(FTS) Interpersonal skills

                One of the exciting subjects in our curriculum is taking up Field Trip and Seminars. It is where you can find fun, adventure and sometimes stressful days. All in one pack experience will be there during FTS class. On past weeks we have made the activity very successful by the help of our speakers and officers because aside of taking major activities we are also required to have interpersonal skills which will developed our relationship between our classmates whom we do not know that often.

                Many of my classmates don’t know me by name they only knew me by my face appearance. If we meet by instance we only smile each other which is a little bit awkward by my side. So having been into the said the activity we have change the way we interact with each other which became a good benefit to us. It was Monday July 21 in this current year we are able to perform the activity, I was also excited because finally I will meet new friends who became strangers at first. I woke up early in the morning and prepare all the materials that will be used during the interpersonal skills activity. I was assigned to bring marker which will be needed to perform a specified activity. On my arrival at social hall my classmates are already busy preparing the materials like designing the stage and for the presentation of our sessions. Then after that moment Mrs. Emily Madrona, the University Guidance Counselor had arrived and helped us to arrange the set up. After a while our professor has arrived and became the signal to start the activity performance. First things first we had opening which was lead of one of my classmate.

                Interpersonal communication is the most important kind of communication. It happens when two individuals are in a close proximity to each other, and they are able to provide immediate feedback to one another. Interpersonal communication is the way we express our thoughts, feelings, and ideas to the people around us. Interpersonal communication is something you need to do well as it affects many aspects of your life. Interpersonal skills are a learned skill that can be improved with knowledge and practice. What makes these skills necessary is that they allow you to express your thoughts, feelings, and any information quickly and orderly. These skills can help you understand someone, and can even help you make an environment that is open to effective communication. The three steps to effective interpersonal communication are the following: acknowledging the individual, send a message, and affirm. Competence in interpersonal skills can be assessed both through general interpersonal interactions and non-verbal communication. Both general competence and non-verbal competence are very important to the way that we communicate and have great influence on the message that we relay to those with whom we communicate.To evaluate the personal overall competence in interpersonal skills, I am going to focus on adaptability, conversational involvement, conversational management, and attentiveness. 

                Adaptability, which is the way we change our behaviors towards the said situation like participating during the activity, to be appropriate for different interpersonal situations we had this six factors: social experience, social self-possession, social confirmation, appropriate disclosure, articulation, and wit (Canary, Cody, &ump; Manusov, 2008, p. 506). Social experience towards different people is the idea that we have participated in social interactions before, and because of this we are able to develop communication skills on our own that teach us how to interact in certain situations. This is pretty standard for most people, including myself. Although with every conversation I have with my classmates I learn something more about communicating and how to be a good communicator, I would suggest that I have had enough social interaction in my life to at least guide me through most interpersonal situations. I am typically a shy person who doesn’t want to talk to many people especially if I only knew them merely once. But with the lesson that I was able to adapt I change my perspective in life to be more approachable with my fellow classmates, schoolmates and so on. Social self-control is our ability to keep calm “perceive situations accurately.” Sometimes we feel nervous in some situation that we have doubt on the decisions that were able to choose. I  feel that I am not alone when I say that for some reason, the moment someone puts a camera in front of me I tend to become more a bit awkward, but even in situations where I feel semi-uncomfortable, I am still able to keep my composure pretty well without much struggle. Social confirmation helps communicators adapt to their partner and notice their partner’s efforts of self-presentation. In this factor, you would adapt to your partners self-presentation goals in an attempt to understand them better and communicate more efficiently with them. If you can adapt to their goals it will allow for a more organized pattern of communication.

                We have also performed many sessions and before we have started we are able to divide ourselves into groups. The first activity was giving opinions about the contributions and expectations regarding with the said activity. My group mates cooperate very well and we are able to answer the questions that were given to us. Of course we can contribute many things regarding with the activity one of this is our participation which everyone can deal with. In participating with activity we are being engaged in interpersonal communication. Another is ideas, of course being in a group activity everybody can share their notions as we speak and interact to each other. Many concepts will occur and each one of us can create the best conclusion that fits to the question. The last one is the expectation, we almost have the same aspect regarding with word expectation and it is to be closer to everybody and can develop deeper relationship and it is friendship. Friends bind people in a bond of love, mutual trust, understanding and loyalty. It is a relationship which involves mutual self-respect, trust, loyalty and affection. Good friends enjoy each other’s company, share the same interests and are loyal to each other. Just as it takes patience grow a garden, in friendship, too, first a seed is planted and then it has to be taken care of, nourished and watered, daily. One has to tend it with love and care. The importance of friendship cannot be undermined because we cannot survive without good friends. It is a very important relationship in the emotional life of every human being. A friend, who supports him only when it is convenient, is called a “Fair-weather-Friend”. By the help of this activity we can also be able to grow friendship that might be one of the best experiences during the Field trip and seminars subject.

Appropriate disclosure refers to the amount of information that is shared in the conversation especially during our interpersonal skills including both the breadth and depth of subject matter. In our conversation, I think we both did very well with this particular concept. Our range of disclosure was quite appropriate for an eight minute discussion between acquaintances. I feel that if any deeper information would have been disclosed, one or both of us may have felt uncomfortable with the situation. The ability to express our thoughts clearly and accurately is known as articulation. Sometimes, especially in situations where I am not 100% comfortable, I tend to jumble my words and say things such as “everything under the books” but for the most part, I can accurately express the thoughts that are in my head and generally, with correct phrasing. But I do have times when it seems that the words in my head are not necessarily the ones coming out of my mouth. This is an area where I could improve by making sure that especially in situations of stress or discomfort, such as a job interview, that I am properly articulating my ideas. In our conversation, we had some amusing interactions, like the sharing the stories of our life, I was amaze of the different story that my classmates told us. It was just amazing in how it happens for only nine hours of talking and listening but for the most part, our conversation was devoid of much humor. I would consider myself a witty person in most situations and I feel that it really can do wonders to lighten up a conversation but in our particular situation, it didn’t seem to play a big role. While my interpersonal adaptability is not perfect, I believe that in most social situations I am able to adapt quite well. In this specific situation, my articulation could have used some work and I certainly could have added in more wit, but overall my competence for adaptability is very high.
Conversational involvement is another criterion used for assessing interpersonal competence. Conversation involvement is simply how involved we are in our interactions. Three important concepts of conversational involvement are attentiveness, responsiveness, and perceptiveness. Attentiveness is listening and focusing on the conversation and your interpersonal partner without “being preoccupied with your own thoughts”. Responsiveness is the ability to know what your role is and know what to and what not to say in your interaction. Perceptiveness is being aware of those who with you are communicating are perceiving you.

                Before explaining our answers each group must have a name so we end up naming the group as “Girls over Uy” since his surname is Uy. He also became the leader of the group. Every group was able to make the unique name base on their own reasons why they choose it. After those scenarios we have perform the next activity and it was paper clip story, Mrs. Emily Madrona has told us to create an object that describes ourselves. At first I was having hard time thinking about what object will describe myself so I end up choosing slippers. I also struggle on the clip because it’s hard to create slippers using those clips and after how many minutes it end up like a sandal. It’s really funny how we make things true that clip. Some of my group mates made a box, cocoon, handkerchief, infinity sign, tree and a stone. We just had a fun time laughing to our handmade work. Then we are asked to combine it all and create a story on how we made it that way. I chose slippers because it’s like comparing to me of what I have been through many different places and experience hardship and success. We had many ideas on how to combine our master piece but we end up on the idea of putting all those paper clip on the box. It’s like describing ourselves in one place where in different personalities was able to interact. We are being unique in our own way as we live into this world and as we live we create new things.

                But what’s important at the end is that we made a strong relationship towards each other. We may not be that close one but at least we are able to spent time together. Of course one of my favorite activities is the games that we were able to play. It is really fun, fun, fun and fun! Especially the game “You belong to me” corrects me if I’m wrong but that’s how I remember the name of the game. It’s really amazing and made a remarkable moment together with my fellow classmates. Life is a made up of a collection of moments and at least I already had one with them.