Communication and Its forms

Communication and Its forms

FORMS OF COMMUNICATION: not only speech, also face mimics, gesture, posture, sounds, Brails script (world wide known, for blind people), Morse code (changing of dots and dashes), gesture language (used by dumb people), pantomime, sing language

VERBAL COMMUNICATION: spoken language, spontaneous, repeat/explain on request, ask questions. Tone, modulation, fluency, pauses influence different meanings. Spoken language include laughter, sights, filler phrases for thought (“ums”, “you know”…), said can not be taken back. Verbal communication is different – whisper, shout, roar…
WRITTEN COMMUNICATION: requires more thought and planning, more formal terms, structured and organised ideas, more exact, only one-way, well structured, not possible to appreciate the feelings, better form for recording facts and ideas, texts can be studied later…

SIGN LANGUAGE: system of hand movements and gestures, no one international sign language, they differ from region to region

GESTURES, POSTURES: mime, shake, body language, nod, motion, wink, wave, cry, smile, kissing (on the mouth – romantic relationship, cheek/forehead – parents and children) and hugging, kiss on cheek by greeting/say goodbye…

OTHER SIGNS AND SIGNALS: pictograms and signs for drivers (international known – H = hospital, P = car park...), owl (symbol of wisdom), black (colour of death)…

MODERN COMM. FORMS: phone, mobile phone, fax, text messages, internet (Messenger, Skype), email – fast communication with people all over the world. But face-to-face contact still more personal, has its charm, has pros (you see person you are talking to, see his/her reactions, spontaneous, ask or explain if necessary… Also handwritten letters more personal than that ones which are written on computers. Spell-check caused we make mistakes by handwritten letter.

LANGUAGE: official, dialect, slang, jargon, formal, informal, mother language, first language, native speaker, bilingual speaker…

Esperanto (world language), Chinese (the most used), English (the most used, important, useful if we speak English – travel, job, entertainment – PC, cinema…)

COMMUNICATIVE SKILLS: listening, reading, speaking, writing

LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT: historical English (Shakespeare) hundred years ago, different, now difficult to understand, the same with Slovak (archaism, historicism – not used anymore), now new expressions for the latest inventions – software, internet, email, USB, hacker, DVD, CD – our ancestors could not explain the meaning of the word because they did not exist

DIFFERENCES IN LANGUAGES: Slovak (differences between official language and dialects in NR, TT, BA, west or east Slovakia), English (British and American English – different pronunciation and words autumn/fall, biscuit/cookie, first floor/second floor, colour/color….), German (German in Germany different from Swiss German – many words are unclear for strangers)

TRANSLATORS: used and needed mostly in politics, stressful and difficult job, great skills to hear one language and translate it at the same time to the different language, big responsibility, also rewriting texts (literature masterpieces, film dialogues…), invisible men of literature…