communication

Wow, talking about all the different forms of communication is so interesting to me! I am not the most observant person, which is a weakness of mine, but after reading and discussing all the signals and details shown through body language, facial expressions, silence, touch...etc. I have been so much more aware of people's little actions, including my own, that I normally never pay attention to.

I remember one time when I was in high school and had to give a presentation, one of my friend's told me before hand not to fold my arms while presenting. He said that he noticed I almost always fold my arms when I am standing somewhere for a while and said that it comes off sometimes as kind of stand-offish and cold. I had never thought about it that way before and hadn't realized that I gave off that impression when I folded my arms. His comment really stuck with me and I have tried ever since to not fold my arms as much, unless I want to send the message of being closed off. It's interesting for me to note that my body language was kind of out of habit and unintentional until someone pointed out to me what I was doing.

After observing people and understanding what different forms of body language mean, you can start gathering so many more details about a person and their attitude or their real feelings about something just by noticing the other aspects of communication other than just words. I have a friend who I know super well and I have had to learn how to read her mind because she rarely says what she really think or really wants. All of the different forms of communication from facial expressions to tone of voice, have helped me over the years to learn how to respond the right way to her and understand what she really means. For example, when I ask her if she wants to do something over the phone, I can tell right away by the amount of silence before responding, the tone in her voice, the way she responds, if she really wants to do what I suggested (whether she says some form of yes or no) or if she doesn't or if she wants to do something else or not do anything with me.

Since it has taken me such a long time to be able to read my friend and I still struggle with interpreting signals from people in the US, when I go over to a completely new culture in Uganda, I am going to have to be super super observant in order to catch on to the forms of communication over there. I will also need to be really mindful of my actions and movements in order to make sure I don't give off the wrong impressions. I'm sure a lot of my learning will come from trial and error...which will hopefully not mean embarrassing experiences.