Comm 102 - Interpersonal Communication - the Right Kind of Care

The Right Kind of Care

Jason Stewart

COMM/102

6/20/16

David Searle

The Right Kind of Care

This video showed to individuals interviewing for a job to help take care of an elderly woman with house chores and cooking. In the interview, we see the grandmother and her granddaughter Susan in the grandmother's home, the first candidate to interview Darnell, and he is a black man from the Caribbean island of Jamaica. He is very open and forthcoming in his communication during the interview; he expressed his passion and enthusiasm with verbal and nonverbal communication. The second candidate so the interview is a middle aged Korean woman, she is the opposite of the first candidate, she answers in short quick answers, providing little communication, and her body language demonstrated that she was trying to stay small. We are going to explore the cultural differences between the two candidates in interpersonal communication.

Looking at the first interview candidate Darnell, he entered the room and right away greet the granddaughter with a handshake, when he sat down, he sat up straight in the chair and showed body language of a confident person. He made constant eye contact with both the granddaughter and her grandmother when he was speaking. During the interview, the video demonstrates that Darnell is an excellent communicator. Darnel also expressed non-verbal cues, his voice was confident, he was talking clearly and loud enough for the grandmother to hear him. When asked about if he was trustworthy, we could see Darnell become slightly defensive, his tone and facial expression showed that he was offended by the question. Both the granddaughter and grandma were impressed with the Darnell, Susan expressed some concern over his skin color, the grandmother was open to the idea of him working for her.

Now let's take a look at the second candidate, Vivian is a middle-aged woman of Korean decent, when she entered the room I noticed she did not greet Susan with a handshake; she kept her hands together. When she sat down she sat up straight, by holding her hand close to her body, she seemed friendly by smiling towards both ladies interviewing her, and her smiling could be seen as nervousness. When she was asked the question if she could cook without using sodium, she did not understand the meaning of this word; this could be explained as English is her second language. When asked other questions she gave short answers and not fully explaining her skills relevant to the position or questions. This made the granddaughter believe that Vivian was not interested in the job position of caretaker.

We can see the granddaughter becoming irritated; you can see in her facial expression and tone of voice that she was not pleased with the answers from Vivian. At the conclusion of the interview, Susan expresses her concern of Vivian not being able to fully understand English and how she would fit in with the grandmother. Grandma has a deeper understanding of cultural differences and how they communicate, she uses the experience of a friend who has an Asian housekeeper and realizes that Korean woman are quiet but are also hard workers.