I enter a room dressed casually wearing
shorts, a faded T-shirt, and no shoes. I tap my foot, with my arms folded. I bellow out “Can somebody get these damn
toys off of the floor….T-O-D-A-Y!” I am speaking to my own kids who are the
target of this frustrating repetitive demand.
Conversely, I am fully clothed in close to
my Sunday’s best. I say in a mild tone
with a smile, “Did someone forget to pick up their toys in the homemaking
center?” I am speaking to my students at the early childhood center.
Finally, I go into the monthly faculty meeting
and enter the discussion. The topic is “How can we make them work at the end of
the school year?” I raise my hand, wait to be recognized, then reply we can
offer rewards and incentives and post their pictures in the hall for being a
responsible citizen. Surely, I am
speaking to professional educated adults.
No matter which of these roles one plays,
communication is all around us. At home, I am Mommy, at work, I am Mrs. Yolonda
and with my coworkers, I am Mrs. Honore’. With each scenario, I utilized some
type of verbal, non-verbal and/or listening skill. In my culture it is
appropriate to communicate with your children using mild profanities when
making a repeated request. The authors of the course text say, “Most cultures believe their own culture is appropriate and
everyone should believe as they do” (O'Hair & Wiemann, 2012). In the
first scenario, I am comfortable expressing myself like this among family. As
an educational professional, I realize what is appropriate in later scenarios
because I am tasked with being a problem solver and teaching children problem
solving skills. Additionally, children leaving toys out in the play center is a
skill that I need to address. I can do
this by modeling the desired behavior. “The
modeling process is very strong.
Children imitate what they see others doing” (Gonzalez-Mena, 2010, p.
38).
References
Gonzalez-Mena, J. (2010). 50
strategies for communicating and working with diverse families. Upper
Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.
O'Hair, D., & Wiemann, M. (2012). Real communication: An introduction. New
York: Bedford/St. Martin's.
Enjoyed reading your post;l like the way you illustrated in a more dramatic way.I guess this goes to show the realities of our everyday communication and how we vary according to who we are communicating with;sometimes casual,sometimes formal;sometimes rule binder;sometimes not.The most important thing is our effort to make sure each communication process achieve its goal .
ReplyDeleteYou really did a good job of showing how differently we speak to each group of people. If we stop and think we will see/hear just how much our communication changes depending on whom we are with at the time.
ReplyDeleteYour examples were very amazing for this weeks content. Communication is different in social scenarios and depending on the relationships that are present. Communication is also verbal and nonverbal how you pointed out and we need to make sure we use both to the best of our ability to get our message across. Thank you for your post!
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