Misinterpreted Communication

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Journal 1 COM 125
An Instance of Unintended Communication
Nathan Lile
1.
Consider a time when you unintentionally communicated a message to someone through your behavior. How did this person interpret your behavior? What were the consequences? What steps did you take to correct the misinterpretation? Be sure to explain what the behavior was, how you knew it was misinterpreted, and why the misinterpretation occurred. What would you do differently in the future? My most striking instance of dramatic, unintentional communication occurred during my Sophomore year of Highschool. I was attending a New Year’s eve party hosted by a close friend while her parents were out of town. In addition to many good friends a young woman …show more content…

For me, this physical interaction was culturally a very important aspect of communication from my Italian background. This was particularly true when I was the receiver in the conversation. I was culturally conditioned to contribute by receiving conversation not only giving verbal cues of agreement or disagreement, but highly tactile ones as well. As the evening progressed, the young woman began providing tactile Feedback with increasing frequency. She touched my shoulder when she had a fresh insight into something we were discussing, put her hand on my side when she agreed with me, or playfully pushed me when I said something disagreeable. Having never been involved romantically unfortunately, and having a very Field of experience with women, I was clueless that she was flirting heavily with me. Sadly, I was not romantically interested with her in the slightest, so when half way through the evening, she leaned in and suggested that we “go upstairs” I was caught completely off guard. My look of total and utter shock must have been obvious, because she immediately asked me if I was ok. I managed to recover somewhat and, ham-handedly

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