Introduction

The three people I chose to interview for this project were my best friend and my two

older brothers. My best friend’s name is Gates and I’ve known her since 7th grade. She is my

closest friend and I’ve spent a long time being together throughout our lives. The second person I

interviewed is my older brother Dakota, and I spend most of my time at home with him. The

third person I interviewed is my oldest brother Kaligh. This interview displays that I'm a very

good listener overall, however, there are certain skills that everyone in my interview had

different opinions about.

Articulating Needs, Opinions, Views, or Concerns

My best friend Gates thought that I was very good at articulating my needs, opinions,

views, and concerns. The example she used was when there were issues in our relationship, then

I was always the one who would be completely honest and tell her straight up what I see is

happening to our relationship. To her, I’m straightforward with expressing my points of view and

I don’t let myself hide my feelings. Dakota felt the same way too. He felt that I’m very open with

the way I feel and I always explain my feelings very passionately. Dakota has noticed that if he

brings up a certain topic that I don’t agree with, then I always voice my side of the topic while

being passive.

However, Kaligh feels that I don’t express the way I feel about many things most of the

time. The way he put it is basically that I bottle things up on the inside and I reserve myself from

talking about what I think. My needs, opinions, and problems in my life are not voiced only until

I reach a certain breaking point or I dump my feelings to someone at the very last minute.

Kaligh’s response caught me by surprise. I personally never knew that I say things at the last
minute. However, Kaligh was the closest to my response to this question since I mentioned that I

don’t want to feel bothersome to people with my concerns or opinions, so I just keep them to

myself. I think that I need to keep being open with my views of other people, but I need to

practice sharing my deep personal feelings and not keeping my personal thoughts about me to

myself.

Listening

For this question, all my interviewees felt that I’m proficient at being a good listener.

Gates feels that I’m a good person to go to whenever she has something she needs to get off her

chest or when she needs someone to listen to her about anything she’s thinking about. Dakota

knows that I’m a good listener since he talks to me about many things I’m not personally

interested in and I don’t seem like I’m listening, but I prove my great listening skills by bringing

up what he talked about in the future and remembering many topics he talked about. Kaligh’s

perspective about my listening skills was positive too. He knows that I always helping others by

listening to their problems and that I respond appropriately while listening to others.

The majority of all my interviewees’ responses were like my response. I feel happy to

know that all three of them agree with my perception. Gates and Kaligh’s responses relate to my

point I mention about great listening skills when it comes to listening to other people’s problems

in their lives. I’m glad to know that this is a skill that I’m good at. From this, I wish to continue

to be a good listener and use it as a skill to help make other people’s lives better.

Nonverbal Communication

Gates brought up something that I never thought about when thinking about my

nonverbal skills. From her, I learned that I smile a lot when I converse with people and that my
smiling makes me very approachable to others. She felt that I need to practice making eye

contact with people so that I strengthen my nonverbal skills. Being able to make eye contact

shows that you are really listening and that you’re engaged in the conversation. Dakota’s

response conflicts with Gates’s response because he thought that I’m really good with eye

contact. My response relates to both of their response because I feel that my eye contact is good

and bad in certain situations I’m in. So I’m not surprised by their conflicting responses.

Kaligh’s response differs a little bit from the others’ responses since he focused on my

facial expressions when I talk. Apparently, I make my conversations more visual or very

informational by how expressive I am with my facial expressions. From my facial expressions,

he can tell whether something good or bad happened with someone or something just by the

facial expressions I make before I even speak. I need to pay more attention to my nonverbal

actions and make eye contact while speaking to others.

Communication Strengths

I learned from Gates that I have amazing confidence when I’m talking to people. She has

seen me grow from a very shy person to a confident person that can now easily have a

conversation with anyone. Dakota mentions the same thing with my confidence in speaking. I

don’t mumble and I speak at an appropriate volume that everyone can understand. Kaligh

brought up again my listening skills. I also learned that I’m very open-minded while in

conversation and I’m good at coming to valid conclusions/interpreting information well.

I’m surprised by the fact that my confidence in speaking was mentioned. I only looked at

my listening skills and I thought my speaking skills were terrible. Hearing my strengths from
other people has shown me that there are other skills and attributes I am good at. I now plan to

keep these views in mind and hopefully get better at other skills too.

Communication Weaknesses

Gates felt that I didn’t really have any communication weaknesses. She mostly kept

bringing up the eye contact skill that I would need to improve one since she notices that my eye

contact isn’t very good when I’m talking to new people like her friends. Both Kaligh and Dakota

brought up the same exact point, that I’m either very sensitive about certain things during

conversations or that I get very upset quickly when I’m in disagreement with them.

I feel that Kaligh and Dakota’s response are this way because they are both my brothers

and we are siblings that fight a lot. I thought I was a very passive communicator in any situation.

Dakota brought up all our conversations where we have our disagreements. He is someone who

is strong about their opinion and so am I. So when we are both feel strongly about or opinions,

we clash until we are both mad at each other. Kaligh’s example was also the conflicts I have with

Dakota. He witnesses both of us becoming very heated and upset in our conversations to the

point where we fight. I think to resolve this problem is to be more mature and understanding

about perspectives even if I’m only talking to my brother.

Having a Conversation with Me

All three of my interviewees mentioned that a conversation with me is always interesting

and fun. Kaligh’s response also mentioned that usually, the conversation has to be initiated by

someone else besides me. Or that I’ll talk and initiate the conversation if I’m already comfortable

with the person I’m speaking with. Gates noticed that our conversations are very casual, loud,

have lots of laughing, and full of many inside jokes since we are very close. Dakota said the
same thing that our jokes throughout our conversations always makes our conversations unique

and interesting. Even when I was doing the interviews with Dakota and Gates, we still had our

laughs and fun while we talked.

My response consisted of being able to be entertaining and interesting while having a

casual or even a bit more formal conversation with people. Hearing all of their responses affirms

my perception of what it’s like to have a conversation with me. I learned that my conversations

are at the full potential of fun when I know or I am already comfortable with the person I’m

having conversations with. I want to hopefully have this be the same with people that I’m not

one hundred percent comfortable with.

Summary

Throughout this assignment, I was able to receive insightful tips and help on getting me

to become a better communicator. I now know that I’m an excellent listener and that it’s a skill

that impacts many people’s lives around me whether it be support or love. Throughout the

interviews, I was able to also build my relationships with all the interviewees as there were times

where the conversations in the room would get very serious. Each interviewee shared with me

skills that I can improve like eye contact and sharing my personal thoughts and feelings more.

I’m going to practice eye contact and articulating my views to others. I’ve heard of many ways

people try to practice eye contact from talking to more people and even practicing their eye

contact while watching youtube videos of people talking to the camera.

I truly now want to become a better communicator since the job I have now is a front

desk clerk and I always use my communication skills throughout the whole day. Since I’m a

front desk clerk, I’m very interested in improving my communication skills to better my
performance at work. I have noticed that the more time I spend at work talking and resolving

issues with customers, I’m able to talk better outside of work. Now I know ways to even further

improve my excellent listening skills and even improve my speaking skills that, at first, I thought

I was terrible at. Going from my perceptions to hearing other people’s perceptions with an open

mind has encouraged me to climb out of my shell of shyness and communicate effectively with

others.