Kissing

There are many types of non-verbal communication. It can be divided into two different forms which are communication without touching and involved touching in the non-verbal communication. Kiss is considered as an example of communicative touch. What is kiss? A kiss is the touching of one person’s lips to another place.

Different types of non-verbal communication can have different types of meaning. Therefore, same thing apply to kiss. Actually, kissing different parts of a person can mean different things. For examples, kissing on the hand means that there is the friendship between both of you. Furthermore, parents will kiss their children’s forehead to comfort them or to show their love to them.

The meaning of kissing can be varying not only which part of the person that is being kiss by others but also influenced by the culture. To illustrate, kissing between two men in the modern Western culture is common and not consider sexual. This can be a way to greet others. However, if we practice this action in our country, I am wondering how others are going to say about this. If two men are kissing in the public, others might think that both of them are gay or abnormal. So, culture may be one of the factor that influenced how others accept or reject kissing in their own countries.

Songs

Are we hearing to music or listening to music? This is what I wondering the most. Sometimes, when I listen to a song, normally I don’t remember the lyrics of that song but just hearing what the melody it is. Is this considered hearing or listening? I don’t know.

However, sometimes I do remember the lyrics of a song. But, it always happened whenever the lyrics of the song really suit my mood and feeling at that moment, then I will listen carefully to the song. But, sometimes I can do my other stuff with the radio on and listen to a song also.

In addition, the lyrics and melody of a song can affect our mood and feeling when we listen to it. Maybe that time we are considered listening to the song but not hearing, because we attached not only meaning but also our feeling to the songs.

In conclusion, I like to listen to the songs.

Listening VS Hearing

We often judge others on the first sight. Then, we will have a lot of either good or bad impression about the person in our mind. This can actually affect our communication with the person because within a communication, we will have to speak to the person or listen to what he/she says.

And this can be very irrational. When we don’t like a person, we will often shut our ears automatically without trying to listen what the person says. This happened to me every time. When I am in a bad mood, I will definitely keep quiet and refuse to communicate to others.

Moreover, what others tell me, I will just simply hearing what they say but not truly listen to them. Hearing is totally different with listening. By hearing, I am just only hear what the person say and nod or shake my head without really wanted to answer them. Or sometimes, I will just ignore what they had said. However, with listening, it is really need effort to understand and respond to them.

In conclusion, if I really want to become a good listener, I may be putting more effort to listen what others say. And I should not act prematurely without really listen what did others said. I want to become a competence listener.

Smile

When there's gloom and doom all around us, what do we do to make ourselves feel better? We smile of course! Yes, by just simply contracting those cheek muscles of ours, the world would just seem like a better place in an instant.

Smiling is one the simplest forms of non verbal communication known to mankind. Studies have shown that by merely smiling, our bodies would release feel-good hormones within us akin to when a laugh is being made. This in turn leads to us feeling a sense of satisfaction and joy whenever we do it.

A smile can also do wonders in a situation when someone is really sad or depressed, as it is contagious as well healing both at the same time. There is just something in us all that makes us feel great whenever we see other people, even strangers, that smile whenever we catch a glimpse of it on their faces.

Meanings of a WORD

Language is a verbal symbol system that allows us to take messages and utterances, in the form of words, and translate them into meaning. Besides, the meaning of a word or language is not depends on the word, but is rather in the way that people make sense of it.

Yesterday during my critical thinking skill tutorial, we were asked to get into a group of three. Then, we asked to give definitions of eight different words. The most difficult word that we came across was “blues”. Normally the meaning of “blues” that we commonly know is the word is use to describe the color of the cloudless sky.

However, during our discussion, we were almost argued for the meaning of the word. This is because “blues” can actually have a lot of different meanings. For examples, it can use to describe the feeling of depression. It can also use to show unexpectedly. Beside this word, the “dog” means “a canine creature that brings love and warmth to a human family”. On the other hand, it can also carry a totally opposite extreme meaning which is use to describe something that is worthless or of poor quality, a despicable person, or an ugly person. Maybe in different situation, we can use the word “dog” to describe a person that you dislike other than just use to describe a lovely pet.

In conclusion, the meanings of a word are in people, and it is depend on when and where is the situation it should be used rather than on the word itself.

To la or not to la

I met this friend of mine a few months back in college. He was a foreign student from Dubai studying the same course as me. Whenever a conversation between him and a typical Malaysian student begins, he would have this sort of perplexed look on his face, as if he couldn't quite understand what was being said. I've always wondered why this was the case.

So out of curiosity, I went on to ask him why? The answer that he gave turned out to be a complete surprise to me. It actually turns out that 'typical' Malaysian student would almost always add a "la" behind every sentence. For example, "Why are you doing this la!", or "I'll give the file tomorrow la." or, "Let's go eat la.". This becomes very confusing for my poor friend as back home, "la" actually means "no". That meant for every single day of his life here in Malaysia, he's been hearing us Malaysians saying "No" to every sentence we speak! All this would explain why he would sometimes look lost in our conversations.

Fortunately after a few months later, he has gotten the hang of this local slang of ours, and it seems that he is beginning to master its infectious properties. Now, he would freely spray a string of "la's" in his conversation with Malaysians. This just goes to show that whenever there's a need to blend into society, humans will always find ways to do it eventually~la!

The Beautiful Game

One of the most popular game in the world, football. Played almost everywhere at anytime, from the bushland of Australia, to the back alleys of Paris, even in the humble kampungs of Malaysia. It is a game that breaks down the social barriers of society and has the uncanny ability to unify people irregardless of race and creed. Not to mention, it is also a sport that truly epitomises the human expression of emotions.

Ever notice that whenever a conversation about football begins, fans would often refer to their favourite team with words like 'our team', such as 'our team thrashed your team yesterday'. Is is this sort of close association with their favourite team that really brings about a sense of unity amongst fans of the sport. A true fan would travel half the world just to watch their team play, cheer their team on when they are losing, jump for joy like a maniac whenever a goal is scored, fans can be so loyal even to the extent of crying when their team loses and in extreme cases, committing suicide when the loss becomes unbearable.

The amount of affiliation that the fans have over their team, combine with the pride and joy of being associated with them, is just a very basic human need of being recognized. Man, since time immemorial has always wanted to be the 'nail that sticks out'. By being able to associate themselves with their team, they can in a way, indirectly attain a sense of belonging while getting recognition all at the same time.

This feeling of belonging, is further exemplified by the players on the pitch. Many of them play for their teams with their hearts on their sleeves, often, they would literally put their heads in the line of duty while playing for their team when clearing a goal bound shot or just to make sure possession of the ball doesn't fall to the opposition. However, the proof that both players and fans alike are 'one with their team' is clearly showed for all to see. That is whenever a winning goal is scored. The eruption of emotions that precedes it is just mind-boggling! At times, 90 minutes of pure compressed tension just waiting for that winning goal pops when the ball is put behind the net by a player. The ecstasy of seeing the players and fans alike celebrating, full of passion and desire is really a sight to behold and goes on to prove that football, truly is The Beautiful Game.

On Top of the World

Now, I'm actually a very visual-oriented individual, which is why I normally try to blog using pictures or using a minimal amount of words. As the subject requires me to write blogs in essay form, I can't help but oblige. I will, however, use images in my posts as points of reference.

Perception is all about how people see things differently than how they are, or how others see it.

I find this picture very amazing, and the artist very creative and calculative. The lady appears to be posing atop the letter 'W', held up by a man more than ten times her size; whilst at close inspection, the lady is in fact laying on the ground some distance away from the man, and that the 'World' is painted across the ground, creating a very realistic illusion that the people here actually appear to be part of the painting, or that the painting is actually part of reality.

The picture can also be seen as a play with words, or a pun. With the lady laying on the letter 'W' from the word 'World', you could say that the lady is on top of the 'world'.

Perception

Normally, we tend to assume that others are similar to us. This was what I did last day. I thought that others will be scared of cockroach too.

I got an hour and half of break after my human communication class yesterday. After that, I went to toilet that is near to sr7 room with my friend, May. When we were washing our hands inside the toilet, suddenly, I saw a big and scary cockroach crawling on the wall in front of me beside the mirror. By instinct, I screamed as loud as I could. “Ah!!!!!” shouted out loudly.

I almost ran out quickly from the toilet while May was just walking out of the toilet calmly. I was so shocked and asked her why don’t she feel frightened or anything about the cockroach. I tried to explain to her how scary and dirty the cockroach was but she seems like doesn’t matter. For her, cockroach is just a small insect that does not harm at all. For me, I was just too bombastic with the small creatures while my friend did not think or feel the way I do.

Maybe by prejudice, I just commonly imagine that others possess the same hates to cockroach as I do. Instead, not everyone will be frightened of cockroach as I do.

Type of communications

This is the second week of my Human Communication lesson. I think I had got a brief introduction about communication and how a better communication can be constructing. Besides found that the lesson which we had on last Thursday during our tutorial class was quite interesting. I still remembered that during last tutorial class, we were required to do a simple presentation about the noun we got and related it to what we had learnt during the lectures.

Unfortunately, the noun that we had was "DOORKNOB". When we got this noun, we were started to think about this noun in our mind. We started to ask ourselves about questions like "What can we say about doorknob?" and "Isn't that a doorknob is just a non-living things and how it can be related to human communication?" and during that time an intrapersonal communication had took place. While others were still thinking quietly about the noun, I and Xin Yi started to have a dyadic communication that involved only two of us. I asked her about the topic and both of us had tried to make a story that is relevant to our course.

Then, our group started to discuss about the topic. At that moment, a small group communication had carried out. Everyone contributed their own opinion about "doorknob" and at last we had an idea about the presentation. We were the first group to present. While we were presenting, other groups were required to listen and debate on our topic. A public communication was taking place when we talked about our topic in front of everyone. There were about six groups presented and they had made it successfully.
In conclusion, I found that different types of communications can take place at everywhere and every time. Besides, the tutorial class was interesting. We can carry out different types of communications during the class. I look forward to next human communication class.