by being her best friend for the past 13 years I have know when she is lying to me.

I am glad that I had to read this chapter before coming down to LA to see her. By reviewing the importantce of non verbal communication I was much more prepared to deal with the issues that came up.

Week 7 Post 2

After reading chapter five I have learned that there are many characteristics of nonverbal communication. There is also a code that should be followed when speaking nonverbally.

It is important to understand that not all-nonverbal communication is intentional. I watched a movie called "Family Stone," and there is a scene in this film that is the perfect example of UN intentional and misinterpreted communication. A family and one guest are playing charades. The guest's name is Meredith and is played by Sarah Jessica Parker. It is her turn and the clue she has to perform is "the bride wore black." She is trying to cherade it out when one of the family members named Patrick got close to the right answer. She pointed at Patrick t signifies he was on the right track. Unfortunately the mean younger sister Amy played by Rachael Mc Adams chose to see that, as Meredith was being a racist because Patrick the guy she was pointing at is black. She wasn't pointing at him intentionally but just to signify to keep guessing because they were on the right track. This misunderstanding caused a lot of tension and an argument to break loose.

It is very important that our words and our nonverbal words are clear so that way the intent of what we are saying is understood.

Week 7 Post one

2). Although nonverbal messages are more universal than verbal messages, non verbals do not always carry the same meanings in other cultures. Can you give examples of some of the nonverbal displays that take on different meanings in other countries? If you have moved around within this country, have you ever encountered regional differences in nonverbal meaning?

It is a very true statement to say that nonverbal messages do not carry the same meanings in all cultures. According to chapter five pg 111 it shows that something as simple as a smile can convey different things in different cultures. For the most part a smile is a sign of happiness but it can also be disrespectful or a sign of embarrassment.

My dad used to work for a moving company called North American Van lines and it was his job to go to appointments at peoples homes and give them an estimate of how much it would cost to move their stuff. Because my dad was in all different kinds of peoples homes he became aware of cultural differences. For example in an Asian persons home he would always take off his shoes at the door as sign of respect. Understanding cultural differences was important for my father in order to gain clients and make them all feel like he respected them and truly cared about them.

I have had the pleasure of doing some traveling and I have also had many friends of different ethnicities then my own. When I was in Italy it was the polite way to greet people by kissing them on both cheeks. In America this affectionate greeting would probably make a lot of people feel uncomfortable. Also in many places people don't shake hands with everyone they meet like we do in the states. I spent most of the summer and London and I was surprised at how the men all showed so much chivalry. I never had to open a door or pull out a seat for myself once.

Everywhere you go in the world customs and nonverbal communication is a little different that is why it is so easy to misinterpret them.