Andrea Molero - Post 1

Groups Presentations, my thoughts

Starting with Group number one which presented Chapter 3 Intercultural Communication, I would like to say that they were extremely organized, even though there were some people who were not present, they were able to get through it with minor inconvenience. They were the first group to present without ever meeting each other, which is crazy for me, to make a whole presentation via zoom or text and make it seem so good, that everyone knew their parts with no problems. Their slides had just enough information but not too much that it was overwhelming to see, and they had pictures, making it easier to associate with the text and the information being said. Learning about the culture and how we can all communicate is such an important topic in a country like this one since it is mostly made up of people from all over the world, and sometimes it can be difficult for some people to get used to it. This is where problems arise with, for example, cultural shock that I learned happens when something that is normal for us gets disturbed by something or someone who has different values or norms. Because all cultures have different values, these can be ideal values like honesty, integrity, empathy, respect, fairness, kindness, and even open-mindedness. On the other hand, real values are those that are deeply held, like principles, and priorities, these are extremely important in a person’s actions, relationships, work, and social engagements. When talking about culture, Ethnicity is one of the first things that normally comes to mind, that is such an important part of all the different cultures, and with this comes native languages and family heritage. Sexual gender and sexual orientation can vary in all different cultures, sex and gender are usually intertwined but are not necessarily the same for a person. Religion is one of the biggest differences between all humans, and it has brought a lot of problems around the world, which is why it is so important to respect what other people’s beliefs are. These were in my opinion some of the most important parts and points of Group’s one presentation.
 

Group 2 presented Chapter 9 about Communicating in Groups was a beautiful presentation all throughout, the slides per se were so cute, in my opinion, the best of the three groups, they were just different than what you normally see in presentations in college, the little pictures fitted right in with the theme. During the presentation all the members knew what they were saying, they seemed to know about the chapter, and even though there are always some people who are a little bit more nervous than others, they made it work seamlessly. I think the slides had just a little too much text, therefore, you cannot really read everything since it becomes a bit overwhelming. They were especially great at explaining everything in detail, giving examples, and trying to speak in their own words to make it less difficult for us, the audience, to understand them. I learned there are different types of groups, families, social groups, support groups, interest groups, service groups, work groups, and virtual groups. Also, they can be healthy and have rules, norms, and a certain type of accountability, and together with synergy groups can have better results. The group approached the presentation with a little bit of funny images, which were in my opinion just the right amount since it was not too much that made it unprofessional, but it made it, at least for me, much more interesting to watch, keep myself focused on it and pay attention to what was actually important. I really like the way they talked about group conflict, since this happens in most, if not all groups that exist, no matter what the group is about, there are always going to be conflicts, and if it is worked and talked about correctly, this can be beneficial for the overall results.

Finally, we have group three, which is my group, presenting Chapter 10 about Leadership and Problem Solving. This was the biggest group of all, there were 14 of us to make a presentation about just one chapter, it made it difficult since some of us had small parts to talk about and there was not much information, however in my opinion we made it work. We also had technical difficulties when trying to share the presentation for all of us to get in, some people did not have access until the last minute, even though we tried for days. But considering how many of us were, I think it was a decent presentation, we had 2 people missing the day of, but Professor Sinkoff helped us explain those parts. I think the slides did not have that much information and we did try and talk in our own words instead of reading everything directly from the PowerPoint, we tried to say different things, so people could listen to us, but also read the actual PowerPoint. I liked this chapter because it teaches you that there is not just a leader and that is it, in reality, every member of a team is equally as important since there are many different roles that it is impossible for one person to act as everything at the same time. I also learned how meetings can be extremely detrimental if not worked in an efficient way because if they are not, people will stop paying attention, get bored and people will forget all about it the moment they step out the door.

To sum everything, I think considering the first few weeks were online all groups were great at their presentations, we all worked hard and tried our best to make something that was seamless, tried and explained things for everyone to understand and also, in my opinion something that is extremely important, we all got or nerves under control to stand in front of a big classroom with a microphone and started talking about what we learned from each chapter.