Language: Men vs. Women

I believe all people have a different way of communicating what they are trying to say, whether it is tone, pitch, volume facial expression, that being said I think there are major differences between men and women. I think women tend to utilize these aspects of communication in a more exaggerated way then men do. Men as a whole tend to be more direct, and usually easier to read. Women are sometimes saying one thing very convincingly, but they mean something completely different (at least in my personal experiences). I remember I was in class in high school and there were these two girls talking very bad about another girl who they weren’t to fond of at all, but when that girl entered the room they put on a smile and welcomed her as if she was their best friend. I found this to be very interesting because usually if I didn’t like someone I stayed away from that person and didn’t talk to them or associate with them at all. But with the instance with these three girls, the one girl who the other two didn’t like had no idea at that moment of how bad those girls were just talking about her, because they talked in a welcoming high pitched tone and made her feel welcome, and in the mean time they were thinking about how much they hated her. I have also noticed that girls like to touch more than guys. I think this is a way of making that person feel comfortable. Girls are better listeners, that is a fact, so when girls nod their head and touch your arm they are communicating that they care and are their for you. Guys don’t touch as much or use these nonverbal cues as much as girls do. Guys seem to make less eye contact, when having a conversation, and don’t really give nonverbal feedback like smiles or nods. Guys usually give a casual “uh-huh” or “yeah” to acknowledge the conversation. These different uses of communication tend to cause some conflict between men and women, it cause  lot of miscommunication and misinterpretation. Men and women in the United States all speak the English language, but I think we all might speak a different language. It depends how you interpret the definition of language, but I think all these different types of communication between both sexes infers that we do in fact speak two different languages. I think if we did speak the same language things would certainly be different, and not in a good way. If we spoke the same language I don’t think we would be able to learn from each other and get different perspectives. I think a lot of the time the perspective from a man and a women help solve a conflict, and prevent a lot of conflicts. What would we gain from one perspective? It would be a very boring world. I think when women started to get a voice in our country and be able to communicate their opinions and thoughts, that when our country took a huge leap forward.

Nonverbal Cues

We all make a first impression on people based on what we see and hear. If you are making a first impression on somebody who you have never met, then you make that impression based off of a visual image, a long with personality traits that you believe might be connected to that visual. You base this off of the way the person walks, the way they dress, the way they engage with others and so on. Sometimes this way of gaining an impression can give you a very false reading. I remember before I personally met my girlfriend Alena, I perceived her to be very stuck up, which was thankfully not the case at all. The reason I made this judgment was because of the nonverbal cues she would give off. She dressed very nice, walked tall with no emotion and didn’t look all that friendly to be honest, so in my mind I connected her style and demeanor to personality traits and put her into a category. She still to this day has people tell her things like “I didn’t know what to think of you at first, you seemed kind of mean”.

I walk kind of fast and observe my surroundings; my eyes are sensitive to the sun so I squint a lot which makes me out to have an attitude, I dress pretty normal I would say but most of the time I have a nice watch on, as well as a cross. This puts me into a category, which I think for the most part is wrong. People know I play sports and am an athlete, which is right but they also assume me to be mean and not very talkative. I am usually a nice guy once you get to know me, and when I warm up to you I can be somewhat talkative as well. I don’t like that people think I’m mean, but I can’t blame them because if I didn’t know me I’d think I was mean too. I know I come off rude a lot of the time as well, but this very unintentional. People who know me know that I say rude things just for the sake of humor, not to be offensive at all. I just have a crude sense of humor, but I am a very caring and moral person. When I was in high school I used to pick on kids who I felt weren’t giving an effort on the field, so all the underclassmen hated me for this, but the underclassmen who cared about our team and gave an effort I treated fairly, these kids got to know me and they didn’t hate me like their friends did.

I think most people make judgments on what they see and hear about people, this might be wrong but it is human nature. What makes it right is if you change your opinion of someone after meeting them and you actually give them a chance to prove you and your assumptions wrong (or right depending on the situation).

English and the Economy

English is the most widely spoken language in the world, and is the primary language of many countries across the world. Because the United States is such a big country and such a huge superpower as well as large influence on the global economy it is vital to speak the language that we speak if you want to be a truly affective international business. When you are starting a business and you want it to involve trade or services with another country, you send people over that country to do recon and make connections, If that person didn’t speak the language of the country they were visiting then it wouldn’t be a very good first impression or reflection of your business. American love to travel and visit “exotic” places, a lot of countries rely on this to keep the businesses in their country afloat. Rarely anybody who travels for pleasure know how to speak the native language, so in order to communicate in banks, grocery stores, outlet stores and restaurants those businesses have to have some kind of accommodations for those tourists. If they want to get their money. When I was a sophomore in high school my Grandmother decided to take me and my family to Europe, to get the whole “European experience” and it was a lot of fun. We visited England and there wasn’t a language barrier other than trying to understand some hard accents, but even that was easy. We visited Germany and there was a big language barrier, but they always had english accommodations. Most of the street signs had english under the german, the menus had english translations on them, and most of the people actually spoke english which I found to be very interesting. I learned that it is a requirement in school for the students to study the English language. The Germans know how important it is for them to understand and speak English. We visited France and it was much like Germany, but not as accommodating as far as menus and street signs, but because we were in Paris which is a huge tourist town, most of the people in hotels and restaurants spoke English. We also visited Rome, Italy which was about the same as Germany and France, most everything was very accommodating and a lot of people spoke our language. These are some personal examples that I have experienced that have made it very clear how important it truly is to be able to speak English. In my opinion I think being able to speak english keeps a lot of the economies of these countries going, especially of the tourists towns. China and America are so intertwined in each others economies that they need to be able to communicate, being able to speak clearly and communicate to each other it really helps things run smooth. We rely on China and China relies on us so in order to keep a somewhat healthy trading relationship English needs to be a priority.

My Words

We all have a certain way of communicating with other people, it doesn’t matter if you are talking in a group of people and you are all speaking English, you are still using different language and choice of words. This different use of language and choice of words seeps through our literature as well. This all reflects how we were raised, where we grew up, who we hang out with et cetera. Our language defines us as a person it makes up who we are. You can always be compared to other people but you can never be them.

Famous authors, screenwriters or play writes can always be recognized by the tone, use of language and choice of words. If you were watching a play that was written by Shakespeare, but you didn’t know it at the time you would be able to figure it out by the conversations happening on stage, through his writing. James Madison was a very articulate thorough writer and I can sometimes identify his writings without knowing beforehand. The point I’m trying to make is that the way we write is a big part of who we are, almost like our eye or hair color.

I am a somewhat simple writer, and I usually don’t stray too far from the subject being discussed. Some people can get away with using enormous words throughout their writings; I can’t really do this because when I write I try to write as if I was talking to someone, so I use the words I would use in person which are usually somewhat simple and direct. After looking back on some of my earlier essays I learned that I tend to reiterate a lot, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it can be in excess. I think the reason I do it is because I want to make myself clear (either that or I’m trying to fulfill a requirement haha). I’ve found that the things I love most tend to pop up a lot in my writings, like my family, my girlfriend, friends, sports, at least one of those is in every essay. I try to make a lot of sports analogies in my writings, I do this because It is easy for me to explain and it relates to my life, but I also know that most everybody loves sports so the analogies are usually relevant to most people. I try to influence my readers or sway them into my ideals by using logic and reason, not so much sympathy. I’m not a very emotional guy and you can tell by my writings. So if I’m trying to convince someone of something I don’t want to use sympathy to make them feel bad in order to agree with me, I just use the facts at hand and my opinion, and maybe even a little motivation. Motivation is used in every day life, everybody needs some motivation every once in a while to keep the fire burning. My writing is a part of me and I will always view it as such, but it does need improvement and I hope to improve always.