Final week, question 3

Overall, this class is one of the most enjoyable classes that I've been "in." What I really liked most was that I could be myself, and for the most part, had free reign in my discussions. Oh sure, there were guidelines, but they were fairly loose, and I did not feel that there was someone constantly watching over my shoulder to make sure that I was doing right; I felt that I was trusted to make decisions that I thought would be beneficial to the class, and if I needed help, it would be there. I didn't really have any complaints about the class. It was relaxed, and I felt I could post what I thought/felt without someone taking major offense to what I had to say. Overall I thought it was very interesting, and the concepts that I learned helped to put all kinds of communication into perspective for me, and taught me that there is a theory behind almost everything.

Final Week, question 2

While we spent a lot of time talking about concepts this semester, there was one that I felt we could have covered more. Rather, it's not a concept, but a chapter. I know that I talked in my earlier post that I enjoyed talking about the cultural communication chapter, but I think we should have spent more time on it.

Cultural indifference is such a problem in this society. I feel that while we live in a country that accepts people of all different backgrounds, we are still so culturally ignorant. We can sit here and say that we accept them and they should have the freedom to express themselves, but we still look down on those who are so very different than ourselves. The idea that we could truly accept someone for being different, and not look at it as a threat to our own selves would be a wonderful change that I think we should try and embrace more, and we can do that by educating people about other cultures, and spending more time teaching people to embrace that which is different.

Final week, question 1

Reviewing this semester and the concepts that we covered, there are quite a few concepts that I found to be interesting. One of the most interesting was the entire idea of dyadic communication. When we covered this we got to analyze a recent conflict that we had been in through out journal assignment. I really enjoyed this; it let me look back at a conflict that I had with my boyfriend, and analyze it in a way rather than just the pissed off girlfriend.

Another concept that I really enjoyed was actually the entire chapter about cultural communication. One of the biggest problems that face our society is lack of tolerance, and being able to express the differences in cultures that don't paint anyone in a negative picture is something that doesn't happen nearly as often as it should.

This course has opened my eyes to a lot of different communication concepts that I never even knew existed. Each chapter offered a new term that, after reading, really made sense in the scheme of things. Out of all the courses that I've taken, this textbook was the least textbook-ish book that I've read.