Daniela Ortiz
SPEECH 1321
Michael Warfield
March 11, 2013
The Week I Was A Spy
The way we communicate varies based on what the issue is that we are addressing. Communication does not have to be verbal, non-verbal communication does exist. This would include hand gestures, facial expressions and any other body language. Over the period of a week, I began my observation on a specific person of which I will not reveal. The normal communication is for the most part a competitive one. Although I had realized this a few months ago, based on the non-verbal communication I observed, I was able to also discover that the issue concerning the competition in regards to school work, was much more serious as to how this person was taking it. In the morning, as this person would walk into class, he/she would enter not in the most confident manner. Looking down at every step taken, in a slouched posture, he/she would make their way to their desk. It seemed as if each step was literally being counted, and a lot of mental thought, or what appeared to be so, was done. Occasionally the person would look up as if trying to make calculations and then down again to focus on walking. As I began my work, the person would constantly glance over towards my paper. As I remained silent, pretending I had not witnessed the action, the person came over to ask how much I still needed. While the tone of voice was monotone, the facial expressions said otherwise. I knew I had to observe the behavior in every instance possible and therefore lied about being so ahead on the assignment. The human being rolled his/her eyes in a jealous manner. I realized while what had been answered, “ oh, that’s great!” was truly just covering the true feelings and emotions that seemed to slip out, thanks to non-verbal communication. Walking from first period to second, I followed my fellow guinea pig. I watched how every interaction with other students was strongly avoided. The direction in which this person always looked towards was either down, or straight ahead focused beyond anything that was occurring. In some instances when someone tried to communicate with this individual, he/she would become nervous, and being out of the comfort zone, had trouble understanding what was being said. He/she would look straight into the eyes of the speaker but when finally asked a question in regards to what was said, the individual suddenly became focused and started tapping his/her foot gently in every occasion in which this occurred. When the individual finished conversing with someone, and no other comments were added to what had just been said, the individual would disrupt the sudden silence with the action of drumming on the desk with a mechanical pencil. The general impression the individual gave throughout the instructional day was that of an insecure person, that is very lonely. The difference with this case was that in every instance someone would come up to the individual, he/she would become rather nervous, would continue walking in some instances, trying to avoid the communication. Always walking with the head looking down counting the footsteps became the norm for every morning at least. Some sense of pride was also shown, which would contradict the behavior. When something was