Creatures of Our Culture

I agree with Ruth Benedict. I think that we are all creatures of our culture. From the moment we are born, we are taught to act and dress a certain way. For example, boys are always dressed in blue and never in pink, whereas girls are almost always in pink. This goes back to the nature versus nurture argument a little bit. Are our personality traits products of our surroundings or have they been with us since birth? I think a good example of this would be feral children. In extreme cases when a child is devoid of any human contact with the outside world, or even family, they do not know how to speak or have any signs of relating to a culture. These rare cases really go to show how much of an impact the outside world has on a person relating to one culture or another.

In order to break through the limits of our culture it is important to experience other cultures that are out there. Something as simple as eating food or listening to music from another country can make a huge impact. On the other hand, if you wanted something more extreme, visiting other countries and observing their cultures first hand would broaden our perception of culture infinitely.

Concept from Chapter 5: Eye Behavior

I found the section about eye behavior the most interesting in chapter 5. They say the eyes are the window to the soul and that might be true. Our eyes tell people so much about us. I really enjoyed learning about the history of eyes being associated with magic. It seems so silly to think that looking into someone'e eyes could kill you. I guess that is where they got the idea for Medusa. Eyes were also thought to shoot arrows and daggers along with love's flame. Eyes were pretty impressive and busy throughout history :)

In a more realistic sense though, our eyes do say a lot about us. We all know what it is like to avoid eye contact with a teacher to avoid being called on. We tend to stare at things we view as positive and look away from things that disgust us. Something I did not know though, was that when people find something interesting their pupils enlarge. Overall, the eyes are pretty interesting. If you want to know what a person is really thinking just look into their eyes.

Language and Gender

I believe that men and women use language differently. The examples given in the book about the man making plans without consulting the woman but the woman confirming with the man before making plans really makes sense to me. That happens all the time in my relationship. My boyfriend will make plans for us without talking to me first but I always check with him before making plans for us. The book says that men need to be autonomous where women like to be perceived as in a relationship. This makes sense because men are brought up to be strong, masculine and not show their emotions. When they must consult about plans with their partner it makes them seem as if they are asking permission and that goes against the stereotype.

Something else I find interesting is it seems men take what is said in a conversation at face value where women may try to find other meanings within what was said. Men are much more straight forward in their conversations but women like to share more. Women talk about things that are more personal than men do. Women talk about family and problems within a relationship where men focus on sports or news.

Obviously there could be other factors that shape how we communicate. Gender does however have some effect on language use.

Perception

I don't think it is possible to perceive others without some way judging of categorizing them. Automatically, the first thing people do when we see a person is decide whether or not we want to talk to them. We make assumptions based on the way people look and dress, how they carry themselves, and how they speak. For example, one would assume somebody with a large vocabulary is probably educated or somebody who walks with hunched soldiers has low self esteem. The thing is, if we judge a book by its cover too quickly we may end up disappointed or missing out on getting to know a great person.

In order to make the judgments more fair, people can maybe only make judgments after talking to a person. The person being perceived may be having a bad day or lived a tough life. Until getting to know the person, it is only fair to keep an open mind. No matter how hard that may be, I think that a lot of interesting relationships would develop if that were the case.

Concept from Chapter 10: Speech Anxiety

The concept I found particularly interesting in chapter 10 was about speech anxiety. When I get in front of a group of people I tend to talk really fast and then my words get pushed together. I am conscious that I am doing this but have a hard time slowing down. This all happens because I am nervous and just want the speech to be over quicker. The book gives two ways to lower nervousness. The first is cognitive restructuring. This basically encourages you to think positively about the speech. Think things such as "I know more about this topic than anyone else in the class," or "I am going to do a great job." Thinking positively will give you confidence which in turn should reduce nervousness. The other technique is called physical relaxation. This is relaxing your muscles and taking lots of deep breaths. Now that you are feeling confident and relaxed, there is no way to feel nervous and tense.

Next time I have to give a speech I will definitely remember these techniques. I will also remember that most of the time, the rest of the class is just as nervous as me, so we are all in the same boat.

Memorable Speakers

I haven't had the opportunity to hear many speeches live. I do watch some speeches on TV though such as when the President talks to the nation. One of the best speakers I have ever had the chance to see was President Bill Clinton. Now he has a bad reputation because of what he did in his personal life, but as a speaker he was incredible. In my opinion what made him great is that he was so charismatic. The viewer actually felt he was talking to them and only them. I had the opportunity of meeting one of his speech writers and he told me that Clinton would look over a speech once and then he wouldn't need it anymore. All it took was one read through and he knew it. I found that very interesting.

One of the worst speakers I have ever heard was in one of my speech classes at DeAnza. I know that it is a speech class and we are all learning but what bothered me about the speech was the speaker's world choice. The only thing I remember about the speech was the speaker said "ya know" about 25 times during a 3-5 minute speech. it was very distracting and I began counting his use of the phrase "ya know" instead of listening to the message of the speech.

Social Constructionist Perspective

Communication shapes the world around us. We are all taught from birth certain communication cues, whether they are verbal or non verbal, that we use daily. For instance, crying means sadness, in most cases, and smiling or laughing equates to happiness.

In my opinion, America is a very outspoken society, myself included. Kids are taught to respect their parents but speak their minds. This is not the case in many other cultures. In some patriarchal cultures, it is the man of the household's opinion that matters and nobody else's. Women and children don't have a voice. This is very common in Middle Eastern cultures. It is even shown in the way they dress.

It is very different in America. Women can be powerful leaders. For the most part, women can also choose how they dress and there are very little restrictions on that.

The way the American culture is, provides freedom of expression. This would make sense considering America is known as "the land of the free."

All in all, communication is all around us: in what we say, how we react, what we wear, and so much more. Communication is what shapes our culture and that is how we "build worlds" through communication.

Introductory Post

Hello Everyone,

I am a senior at SJSU and this is my first online class. I am a Communication Studies major and looking forward to graduating next May. I love to watch hockey and football in my spare time. My teams are the San Jose Sharks and the Philadelphia Eagles. During the summer I love to go to the beach and just hang out. I lead a pretty hectic life with two jobs, being a full time student, and trying to have a life. It is hard to find time to relax but when I do it feels so good. As some of you might have guessed from my display name, I am a big "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" fan. Overall I love to spend my free time with my family and friends. In regards to school, I chose Comm Studies because it was a broad major but after taking some of the classes I have decided to try to go into the field of corporate crisis communications. I believe Comm Studies is a great major because it not only helps you out in your professional life but has an effect on your personal life as well. I think that's it for now.

I look forward to working with all of you this term.