Revised
Today I am going to share a scenario of a conflict between me and my elder brother, Joseph. An evaluation of how culture or age could affect the verbal and non-verbal communication skills would be provided after the description of the scenario.
The scenario dates back years ago when we were still teenagers. We were taking turns to play a gaming console called the Gameboy. Due to budget issues, only one console was bought for us to share. When it was my turn to play, Joseph would often reply “ok, just a while more”.
Today I am going to share a scenario of a conflict between me and my elder brother, Joseph. An evaluation of how culture or age could affect the verbal and non-verbal communication skills would be provided after the description of the scenario.
The scenario dates back years ago when we were still teenagers. We were taking turns to play a gaming console called the Gameboy. Due to budget issues, only one console was bought for us to share. When it was my turn to play, Joseph would often reply “ok, just a while more”.
I would
usually allow him to procrastinate once or twice before starting a commotion by
kicking, yelling, and complaining. Shortly after, my mum would often step in to
say “Joseph, you are the elder brother, you should give in to your brother”.
Only then, Joseph would let me have my turn.
Firstly,
given that we were kids, we are generally more playful and inconsiderate. This
explains why Joseph would hog on the Gameboy for prolonged hours and delay me
of my turn. As for myself, by reacting like a kid and starting a commotion is
also due to an influence of age. When kids are unable to get things their way,
they would throw tantrums and make noise to get attention. My behaviour was an
example of getting attention from my mum to resolve the issue. Lastly, the way
my mum intervenes the conflict was by an influence of culture. My mum has five
younger siblings. Thus, she grew up in the culture whereby elder ones should
take care of younger siblings and be more mature. Therefore, she expects Joseph
to be mature and give in to me.
In
conclusion, under the influence of age, both of us are overly excited about
playing games and caused us to react childishly to fulfil our playful desires.
While for my mum, culture influence her to stereotype that with age comes
maturity and responsibility for the younger ones.
Hi Andy,
ReplyDeleteit is unfortunate that it is very common for subordinates to fear their superiors as they could lose their jobs. With a superior that has decent emotional intelligence, the subordinate would be content as they could voice out concerns and suggestions when communicating with the superior. However, with a superior that treats subordinates poorly, communicating with the superior would be extremely difficult and nerve-wrecking as saying the wrong thing could provoke a bad reaction from the superior as get the subordinate a scolding or worse, fired. Hopefully, none of us encounters such situations or people when we transition to the working life.
Society has stereotypes that affect people. However, just because there is a consensus about a group of people, doesn't mean its true. For instance, females are portrayed as very talkative, however, there are certain females that are very quiet and shy. Thus, I don't think gender affects peoples' way of communicating, but rather culture is what affects the way people behave. For instance, a child constantly told to be quiet by his parents could find it difficult to communicate when he grows up, which would affect his communication skills in the long run.
Good day!
-Sean
Hi Andy,
ReplyDeleteI agreed with your post on how your mother was influenced by the culture and I feel your pain. As my parents also doted on my younger brother more than me when we were growing up. However the only different is that my parents would cane me before passing the console to my younger brother. So I guess that my parents are more devoted in following culture barrier. (T.T)