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September 12nd

When I was a baby I was very shy and I didn’t want to talk with the other children. I don’t remember which was the first word I said and for this reason I asked to my mum to tell me something about this topic. She answered that I started talking when I was two. We were watching a film in our living room when with a sudden scream I said: ”Izio! Izio! Izio!” In the beginning my mother didn’t understand what I was saying but after she realized that I was pronouncing the name of the film’s protagonist that we were seeing.     

I really believe that my mother and all my family influenced me during the initial process of communicating, they usually paid very attention on how I spoke or on how I expressed my self since I was very young. They taught me how to introduce myself to other, how to be polite in communication in order to create e favourable environment in each conversation.

Infant language researchers believe that babies are born with a genetic aptitude for language. Studies have shown that mere hours after birth, a newborn can distinguish his mother's voice from that of another woman.  My father thinks that I was a very scrupulous and open-eyed child because I repeated all the words I heard, I interpreted every single sign or gesture in a particular and personal way.

I’m very interested in the topic of communicating and for this reason I read lots of books inherent to that. I know that babies only  eight  to  nine  months old can remember words from a story or a simple piece of music they have heard previously. By the time they say their first words around  one year of age, children can understand hundreds more words and once the language spigot is opened, the flow continues.

I remember a story of my grandparent regarding a guy who wants to travel in order to learn all the languages existing in the universe. I was fascinated about this boy who left his family to find out his vocation. He travelled all around world, learning new things, communicating with people and knowing lots of different cultures. Only now that I’m 23 years old I understand how important was this story in my life. My grandparent tried to drum into me the awareness that communication with others is fundamental at each stage of the life.

I’m studying languages because I think that communication is the departure point to develop our skills and abilities and to find out new ones.

  September 14^th

What about misunderstandings?

I remember my business teacher telling some misunderstandings about Chinese people during a negotiation with an American entrepreneur. During this event, the American tried to familiarize with Chinese staff of the other enterprise. He would have coped with them in the future and for this reason he wanted create a good environment for the negotiation act. The American started making personal questions about the family, interests, hobbies and so on. Chinese staff was shocked about this conduct and decided to interrupt the conversation defining the American rude and ignorant.

The manager of the American company didn’t want to offend the others but only to create complicity with both parts.

With this example I understood how important is communication and how misunderstandings can interfere our business or personal attitude. I also know that as for negotiation in particular, body language can be fundamental: we shouldn’t have an eye contact with a Chinese chief for example   jeans are not acceptable for business meetings subtle, neutral colours should be worn by both men and women we shouldn’t use large hand movements with Chinese people because they do not speak with their hands   it could be better to present and receive cards with both hands…

She affirmed that they can be very different ways to interpret a verbal or non-verbal signal and that every culture does it in his way. I learnt all of these aspects of communication an I really think that in order to a better understanding of the differences in cultures it’s fundamental  to start with the study of body language.

My teacher explained us that non-verbal communication includes facial expression, tones of voice, gestures, and eye contact. It plays an important role in our daily life, sometimes it is even more powerful than the verbal interaction. Different gestures have different meanings. Different nationalities have specific gestures and emotions. However, due to the different background and culture, even the same gesture and emotion has different meaning for different people in certain contexts. Thus, it is very useful for us to understand people by understanding their basic nonverbal communicative skills, for example, Chinese have become more reserved or at least the gestures expressing emotions are comparatively less expressive.

I have made a research about misunderstandings in communication and I found that “When two people who are having a conversation do not understand each other, the usual complaint is that they are not speaking the same language."  This reference to "a common language" generally means that if people are to understand each other, the same vocabulary is essential. I have chosen this example because it’s what is happening to me in this moment. I’m Italian and I’m living in Spain to finish my post degree career. Even if Italian and Spanish are two languages similar in grammar and pronunciation, I really think that misunderstandings in communication are present at all times and stage of my life. 

  THANKS!