Interpersonal Communication

First, I just want to say it is great being a part of this LILTDY class! I am already enjoying it and I cannot wait to see where it is going to take me from here.

In the first lesson we talked about first impressions and focused mainly on handshakes. What makes a good handshake? Brief, warm, firm! I thought this was an interesting way to introduce interpersonal communication. A simple thing like a handshake can mean a lot in terms of communicating with someone whether it is for the first time or not. I do not come from a 'handshake culture' so I have no personal experience related to handshakes but it is understandable that depending on the sort of handshake you get, the impression of the person can change.

Being in many different cultures, I have seen and learnt different ways of greeting people and I think this also counts as a form of interpersonal communication. When I first moved to England, I was not familiar with the 'hugging' so I may have seemed a little cold in that I was not responding to their greetings properly. My friend pointed out that my hugs were too weak and I felt bad even though she was only joking! I think cultural differences cause communication difficulties because interpersonal communication relies largely on nonverbal language, and they vary across cultures.

The article on social intelligence seems to prove that there is a connection between social behaviour and communication. It is interesting that there is a scientific reason for this and I believe that a person can be affected by the social behaviour of another. It always used to happen that whenever I was in a mood, my whole family would become somewhat gloomy. It is all to do with the atmospheric communication which is precisely what social behaviour is about. This was an example where the outcome was negative but as it says in the article, the idea of social behaviour can be used to good effect like leadership.

As we look further into interpersonal communication, I hope to understand what it truly means to be a successful leader and try to acquire the social skills needed in order to cooperate effectively in society.