Communication

As an experienced speaker, I appreciate the work that Toastmasters does. It’s a little too structured for my taste but at least individuals have plenty of opportunities to speak in front of a small and supportive audience. The short one…
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There are five communication styles defined by Virginia Satir, a famous American writer and psychotherapist. This classification can give you an alternative approach on how to be courageous in a conflicting situation at work. When your opponent tends to dominate…
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No-one likes negative feedback although learning to accept it, and use it to better who you are the way in which you present yourself to others is a better way forward than retaliation. As a writer, often my postbox contains…
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As an American expatriate recently returned to the United States from my home in Morocco, where I teach English as a foreign language, communicating across cultures is not only my daily bread, but a way of life. It is never…
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It doesn’t matter where you work, what your field of work is, or who you work with. At some point in your life, and likely more than once, someone at your job is going to have a problem with a…
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Sometimes in life you have to say no when you know that the answer someone is hoping for is a yes. This can often leave people with feelings of guilt, and the knowledge that the other person has been left…
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If you look at some of the problems in your marriage or friendships, you will probably realize that a common thread is miscommunication. Communicating effectively is challenging, and there are all kinds of things that can go wrong. After all,…
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The differences in the way men and women react to situations and communicate those differences is as wide as the oceans. The need for courses of communication between man and woman should be a requirement before they ever get married….
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Ew ew ew EW ew ew. L33t speak. The first time I came across this horrid creature I was utterly baffled. When I discovered what it meant, I was still perplexed, and a little sad to boot. And then, when…
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Humans are a communicative species. So are most creatures, to be honest, though the majority don’t rely as much on communication to get through their lives as we do, or at least in as many different ways. We talk, we…
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I do not believe the events of our lives are random and meaningless. I believe that every day we are presented with lessons, and if we’ll just pay attention, we are made greater by them. Our home was purchased from…
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While most of us would probably agree that honesty is the best policy in relationships, many of us still allow a few little white lies to creep in. Some believe that what you don’t know doesn’t hurt you and that…
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It’s really easy to say “I love you” with words alone. You can toss the ever-popular phrase out right now without any effort. But can you prove it? Ah, that’s the rub. It’s not always so easy to show that…
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Frustration is a part of life. No matter how patient you are, there will be times when you lose your cool and get agitated. For some people, frustration crops up frequently. They live in a state of resentment. But how…
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This is quite a tricky subject. When we talk about children, we will have to define which age group they belong to. This is so because, our level of influence as parents will depend on the age of our children….
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You may be on a business trip to a foreign country, or venturing into a new community for market opportunities. You ask for a place or a person, and suddenly you find yourself making exaggerated gestures in a vain attempt…
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Communication with Children’s Friends Parents must know their children’s friends to understand the influences on our children. It means illustrating your positive strengths that you use for your life much as you do with your adult friends. Children benefit from…
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Have you ever received an email that never got to the point? How about one that seemed to border on the edge of rudeness? Online communication is quicker than postal mail and seems to have a totally different set of…
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The difficulty with communicating cross culturally varies with the amount of difference that exists between the two cultures. An American won’t have too much difficulty communicating with any other English-speaking person from another country. (Although when I traveled in the…
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7 Keys to Better Communication Listen carefully. The key to good communication is the ability to hear what others say. How can you make a rational reply if you’re formulating an answer while he’s talking? Don’t interrupt. When you cut…
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The importance of nonverbal communication in our interpersonal interactions is often underestimated, but the truth is that certain nonverbal messages can contradict what we say with our voices. There are certain gender expectations of nonverbal communication (eye contact, gestures, posture,…
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No public speaker should ever forget this important fact! People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. You have most likely heard that quote before, and it is true. If you are a speaker…
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Using instant messenger for business use is helpful and instant communication, although you have to remember a certain amount of business etiquette when talking to people over the Internet. They are not friends. They are clients, and must be talked…
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If you want to know what your kids are really like, you best get to know their friends, too. I’ve discovered this eternal truth through experience, both in my own life and the lives of my children. When my kids…
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Do you know you speak all the time? Even when you are asleep, you mind is occupied with thought. When you wake up in the morning, you are already thinking. Then you begin to speak in another kind, that is your…
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As with any form of communication, the first step is to assess the person or group of persons you are speaking to. For the unfamiliar, there may be this misconception that online writing = shorthands and instant messaging lingos. That…
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Way back when I was in grad school, there were all kinds of theories being floated about body language. I forget the writer’s name, but one sage wrote books that described in great detail what each non-spoken gesture truly meant….
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Toastmasters is the one of the oldest and easily the largest speakers’ clubs in America, having been holding meetings since 1924. It has thousands of chapters all over the US and is being imitated in many other countries. The goal…
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Like a sense of atmosphere,like a flow of intangible, electric energy from a transmitter to a receiver,nonverbal communication can be the secret weapon enhancing or modifying clear verbal communication.Nonverbals may generate silent questions beyond apparent answers. To understand the secrets…
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Understanding and reasoning with a smoker depends on the individual that is smoking. If a person puts his or her habit above compromising with nonsmokers then there will be no middle ground to come up with a compromise that is…
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