Communication has become an integral part of our life and work and is of major importance for business people, representatives of government and civil society organizations. The notion of communication agency reveals the existing difficulties caused by the process of communication. The process of communication cannot be understood without special means of communication and informational signs.
The “Gender” Phenomenon
However, gender and culture differences have a significant impact on the communication efficiency and it is necessary to understand the basic aspect of gender communication. This course helped me to understand better such notions as communication between genders and sex orientation. I believe that these issues are eternal and they can be applied to every aspect of our life. Gender communication course helped me to overcome a number of quite tangible psychological barriers and the prevailing gender stereotypes. Modern society takes an active part in the creation of new social, cultural and philosophical systems related to the relationship between the sexes, and it is important to be aware of these processes. I also got familiar with such concepts as gender stereotypes, gender equality, and studied a set of philosophical and sociological concepts, including different interpretations of the concept of male and female. It became clear that many things that seem to be quite obvious and self-evident, such as the division of responsibilities of the spouses in the family and in the upbringing of children, men and women’s careers are just gender stereotypes. The study of gender verbal communication increased my awareness and understanding of such notions as partnership, and I believe that it helped to make my communication more successful.
In my opinion, “gender” phenomenon encompasses all areas of human life, respectively all the sciences which are somehow connected with a person. From the perspective of the gender, it is not only important to identify differences, especially between male and female genders, but also pay attention to the identification of conditions and factors that shape differences and specificities. Gender is one of the basic dimensions of the social structure of society, along with the class, age and national characteristics of the individual. Understanding gender is an inevitable part of social relationships based on perceived differences between the sexes, and gender is a priority mode of expression of power relations. The differences between men and women are intellectual and emotional, but they probably are qualitative, not quantitative. Men and women have different perceptions of their surroundings and evaluate things in different ways. Women tend to have a higher level of emotions, care and fully express their feelings, they have empathy, and the earlier need to share their experiences. Compared to men, they are more flexible and open to the standards of morality; they depend on the context of the situation.
In addition to language differences between men and women, there are also differences in the gestures, body movements and facial expressions. Moreover, I understood that gender not only determines the social status of the individual in accordance with his or her gender, but also makes a dynamic change as to the culture, its social dimensions, the opportunities and constraints of access to socially important values particularly, a hierarchical relationships, and all the instances of regulation and control of social behavior, fixing sexual differentiation of the individual.
Harmonious Partnership Between Men and Women
Harmonious partnership between men and women in public and private life can serve as an ideal for the public welfare. In practice, this transformation involves the formation of a higher level of general cultural and emotional communication, which should be aimed at achieving mutual understanding between men and women in the joint solution of social, family, reproductive, sexual, and other problems. I will certainly apply material learned from this course not only to my personal life and development, but also to my further business communication in order to make it successful. Now I am seeking to better understand communication between LGBT couples and Male & Female as these aspects are quite relevant and widespread nowadays.
I’ve learned a number of very important objective reasons that lead to problems in communication between men and women and how these differences are represented in various cultures and particularly in my own. These reasons are mainly associated with those objective “natural” differences that exist between men and women, and that were formed in the course of human evolution and are reflected in human behavior and communication. It is a well-known fact that we often have to interact and cooperate with representatives of the other cultures. Communication is the key to the success provided that you have a good knowledge of peculiarities and differences present in a particular culture. This applies to personal talks, performances and interviews, furthermore, differences may be in such features as gestures and body movements, the chosen theme of conversation, in the used words, traditional phrases, peculiarities in the way individual jokes and complains etc. General familiarity with the basic features of another culture and its differences from the other ones is necessary to anyone who is going to communicate and interact with individuals belonging to the different culture. I think that this makes the course an important component of education in the field of communication, both in business and in the public and government agencies.
As for my culture, it should be said that gender communication and relations are constantly changing and some of the stereotypes gradually disappear. All the changes and differences in gender communication are perfectly depicted in the media and its content. In general, the differences of male and female speech increase with age, they are minimal in childhood, small during the time of being a student, and reach a maximum in the age group of 50-60 years, and then slightly decrease. Gender differences in Japan are quite noticeable in speech and are particularly important. Some of the differences go back to the history of the Middle Ages, and now the differences between male and female speech in some cases are so great that it is possible to distinguish male and female variants of the language. Differences also occur in intonation, vocabulary, and syntax, and even in the use of certain grammatical elements of language, especially it is necessary to note the differences in the forms of civility and in the features of conversation. Most of all, differences occur in the oral dialogue speech, although in varying degrees can occur anywhere. In the spoken language differences are more visible than in the less formal situations of communication. There aren’t many grammatical and lexical differences in the official dialogue, but the differences may appear on the discursive level. Another striking difference is the tendency of female speech to have a great number of unfinished sentences. Although, as mentioned above, such incompleteness is peculiar for men too, it is still more specific for women. Differences in male and female speech are also related to power relations and etiquette. For instance, a polite manner is more likely to be used by women and therefore, the most polite forms are perceived as “normal women”, and the most impolite – as “normal male”, which is reflected even in television interviews or other types of media.
It is quite common for television interviews to have not two, but three members: the interviewee, the interviewer (male) and his assistant, who is usually a young girl. The two are talking, and she encourages the major parties expressing emotions and showing her interest in the dialogue.The limiting case of a subordinate role in the dialogue is silence. In the era of the Tokugawa it was generally believed that women, unless absolutely necessary, do not have to talk, and the tradition of silent woman persisted in the later epochs, sometimes appearing even now.