Baby Victoria

Isn't she cute?! This past weekend I visited with my grandparents, aunt, uncle, and baby cousin Victoria. She's about 10 1/2 months old so she does not talk yet. Therefore, she communicates by other means. I found it so interesting to just watch how she interacted with us without saying a single word.

Victoria is really into pointing and waving. When she wants something, she'll point. For example, at one point her mom was holding her and she wanted to go to my grandpa so she started moving more and looking towards my grandpa. Then she held out her hand and pointed her little finger towards him. We knew this meant she wanted him to hold her so my aunt handed her over, and little Victoria was very happy.

Another gesture Victoria uses is waving her hand. Whenever someone new walks into the room she will wave at them. She also waves at everyone when her mom picks her up to bring her to her room for a nap. She knows to wave because my aunt holds her towards everyone in the room and we all wave to her. She mimicks what she sees, but the process of waving has become something that is routine to her and she even understands that it means she is leaving. I know this, because at one point we were all waving goodnight to her and she started crying, like she did not want to go to sleep.

At another point during the visit, we had the door to the porch open to let in some fresh air and Victoria was sitting right next to it. We did not want her to crawl outside but she was so close and I knew she was tempted. She would keep looking at me and then she would turn to crawl out the door. I immediately went, "no, Victoria," or said something around those lines but with a forceful tone. As soon as I said it she stopped, turned her head, and looked at me. After a few moments she tried again and again I told her, "no." Each time I said this, she would stop, turn, and look directly at me. She even smiled a little bit each time like we were playing a game. She cannot speak but she understood that when I said, "no," it meant to stop doing what she was doing.

I love visiting with my baby cousin because each time I see her, she is completely different. She changes so fast and I find it so intriguing to watch the process of a growing and evolving human being! (438)

-kp

The right to be heard does not automatically include the right to be taken seriously.

-Hubert H. Humphrey

Where the wild things at?!

This weekend my boyfriend and I went to the movies to see Where the Wild Things Are. First off, the movie was really cute! (Oh, and side note: the website is very nice and suits the movie perfectly. It's probably the graphic designer in me coming out, but I thought the website was really fun to poke through. I highly recommend checking it out.)

Anyway, my boyfriend and I have a little joke we bounce back and forth about the title of this movie. Instead of calling it Where the Wild Things Are we like to say "where them wild things at?" but with a southern drawl. So it ends up sounding more like "Where dem wald thangs at?" It's silly but... actually it's pretty much said for the sake of its silliness.

So it surprised me when the two of us were buying our tickets and the woman collecting our tickets called the movie Where the Wild Things At. She spoke in a southern accent too! I caught it immediately and smiled to myself. When I glanced over at my boyfriend however, he did not seem to catch on. Later I mentioned to him that she had pronounced it incorrectly, the way we jokingly say it, and he was so surprised he did not notice.

I found it interesting that when the two of us say the title of this movie with improper grammar it sounds silly, but when the woman who had collected our tickets said the same words in a different way it passed without notice. We both knew exactly what movie she was talking about even though she had not said the title correctly. It's funny how little mistakes in language can seem perfectly correct in certain situations, depending on how the person says it and in what context.

-kp

frank chimero

Boys & Girls

.....they communicate very differently. Even when we're all speaking the same language, the way girls communicate and the ways boys communicate is so different that we might as well be speaking different languages sometimes.

This past week in my Intercultural Communications class we learned a bit about the differences in the way both genders communicate. This really connected to PCP so I wanted to talk about it. I find it so interesting that both genders have different ways of approaching communication and connecting with one another.

For example, boys tend to be more competitive and the way they bond with their friends is by showing off. At least, this is what I saw in the short video we watched in class. In the video, 5 year old boys were playing outside together and discussing how high they could hit a ball. One boy said he could hit it up to "here" and then lifted his hand to narrate how high he could hit. The next boy said that he could hit it to the sky. The third boy said he could hit it to heaven. Finally, the fourth boy said he could hit a ball all the way to God. It was really comical watching the way these young boys interacted with each other and how by one-upping another they bonded.

Girls are much different. In the same video, 5 year old girls were videotaped having a conversation about one of the girls babysitters. One girl says that her babysitter has contacts. The other girl says that both her mom and her dad have contacts. The first girl then comments again by saying, "the same?!" This shows that girls bond by showing how alike they are and by saying that they are similar, they are communicating that they like each other.

Another interesting thing that we learned was that males in general tend to speak more bluntly while girls tend to "beat around the bush." I sort of knew this already, at least it is something that I've noticed in the ways that males and females communicate. In fact the more that I learn about communication between by Intercultural Communications class and PCP the more I find I analyze my own conversations and ones that I hear.

For example, a conversation that I had with my boyfriend made me think about how differently we communicate. This weekend we were in Disney World celebrating my friend's birthday and as we were walking in the park someone close to me sneezed. I automatically said bless you just because that's something that I've always done. I also say bless you to my boyfriend when he sneezes all the time. So it caught me off guard when after I "blessed" this person for sneezing my boyfriend turns to me and says that saying "bless you" is meaningless and stupid. Just outright says that. Then, sensing that I was a bit offended he followed with "well I mean, that's what I think and it's why I stopped saying it. I don't really have a problem when other people say it."

Looking back at this conversation I noticed that because he's a guy, so naturally speaks more bluntly, he said this without taking into context the people around him (me) and how they might feel about the matter. Though he did pick up on it after the fact. I then thought about how I would have approached the matter if the roles had been reversed, and for certain I would not have said that I think what he does is stupid and meaningless. I probably would have asked why he does it or say something like, "what does bless you even mean when someone sneezes?" so that I could hear his side on the issue and understand better. I guess you could say it's "beating around the bush" but really I'm just taking into account his feelings and reactions before I speak. Which I guess guys don't always do. At least not as much as girls. Generally speaking that is.

-kp

PCP Overview

Since it's about that time for mid-terms, I figure I'll do a little assessment of PCP class so far, just about 7 weeks in.

CLASS: I am really enjoying the class and what we're doing each week. Recently we just started our group presentations, so I've been working with my group a lot discussing how we are going to go about our presentation (which we'll be giving this week!) Usually class involves some sort of short lecture and then group activities and presenting. I like this routine because it breaks the class up and the lectures are not 3 hours long. Also, it gives us opportunities to present on a weekly basis.

TEACHER: Eric really connects with his students, probably because he's a younger guy and still in school (like us) but I really feel like he's very approachable and easy to talk to. He's also very open to our creativity in our assignments which is awesome. He's very passionate in what he talks about which in turn, makes me feel passionate about what he's saying.

CLASSROOM: The room we are in for our class seems to suit our needs comfortably. There are enough chairs and tables for everyone, and there is a white board to write on. The projector makes it easy for Powerpoint presentations and also gives us something through which we can show visuals. The only real issue with the room, for me personally, is that it is so dark! There are no windows and it feels a bit claustrophobic. I would prefer the class to be somewhere more open and light, like the new academic building.

ASSIGNMENTS: The homework that Eric assigns seems to have been a pretty comfortable work load. I keep up with my blog every few days plus I've been reading Orbiting the Giant Hairball. My group presentation is this week so I've been working on my presentation as well. Although there's a good amount of reading to do every week, the material is usually an easy-read or interesting enough to capture my attention. Hairball especially, with its graphic elements and interesting layout, keeps my attention and makes me want to continue reading.

OVERVIEW: In general, I have learned a lot in the class. Eric is a phenomenal teacher because I feel like he honestly cares about us students, and wants us to get as much out of the class as possible. The material we are learning is really helpful, to me especially, as a graphic designer. A major part of being a graphic designer is to be able to communicate clearly through visuals. In order to do this, we have to know how to communicate. Honestly, I think this class should be mandatory for GIC majors because it has helped me a lot in understanding how communication and mis-communication occurs between people.

-kp