Non-verbal actions

I was watching the History Channel a couple of days ago and it talked about people in our history and what non-verbal actions certain presidents and political figures did while giving speeches.  The one that stayed in my mind was when they were talking about Richard Nixon.  They said that to be effective in judging if people are acting out of the ordinary it is better to study them and see what it is that these people would consider normal non-verbal actions for the president.  The part that they showed was when Nixon was answering questions from reporters regarding the Watergate Scandal.  In this the reporter asked Nixon a question and
Nixon put his hands behind his back as if he was open for questions and suggestions, but then on further review they saw that he was also rubbing his hand with the other, this the communication experts said was him comforting himself or reassuring himself to the questions.  The next part of this show that stuck out in my mind was when they said that many of political people were coached in nonverbal responses.  This part showed Hillary Clinton giving a speech and after she was done and the crowd was cheering she pointed into random parts of the crowd, and even though she did not know anyone in the crowd where she was pointed and saying "thank you," it made the crowd feel like she was talking right to them because they did not know who exactly she was talking to.  These examples were just the one that stuck out in my mind the most because I  thought it was very interesting and I learned quite a bit from these especially that the political people were so coached on nonverbal and verbal responses.

Poor communication skills

One of my professors at the college that I am currently attending has by far the worst communication and public speaking skills I have ever heard.  This particular professor is my math teacher, which I really do not like math and would prefer not to be there.  This teacher will stand in front of the class and instantly when he gets up there his face turns as red as a tomato, then he goes on to say um and uhh several times before he starts sounding something like this "umm uhh ummm ok uh today um the uh lesson is uh umm about uuuhhhhhhhh probability umm." This goes on for the whole class period and really is hard to listen to for an hour and twenty minutes.  Originally I thought that he had a really bad fear of public speaking and being in front of a room full of people, but after trying to talk to him after a test right before spring break he showed me that his communication skills are very minimal communication skills even from one person to another. 

Chapter 4 Listening

In communications 104, we were told to find times when something in our environment distracted us with seven different terms to talk about.  The terms were environmental distraction, medium distraction, source distraction, factual diversion, semantic diversion, content listening and selective listening.  So here are a few times in my past that these have played a role in my listening or not listening. 
The first one, environmental listening happens very often as a matter of fact, such as when I am in the car with my brother or someone else they like to have the music up way to loud and try to ask me questions and I don't even hear half of what they're saying so I just nod my head and agree with them, (I'm sure what they have to say is not important).  The next is medium distraction, this distraction does not happen very often to me but when it does the mobile phone I am on cuts in and out every couple of sentences and I am often able to piece the phrases together and make a complete sentence of what I believe they just said.  Then there is source diversion, this happens to me when I am talking to someone that mumbles or that talks quietly I do not hear the message clearly from the source.  Factual diversion happens when I am told a super long and boring joke and am focused on the joke ending and when it does I missed the main part.  Semantic diversion is when someone says a word that catches my attention positively or negatively.  Content Listening is when you focus on the content level of meaning, or literal meaning rather than the social or relational level of meaning.  Lastly there is the selective listening, this one can be summarized by just saying my grandpa he is the most selective listener I have ever been around if you are talking about something he doesn't like to him he doesn't hear you, but when you start talking about interesting things he knows about he definitely hears you.  These are all seven of the terms best summarized how they relate to my life for the most part.