Communication-week 4: Who am I as a Communicator?

After doing all kinds of assessments, I perceived myself according to my own standard of what a effective communicator  appeared to me.  Then I reviewed two persons' assessments on me. I found that I felt somewhat insulted for being placed in "significant" on Verbal Aggression Scale. It made me feel like I've worked so hard in improving how I argue the cases with others in appropriate way seem trivial.

However, I realized that this person may not change his/her perception of me, because he/she may already "set up" a certain perception of me based on the first impression. What does it take to change one's perception of me is an important question. This had gotten me to reconsider how I communicate with others. I am becoming much more aware of how others react to my communication approaches.

I am hoping to improve my communication styles in different areas so that I could continue being an effective communicator for everyone including myself.

Communication--Week 3

I acknowledge that I communicate with people differently according to their ability to understand the expressions I use to explain my ideas or thoughts. Also, I become aware that I am communicating with others who come from different backgrounds differently, because I put addition efforts in avoiding appear insensitive toward others.

As a case manager, I communicate with over 30 clients who have a wide range of mental health, mental disorders, and emotional disorders. Their abilities to receive and express vary at a greater scale. On my job, I always try to communicate at clients' comprehensive level.

If I am communicating with my colleagues or supervisors, I communicate differently. I communicate at much more professional level than I would with my circle of friends. What is even more--I communicate differently with deaf peers than I would with hearing peers based on culture tendencies.

There are three strategies that I learned this week, which would help me become effective communicator. First, one strategy is to remember to treat others the way I want to be treated. Second, gain my perception of self and of others by learning and relearning about culture, diversity, and my being. Third, use active listening skill to gain my competency as effective communicator. These strategies are on-going and reusable.

Communication--Week 2

For this blog activity, I decided to watch a movie called Jane Eyre and analyze the communication style. There are two main characters: Jane Eyre and Mr. Rochester.

Jane Eyre, a young and twenties-something woman, had gone through tragic ordeals through entire of her childhood and adolescence. She protected herself from others by remaining plain in clothing, speaking, nonverbal communication, and everything. She always stayed on guard. She set herself apart from others by wearing dull clothes (plain) and kept things to herself.

Mr. Rochester, forties-something man, was a father to a young girl. He was hungry for connection with a person. He was on emotional roller coaster, because his first wife had severe mental illness. He reached out through verbal constantly.

When Jane met Mr. Rochester, her body language reflected fear in Mr. Rochester's eyes. He attempted to converse with her, but she would not go pursue in-depth conversation. He read her eyes, body language, and clothing and was able to identify that Jane did not want to share her past with him.

To keep the story short and to the point, Jane and Mr. Rochester realized they were comfortable with each other based on the fact that she listened actively to him and he was able to read her. Naturally, they developed romantic feelings for one another.

As I watched the movie, I could "feel" their emotions and read their nonverbal communication before next event. I immediately knew these characters would bonded.  It was clear throughout the movie. It was easy to observe the eye contacts, the body language, and a few dropped hints such as how Jane rub her hands when she's around Mr. Rochester, and how Mr. Rochester became upset when Jane did not attend his parties on a few occasions.

The more I paid attention to the communication cues, the more I recalled the moments of my life that I probably did not realize when others needed me or did not want me. Now I need to pay much more attention on what messages I am sending out to others and watch for a response from others. Perhaps, I will find a proper way to interact with others.

What is Communication?

There is a good friend of mine who holds a position as a program director at Salisbury Behavioral Health, Inc.'s Deaf Services Center for Residential division.  She is a very competent communicator. These are the behaviors that exhibit an effective communicator:

1. She always remain neutral.
2. She maintains the tone (body language and verbal).
3. She listens actively.
4. She expresses clearly and carefully. She would rephrase her statements to ensure that others understood what she meant to say.
5. She gives people the feeling of security by showing that she cares for others.
6. She shows empathy toward others regardless what circumstances she is in at the moment.
7. Regardless how stressful the situation is, she always come out with a smile on her face.
8. She stays abreast on what is happening at her workplace.
9. She follows up with others to ensure that everything has worked out.

I think these behaviors are excellent qualities of an effective communicator. There are so much more qualities that can lead a person to be a effective communicator. I certainly would use nearly all of these behaviors, because these seem to draw others to a person.  We want people to feel secure around us so that we could help them.

Professional Hopes and Goals

As we are heading to the finish line of this course, I feel that I need to share with you of my hope and goal.

My hope is pretty much linked with promoting positive educational experiences for young deaf children, so that they can effectively work with others of different cultures. I hope also that young children of all races will mesh together fairly well, so that some day our world will turns a new face with much more harmony.

My goal is to expose the significant of diversity, equity, and justice to my undergraduate students who also are our future early childhood educators. These students are the next generation to carry the torch into the next generation.

Colleagues, I enjoyed studying and experiencing this riveting course along with you. I hope all of you continue to enjoy your journey--whether it may be in classroom or somewhere else.

Welcoming Families from Around the World

For this project, I would select a family from Burma. In order to be culturally responsive to the family from Burma, here is a list of what I would do to become culturally responsive.

1. I would research on Burma and its nation. This website is one of many useful sources: http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/35910.htm

2. I would perform a home visit with the burmese family to initiate the contact. For this visit, I would request for an interpreter if needed. This would give me an opportunity to interact with the family to gain my knowledge of Burma and its tradition.

3.  I would study Burmese language using different sources to become familiar with. Perhaps, I would learn a few basic words in Burmese to show courtesy. Here is one of sources that provide information on Brumese language:  http://www.omniglot.com/writing/burmese.htm

4. I would research about local events related to Burmese. Then attend several events to study and learn how people interact, taste their food, and meet new people whose origin is from Burma.  This website provides a list of events related to Burma in United States: http://burmese-community.blogspot.com/2011/04/2011-usbma-burmese-new-year-festival.html

5. One important part in studying Burma is to understand traditional behaviors such as male and female roles, so I can demonstrate respect toward their culture through behaving accordingly.

These venues in becoming culturally responsive should prepare me for initiate and first several encounters with the family. Hopefully, I would be able to extend the study into Early Childhood program by inviting the family to share their culture and developing a solid relationship with the family.  I believe that I would need to observe, interact, and use my five senses to learn about Burma in order to have a better idea of how to respond to the Burmese family in appropriate ways.

One last thing, the reason I selected Burma based on the fact that I grew up with a gentleman whose origin is Burma. He and I became close friend. I've always questioned him about his background, but he was too young to remember anything about Burma. The only thing he talked about was the Burmese food. In the picture above is a  picture of my friend and I when we were in eighth grade. I sat on the ground--front row first from the left.  My friend, JT who was born and raised in Burma for a short time before coming to America, knelt in second row--the first from the right.

Burma Flag:

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

My personal experience with bias, prejudice, and oppression has been an on-going journey. Experiencing it personally and witnessing oppression toward someone else are part of my life. I have also witnessed prejudice and oppression through many fiction books, television shows, and other medias.

Personal:

Oftentimes, I've been told I would not accomplish anything in life. Deafness is seen as a barrier in accessing to the language. Therefore, if I could not learn languages, I would not be able to learn anything. Obtaining a job is always a struggle. I have been rejected by employers because of my hearing ability. I've been questioned about my skills based on my hearing ability.

Witnessed someone else:

This young man is deaf and has several behavior disorders along with mental illness. Yet, he was bright and active.  I worked primarily with this young man. He asked me if he could take driver's education class. He wants to get driver's license. He really wanted to be like every other teenager. I encouraged him to try the class out. He was uncertain about how he is going to pass the class. My head-supervisor said he cannot take driver's education, because he's not bright and capable. I stood up to her and asked to give him the same treatment as every other teenager. He has to try and learn.  This is a sign of oppression between highly educated person and a person with mental illness.

Media---Switched at Birth:

This show is about two female teenagers (Daphne--deaf and Bay--hearing) who were switched at birth and discovered the switch as teenagers. One of the teenagers is deaf. This deaf person meets her biological parents. The biological parents automatically accused the mother for not preventing the child from becoming deaf. Then biological parents encouraged this teenager to get cochlear implant and be normal like them. They did not bother to recognize the wonderful person she is as a deaf person.

There is another character, Emmett, who is profoundly deaf since birth. He has deaf parents.Unexpectedly, he fell in love with Bay. Emmett's mother did not support Emmett's relationship with Bay because Bay is hearing and does not belong in Deaf community. The mother assumed that every hearing-deaf relationship is doom for failure. Emmett pointed out that his parents are deaf and getting divorced.

How one treats another removes the equality by lowering one's status in the society.  This is basically what we all experience at some point in our lives. When someone says that a deaf person needs to be fixed, the inequity comes through the identity.  This creates the feeling of being abnormal and possibly a identity crisis. 

From my experience, oppression and prejudice had always anger me. I used to "talk back" to others who degraded my identity, my being, my ability, and so on in different ways. I used to sign to someone who mocked me. Sometimes, I'd say, "watch me" and I'd accomplish.  

There were not many people who allied for me except for my parents, grandparents, and interpreters. Most of the time, I believe that my trait of being stubborn is what helped me getting through the obstacles. I knew what I was capable of, so I just endured everything to reach the goal. It seemed to be much more difficult as a teenager, and young adult than in my 30's. I am much more laid back now. Once in a while, I'll fiercely fight for equal rights. 

I would not change anything. I wouldn't be who I am if I had not gone through the obstacles, the struggles, and emotions. This had given me the opportunity to gain compassion for others even if oppression exhausts me.