Personal Reflection: With And Without Words

Watching the video “With and Without Words” made me reflect about my last career choice and how I unknowingly used several forms primitive peripheral linguist as a means of communication with hand signals, non verbal code, visual non verbal and facial emotions. The backbone of the California food service industry is dominantly from a lower ecomnomilcal background and most are not fluent in English which can make communicating difficult at times.Working in a high school kitchen for five years and having fourteen years experience in the food service industry I unknowably became accustom to using hand guesters in the workplace. I was responsible for a kitchen crew of 6 students who choose culinary work experience for a high school class and most spoke very little to no English. I did not understand why I was given the task of running the student work program class when I was managing other parts of the industry high school kitchen that did not involve a language barrier. At first it was hard for me to be able to instruct students what to do and how to do it with a langue barrier, but hand signals, non verbal code and visual cues over came the presented optical. Watching “With and Without Words” made me reflect about my experience I had teaching a work study class to Spanish speaking students because I unknowingly used primitive peripheral linguist as a means of communication. Why did the hand singles help the students understand what task they needed to perform and how to perform the given task? Hand signals are a very basic and primitive means of communication that are quick, effective and some are universal. The video explained that the come hear hand single in english is palm facing up and open flat with a finger waving motion towards the person creating the signal. In other languages the hand signal for come hear is similar, yet different which makes it universally understood. Reflecting back to the experience of working with none English speaking students I noticed that the most effective hand guessers were universal understood between my self and the Spanish speaking students. When I would use hand commands like the come hear signal students understood with out words. After a while the students understood what was expected of them from the reputation of common hand signals, which became our own kitchen “code”. Pointing with one finger I would choose students and then point to a location in the kitchen signaling a certain kitchen station to work in. At the kitchen station I would start off with a double clap to signal focus and let the students know they were getting directions. I would then perform the task I wanted them to do and use hand guessers for signals of …show more content…
Once I was dressed normally inside of work and working with my students when the head of food service happen to visit my kitchen. He approached the group of students in the work study program and asked where is your instructor? I replied I am right hear which made his face turn the color red and the students smirk. The students understood the man in the fancy suit was embarrassed since his face turned red by thinking I was a student. Most employees are age forty to seventy not twenty four and who appear sixteen. Also the precocity at which the man was standing changed from close quarters to further away since he was overcame with embarrassment. Their are about seven emotion that are universally understood the video explained. The use of Facial muscles are key to understanding emotions and using them as a means of communication such as a red face for …show more content…
The class video assessment made me reflect about the use of non verbal communication and I was shocked to understand that I was frequent user because of my communication habits from working in the food industry. Hand signal hurt ones natural ability to article because the more hand guesser made when taking the quality of speech decreases. I am going to try to be self aware now when conducting an important conversation to not use hand guesser so I will not hinder my speech quality. Currently I am not working, I do not want to return to the food service industry and when I regain employment I will be diligent in my efforts to correct my bad