Interpersonal Communication Reflection

Interpersonal Communication is a very important ingredient in making strong, healthy relationships. Communicating is how we get a better understanding of one another’s perception of things, as well as how we help someone to better understand ours. We need to express our feelings in relationships and know that they are reciprocated. Not communicating leads to problems and misunderstandings. People need to learn to understand what the other person is trying to communicate. Interpersonal communication is the process by which people exchange information, feelings, and meaning through verbal and non-verbal messages: it is face-to-face communication. It is about what is said, how it is said, and the use of non-verbal communication through

To me interpersonal communication describes the exchange of verbal and nonverbal messages between two different people. Joseph DeVito states that “interpersonal communication is inevitable, irreversible, and unrepeatable” due to these things effective communication is a necessary skill for us to function in our day to day lives (p. 20). Therefore, I have created a theory for interpersonal communication that goes as follows; To experience effective communication you must understand: your culture, the other person’s culture, and how to listen effectively. By knowing these three things you can consistently avoid misunderstandings and promote understanding in your interpersonal and intercultural relationships.

1. My feelings about Interpersonal Communication has changed drastically over the course of this semester at the beginning of this semester I thought that “interpersonal communication is people exchanging information, weather it is just by body language, a text message, a group chat, and even just emojis being sent back and forth.” Throughout the course of this semester I have learned and become more aware of how interpersonal communication actually does influence us every second of everyday. I never use to feel this way, but after being in this class I realized it is. Interpersonal communication is online, in person, long distance, and so much more.

Throughout this semester reading about different ways of interpersonal communication I came to the realization that there were many things I could work on to better myself as a person. Things I never thought about in depth until taking this class. Areas I have improved on throughout this semester are using I language more than the use of you language, what empathy was and how I choose to become better and lastly how I deal with conflict.

Since the start of this class, I have been reminded again and again that the concepts we are learning can be applied to everyday life. For instance, when we talked about non-verbal communication, I realized that it is impossible to not communicate. There are many activities, other than the use of language, that allow us to draw meaning from something we observe. When my mother widens her eyes at me without stating a word, I understand she is telling me to think twice about the action I’m about to take. It has been great to be able to assign concepts and vocabulary to interpersonal relationships and communication activity that I have been experiencing. Now let me introduce you to my friend Izzy and her boyfriend Ken as I analyze the

Upon receiving my special project, I took the opportunity to approach it as a new challenging task but with the commitment to make it a learning and teaching opportunity for myself. The main objective for this project was to enhance my knowledge and to adhere to what is one of my weaknesses, group presentations. I was provided with the assignment of three post conferences to be completed by the end of the semester. When delegating topics to present, I focused on the tentative schedule and selected one disease to present in each post conference. My selection was based on utilizing the time I had, as a benefit for both students and I to learn something that was involved in our curriculum. The topics I choose to discuss in my post conferences

The purpose our first speech was to inform the audience about a chosen culture. I chose to talk about the way photography is connected to culture and I related this information to my audience. Despite being incredibly anxious I was able to successfully inform my audience about the way photography relates to culture using an effective opening and closing strategy and having informative main points.

Over the past three and a half months I have been studying communication development and disorders of children and as a future teacher in America, I have learned so much. I have been granted the opportunity to learn about so many different challenges children of the world face from speech and language disorders to Dyslexia and Autism. All of this information has changed my views for the better and will forever change my impression of what makes a good teacher.

Throughout the Oral and Interpersonal Communication course my fellow classmates and I were required to present on a variety of subjects. For the most part, we were adept when it came to our subjects since we had a general understanding of them, but not enough to be considered true expects. Because of this, I found that the 5th guideline Celeste Headlee outlined related closely to my experiences in the class. In this point, Celeste noted that if a person does not have enough experience to answer a question or make a statement authoritatively on a given topic, then they should admit that they are not an expert or pass it on to someone who is. With this in mind, during the persuasive and informational presentation questions were asked that the presenters simply couldn’t answer. Consequently, the presenters understood when they couldn’t give an answer since they no longer had any references to back them up.

“Be who you are and say what you feel because people who mind don't matter, and people who matter don't mind.” (Seuss, 1938) Communication is an ever growing skill which comes from many life experiences within many people, including me. I come from a Hispanic culture which is known for being vibrant and expressive within their communication. After being an only child for twelve years, my family and I welcomed a baby sister. This event was an exciting and happy time for my family and I; but it was, of course, met with some changes and adjustments. My sister and I have two different personalities, I am more reserved and cautious and she is outgoing and adventurous. Yet, my sister and I benefit each other in that she helped me become more outgoing and I provide some cautious direction to her adventures. Also, I am a Christian and have been raised in a faith-following family my whole life. Within our line of faith, we are taught to have a kind, gentle spirit and to have common human decency and love towards others. Many factors played a part into what kind of a communicator I am today; my life experiences and culture will play a lead role within my self-assessment of my communication strengths and weaknesses.

1. Recently, a series of harsh conversations and disagreements have caused me to develop a very negative opinion of my manager and our relationship. Though we have also had positive interactions and have accomplished a great deal together, these negative meetings really stick front of mind. If I force myself to step back and consider the larger pattern over the past year and a half of working together, it is clear that he is a nice guy who cares about my development and wellbeing. I realize when I simmer down that he is critical of my work because he truly wants to prepare me for more responsibility, but it is hard to realize this when receiving extremely critical or blunt feedback. I definitely sulk for too long after negative conversations or missteps in our relationship, and in doing so, allow them to overshadow other times when he has been extremely supportive of my ideas and encouraging of my work. To combat this bias, I created a new “kudos” folder in my email. Each time I receive an encouraging message or note from him, I save it in that folder so I can reference the list after rough meetings where we may butt heads. Thus far, I believe this method is beginning to help me stay balanced by reminding me that my manager is pretty supportive, which should help me feel better about where I am at work.

As we are getting closer to our time in the clinical setting and interactions with patients, reality is setting in that we’ll be working with real people now. Ones that have voices, some that aren’t always nice, or some that need a little bit more patience and understanding to get through a procedure. How are we supposed to deal with some of these challenging situations so that we and our patients end our time together with positive feelings?

“From negotiating for a promotion to resolving a conflict with a spouse, good communication skills can greatly improve life, while weak communication skills can make everyday interactions frustrating and tense. Interpersonal communication encompasses a number of communication styles; there

Were the employees welcoming? The employees were welcoming. Were they friendly, is it good to make friends at work? They were friendly at work, but sometimes it may not work out being friends with fellow employees especially if you are their boss they may expect special privileges. Was there a lot of interaction with other employees or did you work alone (Heathfield, 2017)? The interaction at work was limited, most conversation was in regards to the IT work being completed. What positive things did you learn while you were on the two-month journey? The positive things I learned was how to work with those from a different culture, how different their way of life is from mine. We got to try different ethnic foods, some I never even heard of. What kind of work style would your associates say you have? They would say my work ethic is good, I am very much a team player and motivator. The better we do the better the company does and the greater the incentive in the end. Were there any items that were offensive to you or other employees? The things that were a little offensive were the fact the Texans, and the Germans did things the Qatar who were very religious frowned against drinking, and eating pork, they liked to go to club and enjoy themselves, and relax. Was there a language barrier, if so how were you able to communicate? All of the employees spoke English, maybe with different accents but it was English.

Throughout the course of our lectures, I was exposed to a vast array of knowledge that contradicted misconceptions that often went unquestioned. For example, the majority of university courses reinforce the notion of information assimilation and solely use this method of teaching. As a result, I blindly accepted the superiority of information assimilation over other teaching strategies. However, this course revealed the deficits within information assimilation and further enlightened students regarding alternative teaching strategies; specifically, experiential learning.