3). Pick one concept from the assigned reading this week, not already discussed, that you found useful or interesting and discuss it.

Motivation is an important aspect in finding friends and business partners in my opinion. When you have a topic and someone is just dying to listen to you it just means that they're motivated by you and want to hear what you have to say next. You could solve many life problems when your motivation brings you to being a better listener. If a person in the medical field is motivated to listen to you can just tell that you're going to have a good future doctor if the person you speak with is interested in hearing about your new methods on how to keep healthy, or how to make a procedure easier for patients and doctors, or how new technology will help patients. Motivation is what makes a job's quality and time for a person better. I feel that find more ways to have people motivated to listen to others will benefit businesses and groups.

2). Give a personal example where you have had selective attention. Why do you think that is? Is there a way you were able to overcome it?

Selective attention? That's a super easy topic for me to talk about. I'm sure most of you have selective attention when it comes to your parents. I personally have selective attention because I get annoyed of impossible consequences that my mom tells me. “Oh, you didn't get the Chinese newspaper for me?!?! HMPH WELL YOU'RE NOT MY SON AND YOU'RE A BAD KID WHEN YOU GO TO SCHOOL!” I personally choose to have selective attention in these cases just so I can avoid making myself angry about the situations. With my style of selective attention my mom's words would be translated to “Oh, you didn't get the Chinese newspaper for me?!?! HMPH WELL YOU'RE MY SON AND YOU GO TO SCHOOL!” The reason why I have selective attention around my mom is only because she is negative about 90% of the time. Its better for my psyche for me to just not listen to her because if I did I would go crazy from all the anger.

1). Think of a recent situation in which you found listening difficult. Which one (or more) of the four phases presented the most difficulty for you? Why? How could this have been overcome?

I personally feel that I have trouble sensing because of noise, my girlfriend thinks that I just have selective attention but I feel that would make me feel like a jerk. I listen to her but there’s usually a lot going on around us in restaurants and shopping districts that I just can't totally hear what she says 100% of the time. I could have avoided this if there were less people around making noise but that feels uncontrollable in my opinion. Because I cannot hear her in noisy areas such as restaurants or shopping districts I usually find myself trying to piece together the puzzle of what shes saying so I can avoid having her repeat what she says. Reason why I avoid asking her to repeat herself is because she often gets offended to doing that. My evaluation of what shes trying to say during my noise problems usually come out as a 50% chance of good. My problems could be easily overcome if she didn't feel so offended when I ask her to repeat herself, at least repeating herself would give be a better idea of what shes talking about.

3). Pick one concept from the assigned reading this week, not already discussed, that you found useful or interesting and discuss it.

I'd like to speak of powerless stereotypes from this chapter because I feel that even as a United country the people of the United States weaken themselves through stereotyping, prejudice, and racism. I sometimes fall into the thought of stereotyping, prejudice, and racism so don't take this as an offense to America.

Anyways, powerless stereotypes is what causes us to draw incorrect conclusions of other people. There was once an episode of South Park where Eric Cartman kept on telling his friend Tokken Black (a black child) that since Tokken is black he's supposed to have a bass guitar and know how to play bass. Tokken was angry after he realized how he fit Eric Cartman's stereotypical view so perfectly.

The two powerless stereotypes listed in the book is sex-role and ethnocentrism stereotyping. In the sex-role stereotype we face a daily struggle between men and women's opinions and decisions. I currently have a male friend who refuses to practice Wing Chun Kung Fu because it was originated by a Buddhist nun (a woman). Even if Bruce Lee was the one who made Wing Chun Kung Fu popular through his own practice, my male friend continues to deny the practice even if Bruce Lee practiced it himself. Ethnocentrism is a problem we face in the United States and it involves races in most cases. Do Asian people drive well? Do white people get arrested more than blacks? Do latino people look for work through resumes or behind a home depot? I'm sure that you have heard of all the stereotypes as long as you grew up in the United States. But that's the issue with ethnocentrism the horrible views of all the races cause us to go through Homophily and all we want to group up with is those that are culturally the same as us. Which is reason enough for me to say that our United States isn't 100% United after all.

2). Explain proxemics and chronemics. Are there universal rules for all cultures regarding these concepts? Give personal examples if possible. Give examples of personal experience in other cultures regarding these two concepts.

In the community of men and women Proxemics can be taken in many wrong ways. If you are working out at a school gym and you choose to use the machine next to the pretty person it could imply that you are attracted to that person. In a negative result the pretty person could leave the machine next to you as soon as you arrive, that could mean that he or she is uncomfortable around you. Proxemics is the invisible boundary around you that attracts those around you. (104)

In the business world Chronemics is one of the many factors that we face. “Time is money” is a common saying here in the United States and it applies to Chronemics only because Chronemics is the study of the use of time. (105) In Asian culture being punctual is a very strict aspect in meeting anyone at any time but it is also a one or the other situation in our community. There are people who are strict Asians on time and there are others who are on the so called “Asian time” Asian time refers to being late all the time, I'm not going to go too deep into detail but as of now but in my opinion “Asian time” probably is an inside joke which originated from the different time zones compared to the United States. My girlfriend is an extremely punctual Asian woman and the problem is sometimes she gets so punctual no matter what occasion she stresses herself out.

1). Return to the eight principles of nonverbal communication. Pick two principles, and provide new examples of how they operate in a group or team.

For this post I decided to pick principles 2 and 5. First up is principle 2 “Our nonverbal communication is likely to be believed more than our verbal communication.” The reason why I chose this is because the importance of intimacy in our mutual or romantic relationships. I'll say that the best example for this would be a person who assumes what another person is going to do. You can notice how well you know a person when you already assume their actions 1-2 steps ahead of them. Lets say your best friend is going to buy an expensive car, if your friend is well informed you would assume he or she is buying the car because of its overall performance but if your friend lacks information you could assume that he or she is buying the car for its color or cup-holders. This principle also applies in professional fights and poker as well, though the participants do not know each other a pattern of nonverbal communication can occur through small twitches, breathing, and habitual movements. When I enter my fights for martial arts I normally say “Everyone is scared of something in a fight, it does not matter how tough you are you're going to flinch to things you don't like such as nut shots or hits you barely notice.”

My second choice out of the eight principles was principle 5 “Cultural norms and expectations guide our interpretation.” The reason why I want to talk about this principle is because I have noticed that I make friends with other Asian people much more quickly than other races. The reason why is because we have expected cultural norms of each other and we understand our decisions culturally. A non Asian man could come up to me and talk to me about my parents and how they want me to get straight As and become a doctor, because he is different culturally I would feel offended. But if another Asian man were to tell me the same then I would laugh it off with them. Its not racist of me or anything its just that the status of a person could deliver humor in a good or bad way. Is it funny for a man to talk about women being raped compared to men talking about men being raped? Its your opinion from there.