{"id":16059,"date":"2018-06-13T09:00:11","date_gmt":"2018-06-13T16:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=16059"},"modified":"2018-06-12T11:03:10","modified_gmt":"2018-06-12T18:03:10","slug":"communication-error-the-importance-of-nonverbal-communication","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2018\/06\/13\/communication-error-the-importance-of-nonverbal-communication\/","title":{"rendered":"Communication Error<\/em>: The importance of nonverbal communication"},"content":{"rendered":"

Imagine a bird, or a plane. Now, everyone has a different image in their head of what a bird looks like (or maybe you\u2019re just picturing Superman). Yet, everyone knows the definition of a bird, of a plane, and what they are. So, why would everyone have different representations of the \u201csame\u201d word?<\/p>\n

When we take language for granted, we lose sight of why we created language to begin with: to assist us. On the one hand, we have taken words\u2014\u201cabstract\u201d things\u2014and created \u201creal\u201d cities and structures that would never exist if we couldn\u2019t communicate with each other. On the other hand, a picture is worth 1,000 words, as words cannot always paint pictures we wish to illustrate.<\/p>\n

To say that a word\u2019s meaning\u2014or, rather, its intended meaning\u2014lies in the dictionary would be foolish. How one person understands an idea in their head varies, sometimes drastically. But we all have a tacit agreement that we understand each other.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Communication Error<\/em> is a column in every issue of Nexus<\/em> looking at communication issues.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To combat this, the social sciences define a term before conducting research or before a discussion begins so that everyone is clear on the definition. Unfortunately, this does not happen in everyday life.<\/p>\n

An example I\u2019m sure you can easily recall is a movie scene where the main character is in a foreign land communicating with a non-English-speaking character, waving and continuously flipping through a phrase book. Eventually, they end up pointing to an object or symbol and they come to understand each other without the use of a common language.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Have you ever sat through a lecture, listening to a professor, thinking to yourself, in effect, \u201cWhat on Earth are they speaking, Latin?\u201d However, after this dumbfounding, suddenly a diagram or visual aid is presented in front of you, and\u2014boom!\u2014it makes sense.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Last month, I mentioned that the amount of information we communicate doesn\u2019t always end up helping in terms of better communication. For example, you have just bought a new bed and you are reading the step-by-step instructions on how to put it together, but, as detailed as they are, you give up in frustration and walk away (don\u2019t sweat it; we\u2019ve all been there).<\/p>\n

Rather than accomplishing your goal, chances are you blamed yourself or the company for making such ridiculous instructions. You stumble upon a YouTube video of someone building a similar bed, and it makes perfect sense. So, you go back and finish building your new bed. Those instructions could have had every detail written down and most of us would still need help. Why is that? Verbal and written communication is stressed in everyday life, and nonverbal observations are less stressed but are key to how we learn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Imagine a bird, or a plane. Now, everyone has a different image in their head of what a bird looks like (or maybe you\u2019re just picturing Superman). Yet, everyone knows the definition of a bird, of a plane, and what they are. So, why would everyone have different representations of the \u201csame\u201d word? When we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15938,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,212],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-columns","category-june-13-2018"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16059"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16059\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16060,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16059\/revisions\/16060"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}