Reflection Logs: The students will suggest Communication Strategies in communication

across culture to avoid communication breakdown

Effective communication is about more than just exchanging information.

It’s about understanding the emotion and intentions behind the information. As
well as being able to clearly convey a message, you need to also listen in a way
that gains the full meaning of what’s being said and makes the other person feel
heard and understood (Robinson, Segal, Ph. D., Smith, M.A.).

After how many years of living, I have lost and gained so much friends,
much more than I have expected. One of the reasons why I lost friends was
because we lost communication, and reasons why I gained new friends was
because of interactions, and of course, effective communication. With the friends
I have for almost 7 years, we rarely hang out with each other, but when we do, it
is always the same as how we were in the past, even though we aren’t together
as often as before, the friendship stayed the same because we never lost
communication. We don’t communicate like couples where they talk to each
other the whole day, and every day, but we always make sure to at least check
how each one of us is doing every once in a while, and that’s how we stayed
friends for a long time, not letting our communication, break down.

When I entered senior high school, I gained additional friends, friends that
would study and make projects with me. My friends who were with me when I
had to face an experience that broke my heart. That time, I rarely talk to anyone,
I go to school, I hung out with them, but I was always silent, but deep within my
heart, I was grateful because they never left my side. Communication I think is
not about talking to each other verbally, it also includes talking to someone using
your heart, or by being by their side, being with them, will make them think that
he/she is not alone, that I think is also a way of communicating, and that’s what
they did to me.

Now, I once again gained great friends, my block mates, who shared my
frustrations, helped me with a lot of things, answered my questions, and listened
to my stories. Thru listening to each one’s stories we created communication,
through telling our own stories, we created communication, and through sharing
frustrations, achievements, and failures, we built communication, and I’d do my
best not to break any of those communication.