In the classroom

I have been on both sides of the classroom. I have been a substitute teacher, and of course a student. The classroom interaction is a very interesting. It does change from grade to grade though. Usually the younger kids have the instilled manors and still use the polite terms of “yes mam, and no sir”.  As kids get older the respect tends to disappear and the want to learn goes with it. By the time a person gets to the end of high school they can usually see a light at the end of the tunnel, and they either try hard or work hard, or they don’t care anymore. The college scene is so different. Many of the people in college have a goal and want to be there. I have noticed that a lot of the students treat the staff with the same teacher respect; however, there are some who think they are pears with the teachers and some of the things that are said to them, in my opinion, are completely inappropriate. 

Judgie McJudgerton, from Judgesterville

Yes, it is possible to perceive others without judging them, but it is a very rare quality to have.  Most people make judgments within seconds of meeting a person, or even talking on the phone with them.  I have lived in many different states and all over the world, and when I live in a place long enough, I tend to pick up the mannerisms of the local people.  For instance when I lived in Georgia, I picked up a southern accent, but when I came back to California on vacation and was introduced to new people, I was perceived as uneducated solely on my accent.  Or here’s another one… I am a ranch girl, grew up on a ranch, drive a large truck, have horses, pigs, sheep, goats, etc., and because of this I get the stereo type of “stupid hick”. It doesn't matter that it takes a lot of work to run a ranch, or that they may not know me, but people like to judge, it’s our culture.

I think it’s a matter of teaching our children not to be judgmental.  For a lot of us it’s too late, we already have the bad habit, but we can teach the young.  I am sure I am not the best example, as I have been judged a lot, and even now I tend to judge people and places regularly, but I hope I can instill the patience in my children not to be as judgmental as I am, and maybe as the generations go on, it can get better.

We all translate differently...

2). Do you agree that men and women use language differently?  In what areas?  Discuss this in detail.

Yes, I do believe men and women use language differently.  Men say what they mean and mean what they say; while women tend to fluff things up, and think about what they say before they say it. There is also a tone in a woman’s voice that makes her voice comforting and sympathetic, while most men’s voices are gruff and stern.

When my husband and I are talking to people we can say close to the same thing to the same person, but if it’s a male person they tend to understand him better, and if it’s a woman they tend to understand me better.  It’s all in the delivery of what it said. My husband always says that I take too long to tell a story, yet when telling the same story to my friends the girls want all the details. There are so many differences in the way we communicate, that there are books upon books on the subject. 

The bottom line is most men like the short, sweet, and to the point version of whatever it is being discussed to make a logical decision; while, most women want details so they can make a logical/ emotional decision with that “I feel good about this decision” feeling in their gut. Our brains understand things differently, and one way is no more right than the other, just different. 

The Great and Powerful OZ

Public Speaking is a gift and power in one, kind of like a superpower of a superhero. Even if all we do is write our opinion down on a blog, if we can be inspirational for a good cause, it’s all worth it! Everyone can post on YouTube, and become a public speaker, it only matters what you do with this power. The written word, is the power, and when spoken becomes the “great and powerful OZ”.

Some people think that it’s only the political people who have influence, but it’s not only them. How many of us remember a “lecture” given to us by our parents, grandparents, and when we got bigger our teachers, and close friends who knew when we were being self destructive.  Those “speeches” were just as influential as the big ones on TV, or radio but by not as famous people. Be the one to be supportive and help your friends make good decisions.

The Way we speak

So I Googled well-known and inspirational speakers just to be sure I haven't forgotten anybody and I found something interesting. I found that the top 100 inspirational speeches were all given by either presidents, vice presidents, or other highly influential political people. I find it completely entertaining that according to American Rhetoric the top 100 speeches are all political. I am not a very political person, and I would rather do just about anything instead of listening to a political speech. According to the Premiere Speakers Bureau, the top 10 famous speakers are all "famous" people who speak about either fitness, health related success, or making money. Why is it that when I went to look for and inspirational speaker or at least a speaker who does not put me to sleep, I find speakers who want to tell me how to "better myself", "make money", or "get healthy"? Are there no speakers who, want to tell the truth, and entertain at the same time? Honestly, the speakers that I like, are the ones who tell things like they are, and don't use a lot of  large words, I would require a dictionary to understand. I don't know if he would be considered a well-known speaker, but I really like to listen to poetry by Taylor Mali. He is an elementary school teacher, who does poetry. He tells his stories, and at the very least appears to be honest.  Yes, he is on the better side of the cuteness scale, but his tone of voice is what hooks me.  Most of his poetry is about teaching, so the fact that he is a teacher gives him that credibility. Mostly what I like is his way to grab the audience and make us all feel like we are parents of his students, or teachers in the break room chattin' it up, and he is telling it like it is! To me his Ethos is his honesty.

Pride, Knowledge and Honesty

There is a "story teller" on TED TV called ChiAmandaAdichie. She is from Nigeria, and she tells the story "The Danger of the Single Story".  It is taped in July 2009. She does not claim to be great, or over confident, she just tells her story, and that's what I like about her.  When I took an English class in the summer of 2011 my fabulous instructor gave us the link to this speech. I had never really thought about how I wrote, or what influenced me when I wrote, but the way this woman speaks with passion and dedication, I can only hope to speak this well the public setting. I also like Alix Olson: "America's On Sale" and Def Poetry - Taylor Mali - "What Teachers Make" or "Totally like whatever, you know" (you can find these on YouTube!).  The thing that these speakers all have in common is confidence. They can walk out on stage, and within 5 seconds analyze the crowd, and produce their speech in a way that radiates a welcoming, and confident tone in their voice. These speakers left an imprint with me deep enough they and their 5 to 10 min. video clips I have remembered them to this day. I don't really remember the worst speaker never heard, probably because they weren't worth remembering. The speaker has to be confident, without being arrogant and standoffish. They have to be knowledgeable, believable, and have a sense of pride to be truthful.

It's a small world after all

Even in a social constructionist environment words for objects are built through the finders/inventors selfishness and need for recognition, or complete non-understanding of the language to misinterpret a word. Words are then transferred from word dialect to word dialect and interpreted into language. Even within the United States there are several subcultures call the same item by different names. For instance in southern states such as Georgia and Louisiana what Californians would call a shopping cart they referred to as a buggy, or maybe a better description would be here in California a can of Mountain Dew is referred to as a "soda", but in most southern states it would be referred to as a "pop". That doesn't mean either one is right or wrong, it just means that different cultures referred to different items in different ways. We talked about videogames in everyday conversation and use words that in cultures without the influence of media and video games would not even exist. Even between slightly similar modern cultures things that we talked about here may be considered taboo in other cultures, and vice versa here. Just because we sometimes forget how big the world truly is, doesn't mean that's not a small world after all.

Do you expect a payoff?

Payoffs, we are all in for the payoffs. How is it that we as a society think that whatever we do needs to have a payoff at the end. Okay so maybe it's not necessarily a monetary form, but how many people do you know spend the time and energy on a situation without getting some form of pay off. It may be recognition, a promotion, an award, or flat-out fame. Humans as a species are selfish creatures. There are very few out there who will say something or do something without subconsciously thinking "what's in it for me". When the book refers to payoffs under patterned communication I was intrigued. It was almost like validation for a comment I already knew the answer to. The book is right, communication is like a game. If there wasn't a way to better the game, nobody would want to play. This is why there is an, employment field, and educational institutions completely dedicated to communications. Ironically both of those have natural payoffs.

It's all fun and games until somebody gets hurt

Saying that the pragmatic perspective makes sense is a totally opinionated viewpoint. History is been proven to repeat itself over and over again and therefore we tend to repeat ourselves and our behaviors over and over again. I believe that humans are creatures of habit, and with habits come patterned interactions. So to me, yes, it does make sense to think of communication as patterned interaction. If you think of communication like a game of soccer; the ball is the words, and the players are having communications. They communicate verbally as well as nonverbally with each other, but also with the environment around them. If the team communicates effectively they win, if not well we get picture. Communication is different from a game, because at the end of the day words have been said, gestures given, and posture received; but, none of it can be erased. There are no "do overs" once something has been said it cannot be retracted, or forgotten. 

Source Credibility

In this week’s reading it talks about “Communication Today: Contemporary Departments of Rhetoric and Communication Theory”.  This section was interesting to me as a whole.  There were not many key terms within this reading, but the one that stuck out the most to me was source credibility. Source credibility is the extent to which a communicator is considered believable and competent (Trenholm 11).  There are many things in life that catch our attention, a pretty girl walking down the street, a buff guy on a construction site, even a cute child playing in the park, but as soon as any of those people said a statement that the listener deemed to be untrue, or non-credible the listener would tune them out. The extent to which we pay attention to a speaker almost always depends on how believable they are and how much research we, as a listener, believe them to have done prior to the conversation or speech.  If an orator sited a doctor in a research study, the audience would probably count that as a credible source, but if the same orator sited the same doctor for a speech on how to build a playground, the source would no longer be credible.  It all depends on speech content as to what would be credible source. "We sit silently and watch the world around us. This has taken a lifetime to learn. It seems only the old are able to sit next to one another and not say anything and still feel content. The young, brash and impatient, must always break the silence. It is a waste, for silence is pure. Silence is holy. It draws people together because only those who are comfortable with each other can sit without speaking. This is the great paradox."
— Nicholas Sparks (The Notebook)

Favorite Speaker

I think my favorite speakers are comedians like, Jeff Foxworthy, Larry The Cable Guy, and Bill Engvall.  Yes, I know they do not always grasp the sophisticated ideals of an orator, but they speak and tell stories with a confidence and demeanor that radiates from them. The stories they tell, may not be true, but have some truth behind them.  It's all about the confidence. I feel that they feed off the atmosphere of the audience. They are not necessarily going for a Logos, or Ethos feeling, but more of Pathos. I feel that I am an "ok" speaker. I try to speak with confidence and portray truth in what I say.  In my mind I am a believable and honorable person, and I would hope that when I speak, people feel I am believable and trustworthy.  I can’t imagine going up and giving a speech or presentation and walking away with the feeling that the audience was disappointed or that they that the audience distrusted me. I am a very logical thinker, and therefore I tend to give presentations that are logically based.

Morality Vs. Speakers

Although I would like to think that if someone is speaking to the public in an open forum, that they are morally good, and ethically sound, but I know this is just not true in all forums.   I think there are people in the world (mostly politicians) who need to be condemned to caves, or other locations that seclude them from the general public. I understand the 1st Amendment right to free speech, but if the only thing that comes out of the speakers mouth is horse pucky and garbage than what's the point.  I think that there are plenty of orators out there in the world trying to make the world a better place that the ones that are out there to fill people's heads with rubbish need to be silenced. 

I also believe that for a person to be able to make a reasonable and rational decision they need to be educated on a subject in a truthful manor; not a one sided, half truth, emotionally heart wrenching, but probably believable as the whole story, education.  If a speaker is confident and quick on their feet with the "right" answer, it is not that hard to fool an uneducated person. 

So, morally good is in the eye of the audience.  I can hope for this to be a fact, but unfortunately I know it to be false. In today's society all that one needs to be an orator is a "believable" story and enough uneducated people backing them to convince others that the orators "story" is true.