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Self. (20th ed.) pp.10

With life full of uncertainties, some of us may seek assurance on at least one aspect: ourselves. For me, to know my identity means having a purpose and direction of my life. But I learned well along that our true selves can never be defined with just one summary. We are like books that is continuously updated by editions. Despite realizing the inconstant truth of ourselves, I believe that we always must try becoming the best versions of ourselves. In this process, we must ask ourselves two questions: who am I today and who do I want to be tomorrow?

Who I am today:

In class, we discussed that our personal identity is shaped by our interaction with other people.  The activity we participated observed if our descriptions of ourselves matched how others perceived us. This was to illustrate our self-awareness. Observing my activity paper, it was prevalent that I am self-aware and confirmed by others that I am frank. So, to reflect on the objective of the module, personal identity as shaped by communication, I thought about how I developed into who I am today. My younger version was not as vocal and emotionally open, even towards myself, with the thought that I was stronger that way. I also thought that it was better to not risk hurting others’ feelings. However, I later observed and experienced miscommunication that evolved into bigger problems. Former problems were never resolved, just moved to another time where the anger is stronger and for longer. I became self-aware that being honest with how I truly feel may or may not help with the problem, but at least it will set me free. While this may seem a change completely for my own peace of mind, this may not be the case with the concept of performance of identity in mind. This concept pertains to how a person expresses their identity to others. Reflecting on this, maybe by being frank to others, I am communicating that I am someone who will not be silent when there is unfairness, who will speak her mind.

Who I want to be tomorrow:

While I do think it was a general improvement from my passive myself, I still do believe we can always become our better versions. As I grew, I eventually found people who stayed and accepted me for who I am, someone who values honesty, but perhaps a little too much. I became too comfortable with being vocal all the time. What I did not think early enough, was that I have been hurting people out of spite. Somehow, I wanted people to perceive me as intimidating and stronger than them. I spent most of my time whining, always irritated and hostile. This causes my loved ones became too mindful that they cannot be their true selves around me. In this dynamic, either sides are unhappy. After much pondering, the most important outcome was happiness for both of us. The person that I want to be is a someone who choose kindness everyday. While I still value honesty, I believe it must always be done out of kindness. They are not two sides of the same coin but rather two parts of a whole. 

I reckon this will not be an easy and instant change. Improvement is a process that needs time and continuity. But, I am hopeful that I am taking the right first steps of trying to be my best version.

-Angela H. Conda

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Communication and Culture

During my exchange program in Czech Republic, I was able to communicate with fellow Filipinos and people from different countries. During my first days in my host university, I tried to put on a pleasant and gracious demeanor (pagpapakitang-giliw) to the professors and my buddy, who is a Czech national and was assigned to help me in processing my papers as soon as I arrived in the university, and to the fellow Filipinos I met a few weeks after I have settled down. As I have observed, pagpapakitang-giliw is usually done to leave a good impression to the people who we just met. Filipinos are also known to be hospitable, friendly, and resilient. Hence, we tend to show kindness and proper demeanor to other people and especially foreigners.

As Filipinos, we are known to have close family ties. The Filipinos I met during my exchange program became my second family and we were always eating, travelling, and spending time with each other. Because of this, I was able to become comfortable and close with them. As I spent more time and got closer with my fellow Filipinos, who came from Mindanao and Iloilo, we were able to talk about different life stories (pakikipag-sosyalan) and share our anxieties because we miss our home and family in the Philippines (pagbubunyag).

I also recall an activity in our Psychology class, where we were assigned to report about social interaction, dominant and submissive behavior patterns. I was able to work with students from USA and Czech Republic. I remember that one of my Czech classmates wanted to include BDSM in our report as an example for the dominant and submissive behavior patterns. This is a sensitive topic for me since I am not used to talking about BDSM and sexual things with people, most especially in class. My classmates from USA were straight forward and told my Czech classmate that they disagree with his idea and they deem it inappropriate to discuss BDSM in class (tuwirang pagsasagutan). When the BDSM suggestion came out, I became quiet to communicate that I do not agree with his idea (pagpapahiwatig), because I was too intimidated and shy to say it directly. I was uncomfortable in discussing BDSM with people and in class because the Philippines is more of a conservative and religious country. Hence, talking about BDSM and sexual topics are considered taboo.

In my opinion, it is easier to communicate with Filipinos, since we are talking to our kababayan and we already feel a sense of belongingness. On the other hand, it is harder to communicate with foreigners due to language barriers and the struggle to express ourselves in a different language. Hence, we tend to communicate a message indirectly, show off, and put a pleasant behavior more, because we might send a wrong message due to our cultural differences.

In addition, I also think that communication between Filipinos is a form of intercultural communication, since the Philippines is a kaleidoscope of culture and tradition due to the different races that have influenced our group of islands for thousands of years. However, we have a more evident common ground, which makes communicating easier as compared to communicating with foreigners.

(by Diana Guillen)

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Many people, especially teenagers, have a difficult time in finding their identity. I know this because I had my own share of experiences back in highschool and even during my early years in UPLB. That’s why the third module about communication and identity is very close to my heart.

During my high school days, I was happy even though I was a fat girl. I still had a great family I could go home to, supporting parents with a steady income, and a Christ-centered upbringing. Even if I was fat, I had my close friends that I hung out with through vacant times and after school hours. People would teasingly call me cute as they enjoyed pinching my cheeks, sometimes too much. But I didn’t care because I was happy. This was until a few months after our senior year started when the yearly intramurals came.

In my high school (UP Rural High School), the cheerdance competition is really a big deal among the competitions during intrams. Because of that, our batch hired a college organization (who will not be named) from UPLB to teach and train us for this particular competition. Honestly and sadly, people from this organization were kind of judgemental. They pointed out all our imperfections, as if that’s the only thing that defined us as a person.

I was good in dancing but like I mentioned I was fat. Although I did not mind at first, those people made fun of me because I was fat. I just shrugged everything they said until that day when we were asked to dance in small groups so that we can polish the dance. One group danced after another while my other cheermates and teachers-in-charge watched. Then, our group’s turn came and we danced. Unfortunately, something embarrassing happened during a group move that inappropriately led for people to make fun of me. The people from the organization, the teachers-in-charge, and my other batchmates all laughed at me. After that, I went to a private room, broke down, and cried alone. I called my mom. I kept telling her that I did not want to be there anymore. I wanted to go home. I was hurt. Since then I was not confident about myself and I became insecure. I even began to see myself as an ugly person because I was fat.

After that incident, I allowed people to define who I was. I wanted to know what people thought of me. I wanted to please other people. I did not want to be fat anymore. So before college started, I worked hard to lose weight and look better. I thought that being slim would make me beautiful and accepted. It all seemed to pay off when my high school batchmates saw me in college. They were intrigued on how I lost much weight and complimented that it made me look beautiful. I was flattered. And again, I was happy.

Fast forward to the present, I became more intimate in relationship with God. I learned and realized that my identity can only be found in Him. It should not be dependent on how people thought of me, on how slim or fat I am, or even on how high my grades are. It should not be dependent on earthly and temporary things because the things of this world will soon fade away. As we get older, our beauty will fade and the physique that we were once proud of will also fade. Our charm, humor, or appeal in any way will not help us through tough times within our committed relationships. Thus, I have learned to set my eyes on things that really matter and be happy with who I am today. My mother always told me to never forget that I am God’s daughter through Christ’s perfect sacrifice. And this even means that not only I, but you, all of us, are infinitely valued and loved. Jesus made all the difference for me.

Attached here is the paper from the third group’s activity last Tuesday (03.12.19). I think that all the things written in this paper (even in everyone’s paper) are just descriptions of me by people who may not know me well or those who might know me but only on the surface level. But even if people could accurately describe me, even if I could myself, we can never define our objective worth apart from how God sees us. I believe that all people are always more precious than how they look, how they dress, how they walk, how funny they are, etc. and because of that, I hope that we really take the time to get to know each other with our equal worth yet diverse personalities and different journeys.

P.S. I am not imposing my views on anyone. You don’t have to believe what I believe. But at the end of the day, Jesus is real and you are so loved.

(by Diana Guillen)

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Political rhetoric is a double edged sword. A candidate may express his/her position for the future or may just be a colorful introduction of themselves.

An effective rhetoric appeals to three basic parts, the ethos, pathos, logos. The effect of the rhetoric is based on the impact of those three points. The rhetoric may appeal to the audience or just call animosity based on the level of the three. Each individual has different response to a rhetoric creating a wide variety of response.

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Pinakamagulong game ng bayan, kung saan ang mga contestants ang gagawa ng batas.

The final activity and report of group 1, Team CAFS

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Integration of multiple timelines and media convergence

An evolution of mankind's communication methods from primitive to complex and large scale communication.

#RickyBMartin

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We too!

what i was working on today!!

studygram: tbhstudying

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Orality and literacy, the real civilization maker

There's a alot of things that can be said about this picture. Serene, peaceful, the perfect mixture between natural and manmade.

Now, the question i posit is how is this possible.

Only 50000 years ago, mankind as we know it never even existed. Now, we are conquering the skies. Civilization is based on the premise that one group would help another group and vice versa walking towards a common goal of prosperity. There may be other reasons behind the creation of civilization as of we know it today but this is the very essence of human civilization.

Of course with the formation of civilization, an efficient form of communication should be established. From grunts, words has evolved. From drawings to letters. Slowly but surely, orality and literacy has been developed.

From ancient Mesopotamians hailing from the fertile crescent, Egyptians and their hieroglyphs, all the way to the Mayans of the new world. Civilizations isolated from each other exhibit a common trend, development of communication creates communities, which creates agriculture, which creates culture, which finally ends with a formation of a civilization.

Even the bible states the importance of orality to the formation of groups working towards a common goal.

"7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.

8 So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.

9 Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth."  Genesis 11:7–9

In conclusion, what's the importance of orality and literacy? It made everything possible. From the study of art, religion, and science. All of which come to know is because of the human need to prosper.

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Happy valentines from Team CAFS!

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Maybe its just me, but i really need to work on my ORALITY and LITERACY. :)