Evaluating listening skills and non-verbal behaviour(Blog Post #2)

Recently, I observed an intriguing conversation between my brother and my parents. We were having lunch and my parents had asked my brother about his army experiences. My brother responded excitedly as he shared his army experiences with my parents and using hand gestures to describe how his training went. For example, he held his hands up with one hand like a hand gun, and the other hand cupped, to imitate himself holding a rifle. I observed that my parents had maintained eye contact with my brother and had leaned forward to listen to him.They also gave occasional nods to show that they understood what my brother was saying and that they were in the conversation.

Halfway through the conversation, my brother began to use his phone and started playing his favourite mobile game. Although my parents were still asking my brother questions, I could tell that he was already uninterested in the conversation as his gaze was fixated on his phone. He took a while  to reply the questions that my parents had asked and had turned his back towards  my parents. He also gave uninterested replies such as "um" or "ya" which I thought was rude of my brother to do so. After a while, my parents sensed that my brother was not interested in the conversation anymore and left the dining table looking disappointed.

Due to the technological revolution, the world is becoming more closely connected through the internet. It has placed a greater divide between generations. In the generation culture of today,children are raised around technology and are closely connected with their friends and family. Parents are now more protective of their child and will defend their child even if he or she is in the wrong. This leads the child to believe that everything he or she does is correct as they have their parent's support. This is why my brother thinks it is okay to be rude to my parents as my parents have always defended him from young.

Blog Post 1: Reflective writing: The Strengths and Challenges of communicating and the objectives I want to achieve(Revised)

Communication plays an important part in our everyday lives. It is a way for us to express our emotions and ideas which allow our friends and families to understand us better. There are three types of communication; verbal (face to face) and non-verbal(body language, hand gestures) and written(e-mails or text messages). Intimacy and intonation varies with each type of communication. For example, verbal communication can have a higher level of intimacy and a friendlier tone as compared to written communication. *When we talk to our friends/ family members face to face, it gives an immediate feedback on what is being said, from their facial expressions and intonations.Whereas, for written communication, we are unable to see how our friends interpret our message and could only base on the written tone which may lead to misunderstandings as our friends can interpret it wrongly than what is being intended.*(Revised)

*A strength that I have in communication is I am able to engage the audience easily. During my presentations, I project my voice well so that my audience will be able to hear me clearly. This ensures that I have their attention which will lead to an effective presentation. For the challenges I have is that I tend to pronounce certain words incorrectly which can sometimes lead to misunderstandings during conversations with friends and could affect the quality of my presentation too. I also need improvement in my command of English as I often make grammatical errors.*(Revised)

Two objectives I want to achieve in this course are that I want to be able to communicate effectively and confidently in front of a large group of people as I have stage fright which causes me to stutter in between presentations. I also want to learn about the correct and proper pronunciation of words as I always pronounce words wrongly. One way to achieve my objectives is by participating actively in class and group discussions. I will also practice in front of my friends before presentations and get constructive feedback from them to improve my presentation and communication skills.