Culture Differences

Distinct cultures do build us a different person. Lets start with education.From the day we are born, we had been told the dos and don'ts. Parents tend to teach us be humble to everyone; we are supposed to thank whoever that help us; respect the elders. Sometimes parents too form us an irresponsible person. For instance, how many parents will scold their children of littering? Or would they even ask them to pick up the rubbish and throw it to an appropriate container? The answer would be a NO. Do we thank to people like servant, waiter, toilet cleaner or even a taxi driver? Well, we don't, as a asian culture. We often thought that those people should serve us because those are their job and they get paid. As a western culture, they are likely to appreciate them even though their job level seemed to be low. P.S. in western countries, they get high payment =/.

Culture do shape us a different character too. A simple example will illustrate this. Imagine, well you don't have to, it happens in everyday in fact =/. A lecturer may ask us questions during lecturers, or he/she may ask us to write it on whiteboard, to show everyone the answers. You would observe the Asians put their heads down all the time and mumble, 'Not me please!'. Whereas you might found the Westerns answer the lecturer with details. They are more open-minded, you can say so. They don't think making a mistake is embarrassing, they eventually learn things from failures. Yet, Asians are afraid to lose.

Another issue that we can always see in Asia countries is grown up and married children used to live with their parents, especially the sons. This do not practise in western countries. In fact, they usually leave their parents at the age of 19 to 21. They will then have their home and life separately. They are more independent since they live with their own in a young age. In contrast, Asian parents still think that the age of 19 is young and immature to live in their own. It is obvious when you compare a 19 year old Malaysian and an Europian. The Europian is far more mature in both mindsets and characters.

Yesterday, I saw an article posted up in internet and it says that London Evening Standard(London newspaper) apologizes to the public by pasting slogans like 'Sorry for being negative', 'Sorry for taking you for granted', 'Sorry for being complacent', 'Sorry for being predictable' at everywhere. Londoners can find all these posters all along TUBE(the trains), on the sides of buses, wall and so on. According to UK news, the new owner of London Evening Standard is trying to reconstruct their readership because recent research shows that Londoners no longer feel positive to their paper and they failed the capital's needs. Full stop. After reading this, instead of evaluating whether this action is neccesary, do think of whether this happens in Malaysia. We can hardly see people apologize in local. Well, is that true that we don't trained to apologize?

This is an picture of the posters that shows on the sides of undergrounds.

In conclusion, cultures and custom are not only stucture a person's character, perceptions, and as well as mindset. Usually we can't compare which of these cultures are way better than another. But it will be better if we learn the down and positive sides from each other. As I mentioned above, we should learn to apologize to whoever, whatever and wherever.

Life without human contact

Have you ever wondered about life without any form of communication?? Well, I feel that communication plays a very important role in our lives. We may not notice it as it has been part of us since we were born. Communication comes to us easily just as it is in our nature to breath. What will happen to us if we cannot communicate? I heard of this story once so I would like to share the story with all of you.

There was an old fashion house sitting in the middle of the countryside. The house had been abandoned for about 4 years as everyone thought the house was haunted. Shrills and cries could be heard from time to time in the house. When they checked the house, they could not find anything in there. One day, there was a family that decided to move into the house. That night itself, they heard weird scratching noises from under the house. It was like someone was under the house. Without thinking twice, they ran out of the house and put up a night in the nearest motel.

The next day, contractors were asked to come and tear up the floors of the house. Under the house, they found an old room. When they checked the underground room, they found a mattress, and some old toys there. To their dismay, they saw dried up blood and rat carcasses everywhere. Then they heard a whimper from the corner of the room. A contractor shone his torchlight in that direction. He screamed with fright when he saw her. She was as pale as a ghost with dark circles under her eyes and her hair was so messy. She screamed in pain and crouch into a tight ball when she saw the light. She had been so used to the dark that her eyes burned when she saw the light. Her head twitched to the side when she heard the squeaks of a little rat. Her hearing was as sharp as a bat. She got into a crouch and pounced on the rat. With her bare teeth, she ripped the rat apart and ate hungrily.

The contractors ran out of the house in fright and called for help. That woman was sent to the hospital. It was said that her mother was raped by her grandfather and got pregnant. Her grandfather was ashamed of his pregnant daughter so he locked her in her room for nine months until the baby was born. Since the mother was locked up all by herself, she had depression and committed suicide. She hung herself after the baby was born. Soon after the baby was born, the grandfather created a room under the house and the baby was locked in there. He would send food down to her every meal. When her grandfather died, she had no food so she had to live on rats to survive.

She had been staying in that underground room for all her life and she had never seen light or had any human contact. She was like an animal. She even acted like one. Many tried to help her but she didn’t know how to talk or communicate. In the hospital, she would just start screaming and screaming if any light was turned on. At times, she would be sitting by the corner of the room, rocking away. If anyone tries to talk to her, she would just utter cries and she would attack them for no apparent reason. This is what happens when someone is kept from all means of communication. They would not know how to speak or what you’re saying. They would also act like an animal and they do not know that they themselves are human beings.

Pictures of the types of communications

MASS COMMUNICATION

PUBLIC COMMUNICATION

SMALL GROUP COMMUNICATION

INERPERSONAL/ DYADIC COMMUNICATION

INTRAPERSONAL COMMUNICATION

communication among humans

This is the 2nd week I have entered my Human Communications class and this is my 1st post. Human communication is not new to us as we communicate with each other all the time. After entering a few classes, I feel that my perception of communication may be shallower than I thought and the lectures have told me that there are more to human communication that meets the eye.

Human communication as a subject is new to almost everyone so I will start by saying a little bit about human communication as an introduction. Like Mr Murali said, human communication is a process. It is not something we can do by ourselves and it is never a one way thing. We have to address one another to begin a conversation. If there is no response, then its no longer a conversation.

As we all know, there are many different varieties of communication, which are, the intrapersonal communication, the dyadic communication, the small group communication, public communication and mass communication. By the end of my post, you will definitely know more about the different types of communication.

Firstly, we have the intrapersonal communication. From the word intrapersonal, you would have guessed that it means one person. Many people talk to themselves and I know that you are no different. People talk to themselves to give themselves some encouragement and to gain confidence.Next, we have the dyadic communication which is also called the interpersonal communication. It is a communication between two people like when you are talking to a friend.

The third type of communication is the small group communication. A small group cannot be define as the perspective of the word "small group" varies from one persone to another. To us, a small froup range between 3-5 people. On the other hand, a public communication is when an individual tries to communicate and reach out to a crowd. For example, it could be a motivator giving a speech to a hall full of people or a lecturer teaching a class.The final type of communication is the mass communication where an individual communicates and reach out to millions of people. It could be via electronic or printed media.

I have explained the types of human communication so I hope you will understand more about human communication.