My name is aleks.
A brief intro about me:
I am 22 years old. I am a level 10 acrobatic gymnast. (If you want to know what that is, ask me, I'd love to show you what I do. You'll be impressed, I promise.) I am russian. I love being with people who make me laugh. I love to read Harry Potter. I love asian foods. This summer SJSU is taking me to Peru, and in Spring 09 I will be studying in Bath, England.
Those are what come up at the top of my head.
A topic I enjoyed reading in the first 3 chapters of the book was chapter 3. Nonverbal communication is fascinating to me. I realized that we use it very often, but I did not realize how much more there is to it. I did not realize, for example, that things we cannot control are part of nonverbal communication. Walking down the street, people see me go by, and the fact that I have white skin, brown hair, etc, these things all communicate something about me. Whether these things communicate the truth are irrelevant. For example, anyone would assume I am an average American, born in the US, because I am white and look like a typical American. But in truth I was born in Russia, and still speak the language. The point still stands though that regardless of the truth, people see me on the street, and my appearance tells them things about me.
I also found interesting reading the part on physical attractiveness. How we gravitate towards attractive people. How the assumptions we make about people, are more positive assumptions about attractive people than not. It is sad the way this works, but we all do it. One of my favorite comedians says something along the lines of, "If you have to release bad news to the public, it would help if you are not ugly." And this is only funny because it is true! The book talks about how people gravitate towards attractive people because we assume they have more good qualities. How unfair is that! But we all follow this social norm. What is interesting though is that the book says that a lot of the time, people get these good characteristics because people think they have them. The example the book gave is that attractive people have more social skills because people think they do, so they approach them more, and they have more practice in developing better social skills. It is a vicious cycle!
Thats all for today. Im about to go take this week's quiz. Wish me luck!!
-Aleks
3 comments:
Aleks, what a great photo! Looks scary to those of us who aren't level 10 acrobatic gymnasts. You make several good points about nonverbal messages and interpersonal communication. One aspect of online classes I like is that (at least with text-based communication) participants can't judge each other based on physical appearance.
Oh thanks on the comment about the photo :)
Thats a level 7 skill though .. so what I usually do is even cooler. I just put that pic up because I like skill with the mountain top background. If you want to see what the skills I do look like, let me know, I'll show them off any day.
-Aleks
Gee, if only ballerinas could do half the things gymnists could do, I would be content! Anywho, I'm so jealous that you get to study abroad. I would love to maybe go to Japan or Italy one day and just be able to study the culture. I took French for 3 years in high school and unfortunately, I don't remember any of it=(.
I enjoyed your comments about chapter 3. I still yet have to read it, but you bring up a very good point as to how nonverbal communication is uncontrollable. I work at the bank as a personal banker and nonverbal communication is one of our main ways of communicating with one another. My coworkers and I will engage in eye contact in order to let each other know what the other person is thinking. I find it amazing sometimes as to how another person can connect with another person without verbal communication. This is why I'm a Communications major!!
Well, I hope you're having fun in Peru! TTYL!
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