Mid- of year 2008, the movie 21 hit our cinemas nationwide. This movie is basically about a group of college students under the guidance of their lecturer, ventured into Las Vegas, played blackjack and indeed won heaps and heaps of money by using a trick known as "card counting". But soon after, their tricks were busted by the security management in the casino they often gambled.

Ben Campbell was basically the main actor here, he did most of the gambling and won most of the cash, but Ben didnt worked alone, he actually had Jill Taylor, Choi and Jimmy Fisher to help him out. They communicated very closely but this time, its in the form of nonverbal communication.

For example, Jill would at times use, "subtituting" - which means, instead of speaking, he uses hand gestures mostly to indicate if he need his freinds help. By then, one of his friends would actually come in and pretenting to persuade him to leave the table therefore Jill would not loose more money while gambling.

The other nonverbal communication would actually be "complementing"-a form of scratching your head to signal out some thing. In this movie, Jill often does this trick when he is sure that he could win lots of money from that particular table. So, his buddies would come in and gamble together with him.

Americans hope ..

Identity management do actually play an important role in ones life.

One fine example i could actually think of is Barack H.Obama, the 44th President of United States. He first and only black man to actually lead a nation with a vast majority of whites people, so what did Obama did to persuade millions of American to vote for him?

During the presidential campaign, Obama faced a tight competition from McCain, whom many experts actually beleive is much experience and thus more suitable for the job, but in the end, Obama won the campaign with a majority of 54% which is actually more of what George W.Bush got during his last campaign.

I seriously beleive that, it was how Obama presented himself in public which managed to convinced the public that he is the right man for the job. Obama was always seen to be in a very stylish and yet elegent suit all the time. Its mostly about how he looks in the public.

Now, dont get me misquoted, i do not mean that just because Obama dresses in expensive suits therefore it played a major role in his presidential campaign, and therefore he won just because he looks good, well its not true !!! It cant be denied Obama is indeed a brilliant man and would be a great leader, but what i am trying to prove here is that, how Obama looked form the publics point of view, did play a vital role in his campaign.

Besides that, it was how Obama speaks mostly during his presidential campaign and if you have seen his recent inauguration speech, he was ever so convincing about his plan for the future and how he would change America. That was partially the reason why Americans were indeed convinced Obama was the right man.

All theses dressing up looking nice in public and the way Obama speaks and addresses the public are actually the characteristics of nonverbal communication.

Haptics

After our human communication lesson on 21/1/09 Wednesday, we know that non-verbal communication actually exist all the time and it is so natural that sometimes we do not notice that we are doing it. There are many forms of non-verbal communication, Chronemics, Kinesics, Haptics and Proxemics. I would like to share one of the non-verbal form of communication which is Haptics.

"Haptics" is a Greek word meaning "the science of touch". We do rely on our sense of touch to do our daily task such as typing our assignment, playing musical instrument, searching for something in the dark and people that need this the most are the blinds. Well this actually works because we have Mechanoreceptors all over our body that send information to primary sensory cortex in our brain.

There is a technology called the Haptic technology but the earliest application on Haptic is on animals which include human beings. Why do I say so is because we human being likes to touch each other and different kind of touch send different kind of meaning. For example, your feelings are positive when the touch is perceived to be natural. A person gets the opposite feeling when the touch is perceived to be manipulative or insincere. Touch is experienced in many ways. Handshakes, pats, and kisses are just a few of the ways one can communicate by touching. A firm handshake means your are confident and care while a weak handshake show you care less. Besides that touching at different part of the body also show the intimacy between the two person and gender also plays an very important roles in determining the meaning of the touch. Studies shows that people who are trying to flirt will tends to touch the target. Besides that, different cultures perceive touching differently. Asians will think that certain touching such as kisses are too intimate while the Middle East man kiss both of their friend's cheek to show friendliness.

The main point is, Haptics/Touching are part of our non-verbal communication that we do consciously or unconsciously. However, we should control our self and touch wisely because you will get into jail for touching the wrong place at the wrong time =)

Congratulations!

Newly elected president of America

Congratulations to Barack Obama for being elected as the 44th president of the United States and the first ever African-American leader of the mammoth nation.

Millions of citizens of the United States battled the cold in Washington D.C to make their voices heard as they bore witness to the inauguration of their newly instated president, Barack Obama who has taken the oath of office and is now sworn is as president of the United States.

Barack Obama's inaugration speech lasted for 18 minutes as he spoke with vigour and enthusiasm as the public was treated to a rare display of public speaking at its best. Mr Obama covered a widespread range of key themes with the sole intention as remaking America. He was candid about the challenges America faced as a nation but vowed for a new beginning as he was prepared to usher in a new era of responsibility. His underlying key point was for the nation of America to begin work straight away as many prepare for the worst as the economic recession continues.

"America is a friend of every nation and every man, woman and child... [ and ] we are ready to lead once more. " The sheer confidence and supremacy of Barack Obama in presenting his speech has inspired and given hope to many as the nation now turns to its leader. This shows us the importance of public speaking in communications in modern day culture as a form of establishment and necessity in presenting oneself.

Once again, congratulations to the newest elected president of America and may he be a major influence in re-shaping our world plagued with various social issues.

Sign Language

A sign language is a language which, instead of acoustically conveyed sound patterns, uses visually transmitted sign patterns likes manual communication, body language and lip patterns to convey meaning. Simultaneously combining hand shapes, orientation and movement of the hands, arms or body and facial expressions to express fluidly a speaker's thoughts. Sign languages commonly develop in deaf communities, which can include interpreters and friends and families of deaf people as well as people who is deaf or hard of hearing themselves. Wherever communities of deaf people exist, sign languages develop.

In fact, their complex spatial grammars are markedly different from the grammars of spoken languages. Hundreds of sign languages are in use around the world and are at the cores of local deaf cultures. Some sign languages have obtained form of legal recognition, while others have no status at all.

In addation to sign languages, various signed codes of spoken languages have been developed such as Signed English and Warlpiri Sign Language. These aren't to be confused with languages, oral or signed. A signed code of an oral language is simply a signed mode of the language it carries, just as a writing system in a written mode.Signed codes of oral languages can be useful for learning oral languages or for expressing and discussing literal quotations from those languages, but they are generally too awkward and unwieldy for normal discourse. For example, a teacher and deaf student of English in the United States might use Signed English to cite examples of English usage, but the discussion of those examples would be in American Sign Language.

Actually most people use Hello and Goodbye signs even if they don’t know any sign language without even realising it. That is because the signs for hello and goodbye are waves. Hello is a wave from right to left while goodbye is a wave with the hand folding up and down. And of course, these signs are recognised by people who do not know sign language as well, making the very basic introductions between people everywhere very simple regardless of their language abilities. Hence, I strongly believe that sign language isn't a difficult way to learn and we'll figure it out how interesting and amazing it is.

Communication for Social Needs

Year end and new year are joyful moments as there is not only holidays but this is also the time where major Festival such as Hari Raya, Christmas, New year eves and Chinese New Year are celebrated by multi-culture Malaysians. Gatherings with friend and relatives are a common practise during these festivals therefore families might not be at home during these festivals. These is also the best opportunities for thieves to break-in houses causing the increasing crime rates during this season.

The 'safe house' campaign is a campaign introduced by the government where police keep watch over houses when owners are away for the festive season. According to the Selangor Police Chief, this campaign are a success and Deputy Comm Datuk Khalid Abu Bakar said that not a single house registered with the programme was ever broken into since the campaign started two years ago. He also called on the public to be 'busy bodies' and inform the police if the saw any suspicious figure around their residence. “There have been many cases that were quickly solved, some with the perpetrators caught in the act due to fast and accurate information received from the public,” he said. Looming economy crisis might also increase the crime rates as people are loosing jobs and desperate. Various strategies have been planned to control the expected increase in these crimes and the commitment of the community are also crucial to succeed. However, the number of active community policing participants are disappointing. Besides that, due to the hectic life of the citizens, there are almost no communications between the neighbourhood.

As a conclusion, communication is essential to satisfy social needs and we should communicate with our neighbours and lend a helping hand when they need us because we don't know when is the day they might safe our lives and property. =)

I love human com :D

Hello!

Last semester, as part of our psychology group work we covered the fundamentals and basics of non verbal cues while flirting. This encompasses the techniques we subconsciously or consciously use while flirting with someone. For me, I personally feel that flirting is a 2 way process in which both parties show superficial or casual liking of interest.

First, lets talk about the non-verbal cues. This methods are proven to be 99.13% effective by expert flirt-ers from around the globe. For those wishing to learn a thing or two, please pay close attention and before you know it, you're the next new player! :D

Remember to never use corny pick up lines like:
(a) Are you tired? Because you have been running through my mind the whole day
(b) Is your parents a baker? Because you have great buns
(c) Did you just fart? Because you just blew me away
(d) Is your name summer? Because you are making me sweat
(e) Do you know CPR? Because you just took my breath away

but instead remember this non-verbal cues

1.Eye Contact
- the eyes are window to the soul
- making and holding eye contact, stealing quick glances and how you look at someone are all
important when flirting begins at the early stage
- try holding your target's gaze for more then 2 seconds. If he or she responds, good job! It is
likely that the feeling is mutual. :D if someone is stealing glances at you, it is likely that he/she
is interested in you.
- when listening to someone, you should glance at their face more but when speaking, try looking
away and then reestablishing a gaze after a few moments.

Please concentrate on the eyes. :P

2. Interpersonal Distance
- The exact term would be proxemics which is the study of the distance at which people
communicate with each other.
- How close you stand to your target indicates how much you're interested.

3. Postures and gestures
- Non verbal leakage is leaking what you really feel through your body posture and how your
body is subconsciously acting.
- Postural Congruence is when the person you're talking mimics your posture
--Example in movies, when the couples chins are rested on their arms and they are gazing at
each others eyes when talking. Awww.
--Positive signs which include maintaining eye contact and pecks on the cheeks



4. Touch
- Brief touches on the arm, kisses on the cheeks, hugs, slaps and handshakes all have different
meanings
- The gentlest touch would have a lasting impression on someone
- Note that, it is important to touch somebody appropriately as touching excessively will turn the
other relationship off

Stay tuned, as we are about to talk about the verbal cues and the dating sins the following week and you may even end up like him;

OUR FAVOURITE HERO, HUGH HEFNER

Basic Greeting

Greeting also call accosting is way for human beings to intentionally communicate awareness of each other's presencs, to show attention to, and to suggest a tpe of relationship or social status between individuals or groups of people coming in contact with each other.

As with many forms of comminication, greeting habits are highly culture and situation specific and may chnge within a culture depending on social status and relationship; the phenomenon as such exists in all known human cultures. Greetings can be expressed both audibly and ceremonial salutes ut includes rituals other than gestures. Basically, greetings are often but not always used just prior to a conversation.

A modest discussion starter

How do you know how to greet someone? What cues does a person use to choose the appropriate greeting? There are few gestures to greet someone. For example bowing, cheek kising, eskimo kissing, first pound, high-five, hug, pressing nose, hand shake, hand-kissing, hand raising or tipping, and so on. Voicemail greeting also is another way to greet. Voicemail greetings are pre-recorded message that are automatically played to callers, when voicemail answer the calls.

Relevant to this is a little snapshot in USAToday (January 8, 2009) on kissing as a form of greeting. Men and women differ considerably. 32% of men will kiss only the immediate family while 41% of women kiss only the immediate family.36% of the men would kiss very close friends, which seems very high to this greeting watcher while 36% of the women would. As to the percentage of men and women who would kiss only a member of the opposite sex: 33% of men and only 5% of women. Thus, men and women have a different greeting way depend on the situation and the people.

In my view point, we will greet friends, family or the people every moment and everyday. Greeting can count as our daily routine too. It is very important to learn how to greet with someone especially in manner way. Even the person is your enemy or you just don't like he or she, we also need to greet with them before start a conversation but perhaps is not in a manner way. At least we already show our generous and maybe in one we will become close friend. We don't know what is in the future and what is going on in the future too. Hence, we must show our polite when greet with someone and we will have a same feedback.

Communication and Culture

HELP university college is a well-known college and it is not a surprise thing to see HUC with students from different countries with different cultures and believes. It is a great thing to get to know them and communicate with them. However, it is necessary to understand even a little bit of the culture before you actually do any communication because you might accidentally do something that you think it is OK but it is not OK to them.

I believe everybody would agree that time is precious but not everybody hold the same time concept. Thus, I would like to share with you on the different concept of time between Germans, Japanese and us Malaysians. To begin with the topic, I would like to divide people into two rough categories with respect to time: monochronic and polychronic people. Monochronic people tend to do one thing at a time, concentrate on the job at hand, take time commitments seriously and are concerned not to disturb others. They also tend to be rule followers, show great respect for private property, seldom borrow or lend and emphasize promptness. Polychronic is the opposite of monochronic people. Germans are totally monochronic because promptness are taken for granted in Germany. For example, in Germany if you arrive late by even a few minutes, no one will be impressed by your sales presentation, no matter how good it is. Indeed, they may not even wait around to hear it. Therefore, u have to call up if you think you will be late. Besides that, in Germany, historical backgrounds are important to them, that is why every books, articles, journals and talk begin with background informations and we might get irritated with that because we might ask " why don't they just get to the main point?"
Japanese have two modes: a monochronic mode for foreigners and technology and a polychronic mode for virtually everything else. The Japanese switch from an open system for those in their inner circle to a more closed and tightly scheduled system for outsiders. To an outsider everything in Japan is rigidly scheduled. They organize a visitor's time and present him with a full schedule upon arrival. However, as one comes to know the Japanese, one discovers another aspect of their time system-- flexibility. Now, lets talk about the time concept in our own country Malaysia, we receive an invitation stating 7PM sharp and it is still OK if we are late for half an hour because, " Haiyo, traffic jam mah", " Sorry, I forgot", "My dog died", "My toilet sumbat" and the list goes on. So it is OK to be late in Malaysia because you just have to shoot a reason and infact it is always late. Maybe Malaysian are polychronic people.

As a conclusion, this is not to criticize or to compliment but to proof that cultures permeats all forms of communication and it is necessary to understand it influences to help you distinguish what is universal from what is relative because we do not want to piss the Germans off by getting late for 5minutes only. =)

The trend of students pursuing their psychology degrees are vast increasing by the year and it could be clearly seen in colleges such as Help University College.

I must admit that this course is indeed very interesting but on the other hand, do bear in mind that its not easy to read this subject. On completion of a degree in psychology, students are advised to pursue their masters preferably overseas as they would have brighter job opportunities later on in life.

Being a psychology may be an interesting career option, not only it provides a fat pay cheque at the end of each month, one would also have a really flexible working hours.

The question is, what makes one a better psychologist and stand out from the rest which are working in the same field?

In my opinion, a good psychologist must be a really good listener. By doing so, he or she would be able to understand how one feels and would try their best and solve the problem. You may obtain first class honors from prestigious universities, but if you cant listen to what your patients are trying to tell you, then how could you even think of helping out your patients?

A good psychologist must practice empathy/perspective taking if they wish to be a good in their field. One must put themselves in the shoes of their patients besides paying close attention on what they are trying to tell you before one tries to find possible ways to help the patient.

Lastly, a psychologist should actually let their patients talk more and not the other way round, as more communication is not better. As the patients talk and spills out more information about themselves, this makes life easier for fellow psychologist to help these patients.

down but not out ..

Early last year, on January 2008 to be precise, our nation came to a real shock and disbelieve about a very disturbing and yet humiliating news. Our then Ministry of Health, Dr Chua Soi Lek was in fact accused of a sex scandal in which would eventually lead to his downfall of his political career.

When the news first got published in our local papers and aired on prime news, Dr Chua was quick to deny such incident but eventually, it was proven that this accusation was in fact true and not before long, the sex clips were eventually leaked into the internet.

A then humiliated Dr Chua had no other option but to actually resign from his prestigious cabinet post and also leaving all political post he was holding before then.

What many of us, Malaysian fail to understand is that, in fact, Dr Chua has done wonders since he was elected as our Health Minister. One fine example is that, he purposed that the pay for all local doctors should be gradually increased and besides, they should have more flexible working hours.

He also purposed a new system whereby, patients whom are seeking out-patients treatment in local hospitals and clinics should be attended as soon as possible instead of them having to wait hours before they would eventually get to meet a doctor.

In a manner of fact, all Dr Chua's perposal did eventually work, and it benefited us all but up till today, many of us still fail to acknowledge of what he had done during his tenure as a Health Minister but instead, we tend to favor negative impression over positive ones.

For the record, Dr Chua eventually made a suprised political comeback recently and he now holds the Vice Presidents post in the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) but the question is, would he ever hold a cabinets post ever again after such incident?