Nonverbal communication skills are important in every conversation. Being able to read those cues is important, however, this exercise has shown me that it’s difficult to interpret exact relationships and dialogue from nonverbal communication alone.
I chose to watch The New Girl. One of the first scenes is of a man and woman in a bathroom together. The woman begins to look uncomfortable as two more men and a woman enter the bathroom and are all conversing with the man. She ends up quickly leaving the bathroom. I assumed that she left because she was uncomfortable with the crowd.
After watching it with the sound on, I was proven correct. This woman, Julia, was an overnight guest of one of the men and was uncomfortable with the overpopulated bathroom. All of the characters that entered were speaking very candidly and openly in front of Julia and she did not feel at home.
In a scene shortly following, the two women are in a living room together. The one woman, played by Zooey Doeschnal, is offering food and talking a great deal. Again, the other woman looks very uncomfortable, while Zooey’s character seems relatively comfortable and excited about something. The mood changes when a man enters the room. The woman looks less uncomfortable and gets up to greet the man. She drops a blanket on Zooey’s character and gives her cupcake to the man. She looks upset and leaves the room. Zooey’s character seems to confront the male character; she gets very close to his face and her eyebrows narrow.
After viewing this scene with the sound on, I realized that Zooey’s character, Jess, was trying to ask Julia for legal help and Julia insulted her by eluding to the fact that she believed she was childish. Jess now feels that Julia does not like her and confronted Julia’s boyfriend, Nick, about it.
It seems to me that Zooey’s character is friends with the three men involved in this show. This friendship seems to be causing friction between one of the male characters and, what appears to be, his girlfriend. It also seems to me that Zooey and this woman do not particularly like one another, and there seems to be sexual tension between Zooey and the woman’s boyfriend. I assume that they may have had a relationship in the past, as every time he enters a room the women that spend time with Zooey’s character seem to be angry.
After watching the program with the sound on, it became clear that Jess lives with the three men from the beginning of the episode and is very close with them. She often gives advice and is a little quirky. There isn’t sexual tension, just the love of friends; which I misinterpreted. In addition, the women that are friends with Jess are simply being protective of her because she is sweet and a little misunderstood.
I feel that if I’d watched this show regularly, I would already understand the connections between the characters and would therefore, have been able to have more precise assumptions about their relationships and communications. In addition, after watching a show frequently, it becomes easy to predict what is going on in a conversation without having to listen to it, just as you could in real life situations. For example, if a child and parent are speaking out of hearing range, and you observe their nonverbal cues, it is much easier to understand what may be going on if you know the family well and have been interacting with them on a regular basis.
This exercise was an interesting take on communication and provided me with new insight. You cannot base your perceptions of a particular situation only on the nonverbal communication skills of its participants. Specifically, if you are not familiar with those involved. It also reminded me of times within my current classroom that I have assumed my teenage students were having inappropriate conversations based on their body language, only to find that they were speaking about their assignments.
Here’s the link to the episode I watched. The show is actually pretty funny! I recommend it. (I watched three episodes!) J
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