Who am I as a Communicator?

Doing this week’s assessments on communication anxiety, verbal aggressiveness, and listening styles was very reflective way for me to see how I communicate. Also it allowed me to see how other’s perceive my communication skills. Similarities I found for my personal evaluation and from other’s are that I prefer one-to one communication situations. Also I will do small groups, but have a strong dislike to speak in public.  Another similarity I found is that I often get tense when asked to speak publicly or with individuals whom I don’t know very well. Also I found that I had a Group 1 listening style as a similarity. Unfortunately, I couldn't get the details for this to pull up, but I know that I prefer to listen vs talk. Also I am empathetic and am often concerned with how the other person feels. I also never show impatience or a press for time. Differences I found is that in my more personal relationships I am more verbally aggressive. I tend to voice more of what I feel. I think this shocked me the most. I never really noticed how verbally aggressive I was with family members; I thought I was the same in any communication situation. I think I learned that I need to find ways to be positively verbally aggressive in my personal relationships to show more empathy towards close love ones without being defensive.

Communicating with different cultures

Sometimes I do find myself communicating differently with people in different groups and cultures. Some ways I communicate differently is that verbally I use more simple words and shorter sentences. I do this because I feel that the person may not be able to comprehend if I start becoming too complex with my words and dialogue. Non-verbally, I tend to look away often and sometimes posture start becoming more slump. My listening skills may tend to become in a passive state, showing a sense of mindlessness. I think this happens because it’s hard to understand them and more than often we need a translator. I feel that I am really NOT making a connection with the individual and this may be why I am not fully engaged and active in the communication situation.

Three strategies I can use to communicate effectively are to do the following:

1. Not exhibit cultural myopia. Understand that my culture is not superior to others, but to understand that we live in a diverse country.
2. Follow the ‘platinum rule’ and place myself in the other person’s shoes. Develop more empathy for those that are culturally different.
3. Practice actively listening and showing respect during communication situations.

Communicating via t.v.

This was a eye opening opportunity to reflect on communication amongst characters in a t.v. program. A show I chose was "Mountain Man" on the History channel. This is definitely a show that I would not watch. Watching the show with no sound or captions did make it complicated for me to understand what was going on. One thing I had to rely on was non verbal cues. I noticed when the men where in the mountains they were isolated by themselves and their was little communication. However, when they connected with family outside of work, their were smiles, hugs, and eye contact amongst family. When I watched with sound on I could better comprehend what was happening and grasp an understanding for the characters on the show. This was my 'aha' moment.

Joyce Meyers- A Competent Communicator

  When I think of a competent communicator I think about Joyce Meyers. She is an inspirational speaker that is well known across the world for giving her motivational and inspirational speeches, books, devotionals, etc. Behaviors she exhibits is great ethics. She has good moral beliefs and shows cultural responsiveness. She communicates in a positive manner and offers genuine advice and support to those who may be afflicted, hurt, broken hearted, stressed, lost, etc and offers God's word to provide peace. She is always posed and wears a smile that speaks life into the souls of others. With the behaviors she exhibits as a competent communicator, I would definitely model myself after her. I feel that it would allow me to be the caring and supportive person that people need to hear from. I would be able to enlighten myself and others that are around me.

Professional hopes and goals

My hope for children and families with diverse backgrounds is that people can learn to appreciate differences in other people. I hope we can learn that these differences are what make us all the unique individuals. We all are unique individuals and should gain knowledge about things we don't understand or don't know anything about. Using these approaches to differences can help build a positive outlook on diversity. It's like a fruit salad, meaning each individual has their own unique flavor or  fruit to put in the salad. Overall, its flavor is enhanced when different fruits are added to complete the salad, no one looses who they are but helps make the salad better.

My goal is that we as Early Childhood professionals continue to educate ourselves and others on the importance of equity and social justice. We have to advocate to others the importance of showing equity to any family despite their culture because our children should be our first priority.

To all my colleagues, thanks for your support on the blogs and discussion boards. Your personal comments, professional advice, and experiences have given me more insight to becoming a better advocate for young children and their families. Also keep up the good work and God bless you all in our journey to obtaining our Master's degree.

Supporting a Nepal Family

The family's origin would be Nepal. Five ways I would prepare myself to be culturally responsive would be to do the following:
Gain background knowledge on their country of origin
Learn some linguistics to use for basic communication
Prepare documents needed in home language
Make the child care environment open to diverse families
Make sure other staff meet and greet family in a non invasive manner

I hope doing these things will help the.family understand we are open to diversity and providing their child with a successful school year.

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

A memory of an incident I can recall from a fictional television show is from “The Wayans Bros.” I remember an episode where the oldest brother Shawn Wayans was looking for a new job and was hired for the position. Later, in the episode it was revealed that he was only hired to maintain a particular status quot of having another race in the office other than white. It was hard on this character because he was never allowed an opportunity to express his true work skills, but only hired to make sure the company had an African American person in the workplace. For this reason, prejudice and racialism evolved and diminished equity amongst equal rights for Shawn in the company. I felt a sense of sorrow for the character because he was not given an equal opportunity to show what he could do for the company. For this incident to be an opportunity for greater equity the boss/manager and the company itself would have to change its way of thinking and understand that there are qualified people of various colors that could do this job.