When I watched with the sound off I could tell that the show was about a family that included mom, dad, brother, sister, and little sister. I could tell there was some conflict between the mother and older daughter due to the finger wagging, frowns of both characters, and the disgusted look that the daughter gave her mother as she hurriedly left the kitchen.
I also saw some affection and laughter between the dad and the son as they were in the son's bedroom talking about some problem and the dad patted the son on the back, gave him high fives, and they were both smiling as the dad left the room. Later on, it showed mom and dad arguing in their room and then dad going to sleep downstairs.
During the last scene of the show, it the mom came running in the front door as dad descended the stairs in a bath robe so as they were laughing and flirting I assumed that they were showing marital affection. During the flirting mom answered the phone, frowned, and then she ran out of the house and dad ran up the stairs. In the next scene it showed the son, apparently in the principal's office and mom and dad arguing with him and the principal. Then the son left the office, mom and dad kissed in the hallway and the show was over. I assumed that the son got in trouble and that the mom and dad helped him.
When I turned the sound on, I was pretty accurate with most of my assumptions. The oldest daughter and mom were arguing because she wanted to get a belly ring. The little daughter showed up with cute sayings a couple of times and was obviously in the show for the "cute" factor. The mom and dad did have a fight that ended up with him sleeping on the couch and the phone call that mom received, right in the middle of their make-up session, was from the school who had caught the son smoking. Seems that Dad, when I thought he was helping son with problems, was telling son that the way to get the attention of the girl that he liked was to be a "bad" boy. Dad apologized to Mom and Son, fussed at the principal when she called Dad a bad father, and then finally had their make-up kiss in the school hallway.
I did a pretty good job with my assumptions, but I think I would have been able to figure out much more if I had been familiar with the characters. I was trying so hard to figure out who the people were and their relationships that I probably missed a lot of nonverbal communication cues. All in all, I had a great time with this little experiment!
I definitely believe that one must pay attention to both the verbal and nonverbal forms of communication in order to be the most effective communicator.
Thanks for reading!
Monette
Is this the show with Tim Allen? I know I've heard of it and I think I may have watched it once. It sounds like you did well with the nonverbal cues. This assignment got me thinking about the old "silent films" from years ago. I think it would be fun to watch one of those now!
ReplyDeleteWhile doing my assignment I was also happy with my results. I figure we live in a very animated society. Everyone I meet when we share a conversation they act out much of their scene. (My mom is a great example of this). Communicating verbally and non verbally is definitely important to be able to become an effective communicator.
ReplyDelete( I liked your title a lot!)
Ivelisse
Hi Monette. It looks like you had their communication styles right down to the point with and without the sound. I find shows with laughter can humiliate the cast involved (even though the scene is intended to be funny), but shows with families primarily involved has an actual plot that could only be interpreted in sound. When I chose mine, I like the fact that characteristics and relationships of families vary. What makes it more interesting on this assignment is that every chapter we’ve covered on communication so far affects relationships.
ReplyDeleteHi Monette,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your post this week. I see you are very good at reading nonverbal cues. I seem to be pretty good at it as well however, this week I was a little off because the character's facial expressions were deceiving. I too enjoyed this week's assignment.
Thanks,
Berdetta
I agree Monette, it was a fun but very difficult task to watch a series never watched before to figure out what the relationships were and what they might be saying with only non-verbal communication.
ReplyDeleteIt seemed much easier identifying what the characters might have been possibly been saying based on what we learned in our reading this week.