Communication Skills: Language, Nonverbal, Listening

Nonverbal cues are an important part of communication, but they can very easily be misinterpreted. I found this out when I watched a show I had never seen before called “Noor” . I watched it first without sound and then with sound turned on. I was able to figure out some things with nonverbal cues while watching without sound. Here is a bit about my experience.

When I watched an episode of “Noor” without any sound, I could tell that Noor and Muhannad are very close to each other. I didn’t know if they are married or not, I definitely noticed that they were in love. I saw them hugging, smiling and touching each other’s hands. They were both at the hospital and each one in a separate room. A guy entered Muhannad’s room and this guy and muhanned seemed that they are discussing something very important, and from their facial expressions I could tell that the guy wasn’t agreeing and is not happy with what Muhannad is saying. Then I saw that the guy brought a wheel chair, he assisted Muhannad to sit on the wheel chair and took him outside the room. When I saw this, I thought that the guy was helping Muhannad to escape from the hospital. But after continuing to watch it, it seemed that the guy was taking Muhanned visit Noor’s room to see how she is doing. When in the room, he approached her bed while she was asleep, and when she wakes up, she seemed very surprised to see him, she tried to hug him, but she couldn’t because she had the IV connected to her hands. Muhanad looked at the guy who accompanied him to the room, and he used a facial expression to ask the guy to go out of the room. When the guy left, Muhannad held Noor’s hands and kissed them and he seemed that he is expressing his deep love to her. Noor’s facial expressions and nonverbal cues showed that she also loves him too. They both appeared that they are thanking God that they are okay and alive after having an accident or something.

I had to rely on a lot of facial expressions to tell me what they are feeling and expressing. Through this, I could see happiness that they are both alive, and deep love one to another. I had a general grasp about what was really going on, but the lack of verbal communication made it really hard to understand everything that the characters were expressing. This shows that verbal expressions are not enough to make us know the real information and they can lead us to make assumptions about the characters.  

I watched the episode a second time with the sound turned on, and what a difference that made! I was able to hear all the details about all the characters and what were exactly going on. It also helped to clear my assumptions, because I didn’t have to wait until Muhannad’s got to Noor’s room to know that he is going to see her. I knew from the conversation that occurred between him and his cousin that he is asking him to go see her, and his cousin didn’t want to, because he was scared to make any harm to Muhannad who was supposed to stay in the bed and don’t move.  

What I learned from this blog assignment, is that body language can tell us a lot, but sometimes it can be misunderstood and a person can take what we are doing the wrong way. And that also nonverbal communication cannot substitute verbal communication. Nonverbal communication can help guide us in the right direction, but verbal communication can really confirm or deny what we believe to be true.