Personal Narrative: The Five C's Of Communication

I entered the United States for the first time in 2009. I landed in Houston, Texas and began attending Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas. Being my first time in the States, I had never communicated with people whose first language is English. This was challenging at first, but once I got to know my teammates and the coach, we all accommodated to meet the five C’s of communication. The level of need I experienced was predicament because it was difficult communicating in English while making sure people understand me. According to Therapeutic Communications for Health Care, predicament is defined as “no easy solution.” The person in need “often feels trapped; is not helped by advice” (Tamparo & Lindh, 2008). When I began my journey with the Cross Country team at Lamar, they were all understanding and supporting of me since I was learning the language. They were patient by listening and respecting everyone’s decisions even when they were expressed differently. Many times our body language said more than our verbal communication; I learned how to listen to others by observing rather than by listening. However, in my experience, I felt trapped many times when I wanted to communicate about something and I did not know how to express myself.

My teammates and I were all about the same age. I was about 2 years older than most of them and about a year younger than some of them. However, the differences in age did not affect our communication; we all still had about the same common interests. We all loved running long distance, racing, and enjoying any other physical activities.
Some of my teammates were also international students that struggled with learning English.

We had girls from Sweden, Netherland, Poland, Kenya and guys from Uganda, Australia, Kenya and Belgium. We all had difficulties communicating, and this impacted our ability to clearly understand each other. However, we found ways to be clear and complete with each other through our body language and through our common interests. In addition, we were always together and got in-tune with each other’s facial expressions showing joy, and showing appreciation through hugs and encouragement during practices and races. Many times our love and understanding toward each other was seen in our nonverbal communication rather than verbal

communication.
In addition, my teammates and I came from different cultures. Cultural is defined as a pattern of many concepts, beliefs, values, habits, skills, instruments, and art of a given group of people in a given period (Tamparo & Lindh, 2008). Some of us came from different states and cultures. One of my teammates came from a Mexican town and one from Arkansas and the girl from Arkansas was catholic. Some of the teammates came from Africa and were strong Christians. The team was multicultural with the diversity I brought in the team; being Jewish and Israeli. Even though, we had the different cultures and religions among the Cross Country team, we all managed to communicate in a complete, clear, cohesive, and concise manner without any misunderstandings.
The 2009 team of Lamar University consisted of many international students as described above. All international students had a full athletic scholarship and came to the states for the purpose of fulfilling our dreams. We all had the same goals, common interests, and, scholarships that impacted our communication significantly. We could not have interacted better and achieved our goals without the support, investment, and encouragement in each other.
Many therapeutic responses took place; the head coach and the team were able to resolve the solution in a positive way. Originally, when we all arrived to Beaumont, the Texas natives were friendly and offered to help with grocery shopping, cell phone plan, necessities, and everything else we needed in order to settle in. All of us received room and board on campus and some of us were rooming together. We all arrived to town about a week prior to the beginning of the fall semester. Before the fall semester began, the dining hall and university facilities were closed, but only the admission office was open. For this reason, the head coach gave us meal money as part of the accommodations to arrive to campus before the semester began. These impacted our interaction in a positive way because we engaged in dinner outings; we were able to practice our verbal communication in English as a second language without any disruptions or stress factors.
In addition, during the first month of the semester, the girl’s teams departed to a major Cross Country meet in Los Angeles, California. It was my first month in the states and the head coach decided to provide us with this major experience. Moreover, when we landed in Los Angeles, the head coach surprised us with tickets to Disneyland. We received extra meal money for the trip, which allowed us to spend money in Disneyland. Since some of us were international student we were excited for this experience at that cross country meet and visiting Disneyland for the first time in our lives.
Moreover, the team received new uniform, new sweatshirts, new running shoes, and highly motivated talks from the coach about investing in each other. He believed that the best way to be successful was investing in each other which also meant that the team invested in the coach and vice versa. Also, the team meetings and motivation talks helped us get united, which initiated our support in each other in everything we needed. As a result, our communication skills improved and we won a couple of cross country meets in our first season.
Speaking English as a second language is a barrier at first. However, it is not a barrier once the speaker knows how to handle it and improve himself or herself, so people can receive a clear, cohesive, complete, and concise message. In addition, factors such as cultural, condition, age, and personality traits were contributed to the success of the interactions between the team. This initial experience in the states has contributed to my personality, Cross Country and Track Career, and my future as an Occupational Therapy. In addition, some of my relationships that began in Texas are my best friends today, even thought (though) I moved to two states since then.