Communication Skills: Language, Nonverbal, Listening

For this assignment I watched Pit Bulls and Parolees. First I watched the show with the sound turned off. I thought that everyone on the show was related or at least friends based on their interactions. They all worked together and with the dogs. You could tell they all loved the dogs based on their interactions with them. There was a couple of times when I was confused because the mood and facial expressions changed and without the sound, it was hard for me to determine what the reason for the sudden change was. Through-out the majority of the show they all looked either happy or content but there were those times when you could visually see that they were mad. During those times, their facial expressions changed and so did their body language. 

Once I turned on the sound, I got a completely different picture. There was one owner who ran the entire operation. She had a couple kids and the rest of the people on the show were either parolees or volunteers. The times that I thought they were mad, they were actually upset about a dog who needed their help.   

From this assignment, I now realize, now more than ever, that nonverbal communication is just as important as verbal communication. Assumptions can can and will be made if either of these do not match up. For instance, if you are having a great day but you are frowning, people will automatically assume you are in a bad mood (it happens to me all the time).