One Concept

The concept I want to discuss is relational dialects, because this actually came up in a conversation I was having with my friend a couple days ago, and why being in a relationship sucks at times because there isn't enough comfort with these opposing forces, or tensions which are normal in relationships. There are three different dialects. One is autonomy/connection, which is the desire to want to spend time with one another and also wanting your own space. The other one is novelty/predictability, which is the want for rhythms and routines of our relationship, and then the need to do something new and different. Then at last is openness/closedness, which is wanting to share stuff with someone and then there are things that you don't want to share with them. Everyone experiences these wants and needs, but not everyone understands them. For example the first one, we want to spend time with someone we care about but you can't spend all your time with them, because you have other interests, but the other person might not understand and think that you don't want to spend time with them because there is something wrong with them. I think it's important to understand these relational dialects because that way you can avoid a lot of unnecessary conflict. 

Favorite. Least Favorite. Improvements

My favorite thing about the class was probably being able to relate the course material to real life. I actually enjoyed the writing assignments as well and I got to look at my personal communications style, especially with the relationship paper. I got to look at my relationship with my best friend on another level because you don't always think about your communication with your friends because you just go along with the relationship as a whole. I think the least favorite thing about this class would have to be the quizzes. I know since this is online class, there are online quizzes but I didn't learn anything from taking them. So to me they were pretty pointless. Other than the quizzes, I don't see how this class could be improved any further. I like how we used a blog for discussion and I liked the written assignments, because those actually taught me something new.

What I have learned

I think that I've actually learned quite a lot more in this class than in any of my other classes. I think that's because we communicate on a daily basis. One thing that I learned from writing the intercultural paper, is how different communication can be in different countries and how important it is to understand communication in these culture when you travel, especially on business. You don't want to say something that will offend the other person, or make them not understand what you messages you are trying to convey. Another thing, I learned was about the self and how other people perceive you versus how you see yourself. Then last but not least, I learned how to communicate more effectively by taking different steps during a conflict, for example by aiming for a win-win conflict or focusing on the overall communication system, as it is part of a larger whole.