COMM311 Real-World Connections: Episode 3, Yes, No, and Maybe
About 2 minutes. Use the CC button to turn on captions.
Transcript
Narrator: Real-World Connections. Episode 3: Yes, No, and Maybe
Amara: Priya, can you have the clinic dashboard ready by Friday?
Priya: Yes... I'll try. It may be a little difficult, with the clinic data still coming in.
Narrator: Amara heard "yes." She didn't notice the pause, the softer voice, or the eyes looking away. On Friday, there's no dashboard, and Amara's frustrated.
Daniel: We were supposed to finish at ten. It's ten twenty. I've got another meeting.
Narrator: Two different signals, both easy to miss. In your readings, you'll meet high- and low-context communication, direct and indirect styles, and nonverbal codes like eye contact, vocalics, and chronemics, which includes monochronic and polychronic views of time.
Narrator: The course reminds us that in a high-context exchange, a verbal "yes" doesn't always mean agreement, and that meaning often lives in what isn't said. It also reminds us that no culture uses one style all the time.
Amara: So Priya told me. I just wasn't listening to all of it.
Narrator: What did Priya's words say, and what did her nonverbal cues say? And how should Amara check for understanding next time, without putting Priya on the spot?
Pause and apply
Rewrite Amara's Friday request two ways: once for a listener who prefers a direct, low-context style, and once for a listener who prefers an indirect, high-context style. Then list three nonverbal cues from the readings that Amara should have noticed.
This video is licensed CC0 1.0, except the Lucide icons (ISC License) and the background music ("Serene View", Mixkit Stock Music Free License). Narration and voices are AI-generated.