Ways of Communication

by Patricia Lim

In Modules 7–8, we were taught how to learn and communicate as a team.

According to our Professor, Discussion is a process of exploration taken by the team members. Each member would contribute their opinion and listen to the feedback of others. The second step is Dialogue. It is simply an exchange of ideas, not necessarily a debate. Both would try to understand what each other is coming from and what they describe. It is somehow the main structure when communicating with another person or group.

It is also a matter of who initiates the conversation and the topic. The receiver would then try to comprehend the context and idea of the message and where the primary communicator comes from. Sometimes, people use non-verbal language to tell others what they feel, such as sign language, gestures, eye contact, body movements, and the like. Utilizing both of these techniques assists the receiver in absorbing the meaning (thoughts, emotions, etc.), not just the words being said. It is essential to take note of all of these factors so that we can all be good communicators because it gives a sense of clarity and a better perspective on the message that the sender is trying to convey. If not, it may lead to misunderstandings which could accumulate to arguments that could affect the relationship.

We can notice verbal communication when the person is heavily exercising words by speaking. Examples of these are a conversation, “a speech or presentation, and having a phone call with someone” (businessterms.org, n.d.). As for non-verbal communication, you can observe when the person is using the counterpart of speaking, which is acting. Some of the things that you can observe when someone is using non-verbal language are (Cherry, 2020):

• Behaviors
• Tone of voice
• Eye contact
• Gestures

In my experience, how I communicate with people I know is different from how I communicate with people that I just met. This is because somehow, there is a certain way in how we talk to each other. Every friend or acquaintance that I interact with has a unique connection to our very own “personal language.” I always try my best to be formal and respectful with strangers because we did not establish any relationship yet, so there would still be a distance between us. It is important to differentiate between the people we’re familiar with and not because communication has a factor called Proximity or Proxemics, where it analyzes the used space between humans. It has different zones such as the intimate zone, casual zone, social zone, and public zone (C.T. Lim, PowerPoint presentation).

This is an indicator of how close two people are. To get into the intimate or casual zone, the two communicators should have built trust between each other to be more comfortable sharing ideas, thoughts, and feelings.