English Article: How is your basic interpersonal communication skill; I tested mine with a family trip

 

By:  Monika Sugiarto

Dear Friends,

I just got back from a very memorable trip to my home country Switzerland. This trip was long overdue and the reason for it was family. Read all about what I learned about basic interpersonal communication skill when interacting with family:

Basic interpersonal communication skill;
how well do you get along with family?

As a public speaker you need to be proficient in basic interpersonal communication skill. What better place to test your capabilities then visiting families you have not spoken to for quite some time. In situations like this communication is the key factor for successful interaction. Will they remember your visit with a warm fuzzy feeling and can’t wait to meet you again or with memories of a heavy burden when your name is mentioned?

I am getting older and sense an urge to meet people who are supposedly close to me, although we are many miles apart. So I decided to do what I yearned for and dreaded at the same time, I planned a trip back to the place I grew up, beautiful Switzerland. I have not been back to visit for quite some time and this trip was dedicated to family.

My children actually were the instigators of that trip. We, my son Tom, daughter-in-law Fithri, who has not been to Europe, their son Azzam and my daughter Kathy decided it was high time to arrange a family trip. We had promised my mother who is 84 years old and still well, to visit her for quite some time. I also wanted to reconnect with my brother and sister and other relatives. How much did they want to get together with us?

The first challenge of course was to travel in a family formation. Not many grown up children today want to travel together with their mother (-in-law), sibling and a 7 month old baby to a far away country? Not many families are willing to receive so many relatives and enjoy the invasion of their homes. I remember vacations years ago that ended in all participants happy to be out of each other’s hair again.

This holiday though was not only a delight in the beautiful scenery of Switzerland, as you can see from the pictures but also an accolade to the best of human interaction and the joy one can derive from coming together and enjoying life. We traveling from Indonesia left Switzerland with a warm and fuzzy feeling, hoping to see each person we met soon again. I am quite confident that the people we visited feel the same way. Here are my five cents worth of advice how it happened:

Basic interpersonal communication skill starts with GRATE:

• Grateful for everything people do for you and for the good of everybody. Do not be egoistic; think of everybody’s needs and wants.

• Respect people: Everybody wants to be special in their particular way. They want to be loved for who they are.

• Attention: Listen and give your full concentration when you interact with people, make them the most important persons at that moment.

• Tactful: miscommunication and mishaps occur everywhere and all the time. Do not make people feel bad because of something that they said or did while interacting with you; simply overlook faults.

• Expectations, keep them in check. Having false hopes will lead to disappointments.

This vacation and mingling with relatives was one of the most memorable holidays I remember. Maybe the biggest reason for the warm and fuzzy feeling was that everybody who participated wanted to be there and made efforts and contributed to the successful interaction. Nobody there expected just to receive. Meetings like this are very important in our human journey and each time we experience interaction that are thriving, we feel GREATE. You can’t be a triumphant speaker and communicator if you are not proficient in basic interpersonal communication skill; practice with family.