What kind of communicator are you?
Everybody already had known the
word that “communication”. I too began know when I was a middle school student.
However, when I study systematically, I find it’s complex than I had understand
in the past. Moreover, I realize it’s one of the most important things for our life
skill. In this article, I would like to state by comparing my understanding of communication before
and after I have learnt, and I then will indicate ‘what kind of my
communicator am I?’ by comparing and contrasting it.
Firstly, I will express my comprehending
of communication before I learn. As for my first understanding of
communication; it was “Communication Tower” in
our town because of the word “communication”. I though that talking each other with telephone or telephonic
conversation, sending letter to friends , the radio my father tend to listen
every morning and day, are related with communication. Another two are
television and telegraph. When I review it, I realized that communication is
electronic material such as telephone, TV, radio ,telegraph. I grasped like it
until after grade 11.
When I joined university, I could
understand more before. I knew which
talking each other or chatting with people was communication
and also chart or voice chart over sea with internet or electronic mail. Moreover, I see that books,
magazines, newspapers, journals are also communication. Otherwise I
comprehended communication be speaking/chatting, reading, writing, internet and
media . That is how did I understand communication before I study.
Now, I would like to state my
understanding of communication after I
have learnt. Let see where come “communication” from the word. The word “communication”
comes from the Latin “communis ,” meaning “to share,” and includes verbal, non-verbal and electronic means of
human interaction.” I want to define
with my own words; “ the process of sharing information(may be feeling,
idea, etc..) between sender and receiver by the understandable way such as
speaking, reading, writing, wave, frequency and logo.
On web, ‘Importance of Communication’ ,
definition of communication was defined as “Communication is the act of
conveying information for the purpose of creating a shared understanding. It’s
something that humans do every day. D.J
Paul said "it is a process by which
people exchange ideas, fax, feelings or impression in ways that each gain a
common understanding of the message." However it’s not a perfect
definition, and there can’t be totally a complete definition. Because when I
regard specifically about communication, I found that there are many kinds of
communication. For example, human communication, business communication, animal
communication and electronic or internet
communication ,etc. And definition also is a little different. So we can say
that definition tend to base on kind of communication. But basic principle of
it is same. In this article, I will focus on human and social communication.
There are various categories of communication and more than
one may occur at any time. There are mainly two types of communication these are:
1.Spoken or Verbal Communication; The system of verbal
communication has become quite complex, with unique languages each having
millions of words. Since we can
interpret as the oral communication which is in the form of spoken words, this
may be face-to-face communication or in the form of a telephonic conversation
or visual communication or the voice chat over the Internet Written communication (eg. e-mail, social
network/ face book, blog etc)can be in the form of snail mail or by an email
now a day.
So
verbal communication is again divided into two patterns as written and visual communication;
described by On webs, Answer and Skillyouneed as follow.
Written communication; Written
communication is sending information by the form of writing that may be read. Moreover, in written communication the sender and receiver are more
distinct. Some of the channel are letters,
emails, books, news papers, journals , magazines, the internet or via other
media and these are the channel verbal communication.
Visual communication; Visual Communication
is the conveyance of ideas and information in forms that can be read or viewed.
This includes Design, Illustration and
Animation .For example; print, magazines, screen-based media, interactive web
design, short film, design for advertising, promotion, corporate identity,
packaging design graph, chart, logo, map and
other visualization can communicate massage.
2.Non-Verbal Communication; Non-verbal communication is formed by expressions, expressive
behavior and body language. Body language is the person who is communicating
by using including with the body posture, the
gestures of the hand and facial expressions . You communicate nonverbally when you
gesture, smile , widen your eyes, move your chair closer to someone, wear
jewelry, touch someone, or raise your vocal volume—and when someone receives these signals such as
eye contact and frown.
When you smile,
nod your head in agreement, or wave your hand to someone, you’re
communicating
nonverbally. In fact, some researchers argue that you actually communicate
more information
nonverbally than you do with words. There are a lot of channel of non-verbal
communication. Here’re some channels; body, face, eye, space, artifactual,
touch, paralanguage, silence, time, and smell. It is a
very important role while communication is
taking place since the expressions on a person’s face depicts a lot about the
mood he or she is having.
I
want to state one else of four types of communication from article “What's Communication And How Many Types Of
Communication ?” (by Anonymous)
1.
Assertive communication: It is the most effective and healthiest form of communication.
In this type of communication the self esteem of the person is high. It refers to
how we naturally express ourselves.
2.
Aggressive communication: It is always involves manipulation like how
we attempt to make people do what we want.
3.
Passive communication :It is based on compliance and hopes.
4. Passive-aggressive: It is a combination of all styles
of communication. This communication type avoids direct confrontation
(passive), and attempts to manipulate (aggressive).
Now, I would like to express about type of communicator. I will sate four
type of communicator of Guy Perring, Director,
Professional Development Unit (PDU), at the British Council Malaysia. (The
PDU offers a wide range of learning opportunities from management and
communication skills training to developing English skills.)
Action-oriented
communicators
* They talk about
getting things done, the “bottom line”, moving ahead, decisions and
achievements.
* They tend to be
direct, impatient, decisive, quick and energetic.
* They have short
attention spans, tend to interrupt others and hate small talk.
* Their body language
and vocal cues tend to be accurate indicators of what they are feeling.
Process-oriented
communicators
* They talk about
facts and figures, policies and procedures, analysis and planning.
* They tend to be
systematic, patient, unemotional, cautious and logical.
* They have long
attention spans and hate off-the-cuff (spontaneous).
* They offer minimal
body language and vocal cues about their feelings.
People-oriented
communicators
* They talk about
needs, motivations, teamwork, values, feelings and beliefs.
* They are
spontaneous, empathetic and subjective.
* They hate rigid
procedures that fail to take into account human elements.
* Their body language
tends to be open and their voices varied.
Idea-oriented
communicators
* They talk about
innovation and change, new ways of doing things, concepts and possibilities.
* They tend to be
full of ideas, provocative and difficult to understand.
* They like to
challenge others and hate rules and regulations.
* Their non-verbal
and vocal cues vary substantially. When gathering ideas, they like privacy and
may be withdrawn; when promoting ideas, their energy level increases.
According to article
of Guy Perring, when I review my type of
communicator, it’s not possible to term exactly in one type because it was mixed. Since I will express in
percentage.
Action-oriented
communicators(22%)
Process-oriented
communicators(29%)
People-oriented
communicators(26%)
Idea-oriented
communicators(23%)
Being a reader, I
want you to suggest to analyze to know ‘what kind of your communicator are
you?’ by my article. I believe that we should think about it carefully. Why?.
Because If you know what type communicator are you, you will know which
community or society is suitable for you
and, you can use your communication
skill effectively in that field. In age of information technology, the role of
communication is bigger than before and requirements or standardization in
communication is higher than before. And then it become a skill we have to
learn and, we need to improve it skill . As I mention in introduction, I have
stated only about introduction two main type of communication, kind of
communicator. So I would like you,
reader to advice to study another tip such as communication skill, principle of
communication, how to improve your communication skill. You will realize what
is your weak point and strong point in communication.
By Thang Mawi
References;
What's Communication And How Many
Types Of Communication , The #1 Resource for Students,
Professors, and Professionals, By Anonymous
What type of communicator are you?(Friday November 17, 2006)
,By Guy Perring
Human Communication, Basic course, 9/E, © 2002, Joseph A.
De Vito
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