Interpersonal Communication!

Tomorrow will be the last day of my interpersonal communication class. I can't believe how fast the quarter went! I really enjoyed this class, my favorite part were the activities, the movies, and I definitely get to know my classmates better. :)

I always knew communication was a really important aspect of our lives, but I never realized the amount of things communication involves! It covers the way we send and receive messages, how we develop our roles as speakers and as listeners, how empathetic we are, and many more things.

Something that I really like is how we were always encouraged to do our best at all times, to be friendly, to listen, and respect. In my opinion respect is one of the biggest traits that good communicators have. I know that we'll always remember some of the things that we learned in this class :) It is really amazing how we apply daily everything we learn!! :)

This last week in our Interpersonal Communications class we learned about a really serious topic: Relationship Violence. Sadly, there are hundreds of people that are being victims of this terrible problem. I believe that if there's a history of violence in a relationship, is more likely to continue in the future and may escalate in many different ways. That is why I decided to make this blog post with some warning signs of a violent relationship. If we are able to perceive this signs on time, we will make a huge difference in our lives.

*Your partner belittles, insults, or ignores you.
*Your partner controls pieces of your life.
*Your partner gets jealous without reason.
*Your partner can't handle sexual frustration without anger.
*Your partner is so angry and threatening that you've changed your 
life so as not provoke additional anger.

It is also a good idea to learn how nonviolent relationships differ from a violent relationship. If we do this, we will actually see our own relationship with a different perspective.


 Remember, we are meant to be HAPPY. The other person should help us find our 100% :)

INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS!

In chapter 8 we learned about relationships. Something that was really interesting to me was when we talked about JEALOUSY. I didn't know that there were 3 different components of Jealousy:

Cognitive: That involves suspicious thinking, worrying or imagining different scenarios in which your partner is with another person.
Emotional: Involves the feelings you have when you see your partner, say, laughing or talking intimately with a rival.
Behavioral: Refers to what you actually do in response to the jealous feelings and emotions.

I think that Jealousy is actually a common feeling, but we also need to realize that it's not good for us!! We need to set up limits!

GREETINGS!

It's really amazing how different we are all from each other! :)
Last week in class we learned how  body language and expressions can vary depending where you are from. It was truly interesting to be able to see how different the meanings of some basic gestures were from one place to another!!
I found fascinating the fact that regardless all this communication barriers, we are still able to give our message to the other person most of the times.
Something that I think is a really important thing to know, is how to say HI in a different country... It was really hard for me to get used to say "Hello" without a hug or a kiss on the cheek; because that is something that we always do in Mexico. It is part of our culture. :)

I found this really cool webpage that talks about how people from different countries greet each other.

http://www.brucevanpatter.com/world_greetings.html

I think that if we are aware of  little things like this, we will be able to become better communicators and we will definitely enjoy more our trips to other countries! :D

SHHHHHHHH!

Something that we learned this week that was new to me is the role of SILENCE in communication.

I didn´t know that silence communicates important meanings and serves important functions, or at least I never thought about it.

*Silence helps with communication by:

Giving time to think.

Hurt others. (I know, this one's probably not a possitive helper) 

Lessen anxiety.

Prevent Communication 

Communicate Emotions.

YOU'VE GOT MAIL

On Thursday and Friday we watched this movie called YOU'VE GOT MAIL.
It is about two individuals that write e-mails to each other, without knowing who is on the other side of the computer. They tell each other their worries, some of their everyday problems, and eventually they fall in love.
I think it was a funny movie, and I liked it :) It also made me tought about how there's actually a big amount of people that prefer to have an interaction with the computer than with their real friends and family. I think that technology can be really beneficial, but when it comes to the point that we are spending more time talking to a screen... we are in trouble!

INTERNET SAFETY

Last week some of my classmates and I had the opportunity to present in front of our class a Power point Presentation about "Internet Safety". In the presentation, my team and I talked about the big impact that technology has in our society.

We mentioned the advantages of having access to computers and technology, and we also discussed some dangers & risks that can be found while navigating in the internet.

Personally, I learned a lot. One of the things that I didn't know before this presentation is that we actually have politeness rules online. This group of specific rules is called NETIQUETTE.

I think it is really interesting how technology provides us infinite possibilities with just one click. It connects us with so many different places around the world in just a few seconds!!  That is why we need to be aware of the dangers that are online, and also we need to come to a better understanding that what we post is having a big effect in others too. :)

http://www.islandtrees.org/main/technology/internetsafety.php