There are 2 main types of face to face communication; verbal and non-verbal. Although we have been moving further and further away from face to face communication, it is still the only possible way to really understand and process the feelings, emotions, sarcasm, etc. when it comes to communicating. Our society has gone from only being able to use face to face communication to basically not even knowing how to communicate with someone faec to face. The only way to actually communicate with someone in a face to face manner is by using verbal and non-verbal cues. First, we have to understand the differences of these, how to pick up on them, and what is good communication skills.
The definition of verbal communication is the actual substance of the words we say or write. These are the actual physical words themselves. Communication starts with what we say and that is what grabs people in attention. When we start a conversation with someone we need to say something that interests them so that they can also engage in the conversation. I know from personal experience that if someone starts to say something that I have no interest in or do not want to talk about I lose interest right away and the conversation is lost. This can be a problem since the ultimate goal of face to face communication is effectively transferring information from person to the next. Then two processes in communication are encoding and decoding the message. Encoding deals with delivering a message in a way that is easy to receive and understand. This encoding process is done with the words we say, the order we say them, and when to say them. The next part is decoding which deals with receiving the message and actually understanding it. Without a successful encoding process, decoding can become very difficult. If these processes are not in unison the conversation can be lost, things might have to repeated, things can be taken out of context, and ultimately delivering information successfully is almost impossible. Personally, I have found that a lot of times if the encoding process of a person I am talking to is not adequate, the information is either not received correctly or not received at all. Through experience I know that this can lead to arguments or any other range of emotions that might not be necessary if the encoding process is done correctly. On the other hand, decoding a message the wrong way without asking questions or correctly receiving the information can also lead to the same types of problems.
The other side of face to face communication is the non-verbal end of it. The definition of non-verbal communication comes from the implicit messages we send through body language, emotions, gestures, eye contact, tone of voice, accent, etc. Even though we may have the attention of the other person with our words, the non-verbals are going to be what keeps them engaged in the conversation. The way we say our words and what hand gestures or body gestures we use can greatly influence the way a message is received and perceived. A lot of times we introduce non-verbals into our conversation without even realizing it. These happen based off of our feelings and emotions about the conversation and how much or little we care. From experience, I know that when people are passionate about what they are saying, they're voice levels are raised and you can just feel the confidence in their voice. This makes what they're saying more interesting and easier to believe. On the other hand, when peoples voices are soft and timid; it is hard to receive what they are saying in a serious manner and want to stay engaged in the conversation. There are many non-verbal cues that people use, and many times they vary from person to person. Each individual person varies in the way they choose to use non-verbals, but the universal standard is that effective communication cannot be achieved without some use of non-verbals.
When we combine the verbal and non-verbal aspects of communication, we get an effective and efficient way of transferring information. We can use each aspect individually but it just ends up being a bunch of misinterpreted words or gestures. I have learned that communication must start with words (verbal) but met continue with emotions, gestures, eye contact, etc. (non-verbals). Effective and efficient communication can be a very positive and prosperous process when it is completed. The main aspect of communication that cannot be argued is that we need both of these methods to ensure messages are sent and received. Neither method is more important then the other because communication is a process. If one step fails, the entire process fails. The good thing is, we have control over all of it.
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