Communication between us

Like many people out there, my friends and I also enjoy watching television programmes that are in another language other than English and Mandarin. Such as Japanese and Korean shows. Most of the shows we watch are not available on tv/cable so thank god for the invention of youtube! (I'm saying this with lots of gratitude. Really. Haha) We are still able get our daily fix of dramas/variety shows. Fortunately. =)

Although we are able to catch the shows on youtube, most of the time the videos are all not subbed. Either that or people simply take too long to even sub it. Haha. Thus there are many times where we just watch the show without the English subtitles. However, despite the fact that we can barely understand Korean, we are still able to understand what is going on in the show. I find it very amazing how communication works between human beings. It is amazing in a way that it isn't necessary for us to learn other languages in order to be able to understand each other. Although my friends and I do not understand the (unsubbed) videos in detail, we are still able to understand most of the "message" that is being sent across. Mainly through non-verbal communication.

Aside from verbal communication, non-verbal communication (when a stimulus other than words creates meaning in the mind of the communicator) plays a huge part in helping us understand the message that the other party is trying to convey across to us. Whether it's through actions, expressions etc. It is marvellous how we do not need to use words to express ourselves and yet others are atill able to understand what we are trying to say.

What do you guys think? Have you ever watched shows that were not in English or Mandarin and was still able to understand most of it even without the subtitles?

XOXO

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Love Matters

Hello!!! How did all of you spend your Valentine's? :D

After thinking for an hour on what to blog for today, I decided to write on a movie I watched during the CNY break. Love Matters. Since this week I learnt about communications in relationships. I guess this is suitable. :)

Here's a synopsis from the official website (http://www.lovematters.com.sg/en/home.asp), incase there are some of you who have yet to watch it. :

“Love Matters” is a movie revolves around three main protagonists –

52 year old Tan Bo Seng, 17 year old Benny his teenage son and 36 year old Jeremy, Bo Seng’s ‘adopted’ brother – and their accidental journey in seeking and keeping love and happiness.

Bo Seng (Henry Thia) leads a routine life. Attempts to revive the passion with his wife Jia Li (Yeo Yann Yann) cannot improve their stale love life.

Jeremy (Jack Lim) lives a colourful life, colourful in reference to his long list of girlfriends. “Never to commit” is his motto for love.

Benny (Alex Leong) has just school life, his only vice is anything to do with the computer, his only distraction is his crush, Jennifer (Natalli), his classmate’s girl.

Bo Seng & Jia Li the old fashion couple has more misses than hits in the love department and a series of madness spin off one night …

Jeremy meets Benny’s teacher, Ms Wong (Cheryl Lee) - a lady, unlike the wild things he has had. His charm wins him her heart, but his Casanova means refuse to take a back seat, a new lady friend threatens to change his life …

Benny starts to see hope in relationships, when Jennifer notices him and invites him over to her place. Over the visit, Jennifer’s friendly attention, takes a turn into something that Benny wish he has not been…

“Love Matters” is a humorous and entertaining look at love, happiness and issues concerning our straight laced society. It is full of trade-mark Jack Neo’s laugh-a-minute jokes and situations yet combined with a sensitive look at how we deal with issues concerning matters of the heart.

In Love Matters, besides relationships between couples, it also features the relationships between friends & family. Most of the stages in the Knapp model of Relational Development can be seen in the movie.

Although all 3 main relationships (Bo Seng & Jia Li, Jeremy & Ms Wong, Benny & Jennifer) in the movie did not reach the "Terminating" stage, along the way there were conflicts that led to the "Differentiating" stage. Especially for Bo Seng & Jia Li. An example would be when Bo Seng supposedly 'slept' with a young girl, which Jia Li later found out. She was not willing to forgive him and even wanted a divorce. But like most movies, it's usually a happy ending so obviously both of them did not end up filing for a divorce.

Unlike Bo Seng & Jia Li, Jeremy & Ms Wong as well as Benny & Jennifer, their relationships were mostly at the "Coming together" stages of the Knapp model. Although there was ONCE when Ms Wong almost broke up with Jeremy as she thought Jeremy was the one who slept with an underage girl. Since she overheard him talking about the incident to Jia Li as he was actually covering up for Bo Seng. But all was well after he made it clear to her. :)

In my opinion, I feel that the stages in the Knapp model can be seen as a cycle at times. There are couples who do reach the border of the "Coming apart" stages but would end up moving back to the "Coming together" stages (e.g. Jeremy & Ms Wong). Although it probably doesn't work out this way for most failed relationships, I would like to believe that there are exceptions out there.

What do you guys think? The Knapp model should be seen as a cycle or just a straight line model?

PS: Honestly, I don't fancy this movie at all. -.-

XOXO
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Miscommunication through sms

HEY. How's everyone? Right..I'm totally cracking my head on what to blog up here. This is such a killer. I feel stupid by the way. NOBODY READS THIS SHIT I'M BLOGGING. Can someone comment? At least make me feel less dumb. Thank you very kamsa. This is commonly called a 'lingo' or also known as a jargon used among Korean youngsters. Kamsa is taken from Kamsahamnida which means Thank you in Korean. How very creative. Haha. It rolls off the tongue pretty naturally. Try saying it. =D

Okay that is not what I'm gonna talk about for today's post. Have anyone experienced it when someone smses you asking a question and you merely reply "ok", then when you least expect it the next sms you receive from the other party would be "are you ok? are you angry?" Well I've definitely experienced that before and also had a hard time convincing the person that I'm perfectly fine and not angry at all. -.-

Short Message Service which is commonly known as SMS is a service available in all mobile phones these days (unless you own a brick phone then I've got nothing to say -.-) which allows
people to send text messages to others conveniently. Despite the convenience it provides as a medium of communication for all of us, this form of communication unfortunately does bring about miscommunication between people at times.

However this miscommunication is usually brought about by people's misinterpretation of the text message. For some odd reason, people tend to give personal meaning to the message they receive and interpret it wrongly thus misunderstanding the sender's real intentions. Therefore I personally think calling others are much better. Besides being able to prevent these sort of miscommunication, you can also prevent the hassle of having to explain yourself. Haha.

So do you guys prefer calling someone or texting? Have you guys experienced the same situation as I did before? Share yours here! =D

Have a good weekend!

XOXO
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