According to the Oxford Dictionary, communication is defined as “the imparting or exchanging of information”. While this definition may be simple, in effort to fully understand the subject is much more complex. Effective interpersonal communication centers around the concept that language directly reflects and shapes perspectives. In order to highlight the intricacies involved during dual perspective communication, I dissected a conversation between a close friend and I. Further analyzing the overall conversation allowed me to understand the power of language and the prominence of nonverbal cues. In this course, we recently discussed the symbolic nature of language. The English language is composed of hundreds of thousands of individual words which represent different symbols. These symbols are “arbitrary, ambiguous, and abstract representations of other phenomena” (Wood, 105). Words have the ability to change over time, which sometimes makes communicating with different generations especially difficult. Furthermore, words can provide different messages depending upon a receiver’s gender, social and cultural backgrounds. Fortunately, during my conversation, I didn’t experience any miscommunications regarding word choice. My friend, Payal, and I have been very close for almost a decade. We were born …show more content…
It reassures the sender that their messages are important. Facial interactions are key in immediate responsiveness. When I was discussing potential graduate schools, Payal was extremely engaging. Her phone was in her purse, eye-contact was locked onto me, and she kept reassuring me by nodding frequently. However, when I discussed the Spring Break trip, Payal began squirming through her purse, she slowly became less aware of what I was discussing. I think this served as a defense mechanism primarily due to the fact I was employing “you language” and shifting the blame upon