Self-Assessment
Communication is certainly an important aspect in one’s life, and its effective application to the people around you or to you ensures a smooth living. For instance, when you are in need of something or even assistance from someone, it is better if you have good communication qualities as they will enhance getting of help from others. Therefore, self-assessment is necessary to know, reflect, and rate the level of one’s personal skills and weaknesses in regards to communication or rather as a communicator. There are various communication contexts which include intrapersonal, interpersonal, intercultural, public, mass, small group, as well as personal and social media. These platforms of communication need to be observed and exercised to ensure that one is a good communicator. Although some of these contexts are more satisfying and comfortable in terms of communication proficiency, others are exemplified by avoidance, frustration, and even anxiety (Communication Contexts, n.d.).
Intrapersonal communication is the context of communication that happens within a particular person, or rather within us. It occurs regularly for the intention of expounding ideas or scrutinizing a certain situation. In other incidents, intrapersonal communication is carried out with the purpose of appreciating something or even reflecting upon something. In this context of communication, there are three features, namely expectation, perception, and self-concept. They majorly determine the effectiveness of intrapersonal communication someone has. Self-concept forms the basis of intrapersonal communication as it establishes how a character sees her/him and also how one is oriented to others. Self-concept commonly termed as self-awareness is composed of such factors as attitudes, values, and beliefs (Lister, n.d.).
This form of communication is extensively manifested in me in terms of being highly comfortable and competence when it comes to making use of it. I have strong beliefs on what is right or wrong. One of the high perceptions I have is that personal meditation is of importance as it helps one reflect on her/his life in terms of goals, future expectations, or life happenings. For instance, when I was in high school, before taking my final exams, I had an intense internal discourse which involved much meditation, thinking, and analyzing the future life I wanted. This phenomenon made me resolve to work hard in my final exams so that I pass them. The subsequent days, I worked extremely hard thus excelling in exams and joining college on my road to achieving success in life. This clearly shows a good and positive communication outcome which is still propelling my life to high prosperity.
Interpersonal communication is the form of communication which transpires between someone and his/her family members as well as friends. It involves direct one-to-one interaction between the communicator and the recipient of a message. Since the context of communication involves primacy and immediacy, it is typified by a strong feedback element. Communication is improved when the correlation between the parties exists over a lengthy span of time. Moreover, this form of communication makes use of various nonverbal elements with the aim of influencing, helping, and discovering as well as sharing and playing together (Brooks, & Emmert 1976).
My interpersonal communication pattern within my family implies that in the conversation between my parents and me, sometimes I am not comfortable and competent since I am not that free compared to them. I tend to be open to my friends, thus I tend to tell them about any problem I face even if the people supposed to help me solve it are my parents. Once, while I was in high school, my class teacher warned me to get my hair cut but I did not have money to attend the barber shop. I declined to borrow money from my parents, and this made me get kicked out of class the following day due to not heeding the teacher’s warning.
Intercultural communication is the type of communication which occurs between individuals of diverse ethnicity and cultures. The globe is gradually becoming an international village as each nation has citizens of diverse ethnicities. Personally, I have remarkable competency and comfy as a communicator in relations to dealing with intercultural communications. I am able to convey a great sense of communication effectiveness and appropriateness in situations of varied cultural contexts (Münchow, 2012).
I have adeptness to comprehend language pragmatics, for instance, how to make use of courtesy strategies in passing through requests or how to evade conveying a lot of information. Other traits that boost my competency include adaptability, sensitivity, open-mindedness, mindfulness/reflectiveness, as well as flexibility.
For instance, while in my first year in college, a certain Asian teacher joined our class to teach us human psychology. I warned my classmates to avoid disagreeing or contradicting with her while she was teaching. Nevertheless, it was not long before some students conflicted with her view which made her really mad as she termed them as being disrespectful. My advice puzzled many as they were astonished how I had known that such activities would infuriate her; in response, I told them to try and recognize other people’s cultures as well as nationalities.
The incident where my class teacher threw me out of class because of not adhering to what he wanted put me in a thinking disclosure on my interpersonal communication with my parents as it cost me a lot in terms of missing classes for a whole day. Moreover, I possess strong personal values and beliefs. For instance, the power of meditation, prayers, and contemplation have influenced a lot my intrapersonal communication whereas the values of acknowledging and respecting other people’s culture, religion, race, ethnicity, and sex has always kept me happy and eager to be engaged in intercultural communication with other people.
For us to communicate, express ourselves, pass our thoughts across, and bond with the one we are speaking with, we have to make use of language so as to enable communication. In our daily lives, we work and meet with people bearing needs, beliefs, and values that are different from our own. Therefore, we ought to possess good communication skills which will assist us in exchanging ideas with others, solving problems, as well as understanding other peoples’ perspectives. These skills include critical thinking skills, language skills, conversational skills, self-awareness skills, conflict management skills, and listening skills amongst others.
I possess various communication assets, for instance, my strongest skills are listening skills whereby while communicating with someone, I always remain patient, focused, and paying attention when waiting for the person to finish what he\she was explaining before joining in and maybe making a comment or posing a question. Also, I highly perceive both verbal and nonverbal messages as I have developed the skills of comprehending nonverbal communication aspects like facial expressions, gestures, and postures.
Self-awareness skills which are commonly known as self-concept skills are much manifested in me as I have great extent of values and beliefs. They help me to competently maintain communication with other people regardless of their ethnic backgrounds, races, origin, religion as well as sex. I have strong basic personal course towards what is good or bad, true or false, and this gives me the perspective on how to handle the person I am communicating with (Communication Contexts,n.d.).
Conflict management skills are those which are needed to be applied in times of agreements while communicating with someone. These skills which include adaptability, sensitivity, open-mindedness/reflectiveness, and flexibility are highly useful to counter an argument gone sour or even a misunderstanding. I usually employ them when faced with such a situation. Sometimes, I am weak when dealing with continually adamant people who are not flexible and accommodative to other peoples’ ideas which throw off balance the conflict management skills (Münchow, 2012).
Conclusion
The relationship with my parents in terms of communicating needs to be worked on. Thus, throughout this term, I have put up the goals to improve my interpersonal communication skills. I would enhance this form of communication by creating a close long-standing relationship between them and me. Also, I would extend my open-mindedness to them which with time will increase my confidence and trust while communicating with them.
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