Week 2: Communication Exercise

          For this blog assignment, I watched one of my daughters’ favorite show that I have never paid close attention to!  It was an episode of “Shake it Up”.  When I watched the episode with the sound off, it was really shocking how much you can actually pick up from body language.  The show begins with children who are dancing on a stage in groups.  I am picking up on the beat of the music from the way the dancers heads and bodies are moving.  The characters’ relationship seems hard to figure out without listening to the words that the children are saying.  When the two girls are in the house they are sitting on the same couch.  One girl is reading a magazine and the other is talking to her.  Their faces look calm so it appears that they are having a friendly conversation.  Throughout the show the two girls are together so I am assuming that they are friends, because they are of two races and can’t be sisters.  They use many gestures and during the meal, one girl appears to be sad and the other girl seems to be trying to cheer her up. 

            When I was able to listen to the show, I found out that the two were best friends and dancing partners.  Both girls lived in the same building and went to the same school.  I never picked up that the little boy that went to their school was the girl’s brother because it never showed the two of them in the house.  When watching the meal scene I learned that Cece (sad girl) was told that she couldn't dance if she didn't pull up her grades.  Her mother told her this, while having a phone conversation.  When I was listening only, I did pick up that the girl was upset about what the lady was telling her, but I didn't realize that she was her mother.  Cece’s friend’s name is Rocky and she was comforting her and saying that she would tutor her to bring her grades up.

            If I were watching a show that I normally watch, I would have been able to figure out the relationships and conversations rather quickly.  If you’re watching a show, you can predict a lot of what you think that particular character has said or will say.  You know what types of looks they make and what they mean.  It would have been much easier to watch something that I normally watch, however, I wouldn't have gotten as much out of the activity.  When looking at the episode without sound or even background knowledge, you don’t know what to expect.  I think the good thing about this is that you can see it with any “open eye”, without judgments.  However, without knowing the characters or background knowledge you’re only option is to assume.  Most of the time, my assumptions were incorrect as far as relationships went.  I was shocked to learn that by not listening to the sound, I was able to pick up on the correct mood of the person.  You can learn a lot about what a person feels, simply by watching and paying attention to body language and gestures.