Reflection on personal experience and learning

Relfection

The course provided a good background and a methodological approach to why communication is important and why effective communication is crucial for interacting. This semester also showed that it is not enough to simply transmit a message, as the mere process does not ensure success. Rather, it is crucial and one should strive to convey that message in an effective manner so that message reaches its target. Effective communication I believe is put to good use.

Two more important skills I have learned this semester; one is listening to the people I am communicating to and the other is to use my body language to further stress my communication. Communication is a two way street in which an exchange of information needs to happen which defines that process. Without listening to the other party, that exchange is not successful. Success in the communication process can be measured by the ability of the speaker to convey the message and also by the shape in which the other party receives that information / message. If one does not listen to the other party, then the exchange of information is not effective as the issues that are being conveyed are not being addressed or listened to. This semester I learned that listening and in particular developing the patience to listen to the other side is my way of improving my capacity to store the information the other side is communicating to me and thus I have a better position to answer him. The other skill I improved this semester is my non-verbal communication thru body language. Although this was not a new concept for me, the complexities of the issues and the possible interpretations or misinterpretations of body language in a conversation made me give more attention to this aspect of the communication.

I think that at this point my best skill as a communicator is the ability to manage non-verbal communication. The use of body language, facial expression, eye contact, gestures, all these allow for the other party to have a better understanding of the message I am trying to convey. This semester has allowed me to further improve this skill and I believe this is a very important one particularly because it complements the way in which one addresses the issue of communication. Bad body language can trigger misunderstandings although maybe the spoken communication is trying to say a positive information. The non-verbal communication is also a means that connects the participants in a communication and this is why it is important to have good and proper knowledge of what it means and how to best use it in a communication. A crucial aspect in this sense is to be able to have a homogenous control over this skill because non-verbal communication is as important as verbal communication and it is part of the wider process of conveying messages. Therefore, proper attention should be given to this type of message transmission as well.