IndexIntroductionConclusionReferencesIntroductionThis essay explores the idea that communication is a mirror of who you are, focusing on the self-concept and the challenges of navigating through of himself. The essay will argue that communication is influenced by cultural background and personal experiences and that understanding one's point of view is essential for effective communication. We will reflect on your own communication challenges and the importance of avoiding assumptions about others. Richard West and Lynn H. Turner in their book Understanding Interpersonal Communication, second edition. Furthermore, it explores the challenges experienced by the scholar as he feels personally comforted by the new learning; the impact the scholar's communication style has and how he or she builds and maintains meaningful relationships, along with the scholar's ability to apply the new skill to everyday relationships. This article will argue that communication is a reflection of who we are. The way people see and relate is influenced by cultural background and the many complexities of being human. This difficulty is expressed by every communication style as well as by the relationships a person will build in his life. Since the topic of communication is broad, this article has focused on the self-concept and the scholar's experience as they navigate through their self-concepts, this is supported by what West & Turner say: “Our self-concept It often changes as we grow older. Sometimes we want to change the way we see ourselves but we're not sure we can. By taking a calculated risk, you may find that the way you see yourself, and by extension, the way you see others, can change dramatically. (West & Turner, 2011, p. 73) this theory will be explored in each paragraph as the scholar changes her perception of herself as a result of how she sees others. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Before arguing that communication is a mirror of who we are. It is critical to define the key learning that helps with the argument presented in this article. West & Turner defines “interpersonal communication as the process of transacting messages between people to create and sustain shared meaning” (West & Turner, 2011, p. 10). Human beings all over the world express themselves to each other for the solid purpose of communication; the complexity involved in creating shared meaning pushes us to understand that meaning is influenced by a variety of areas, a person's cultural background, family dynamics, memories, values, gender, and experiences, along with many other things (West & Turner, 2011, page 11). This article will focus on a person's self-concept, created by self-esteem and self-awareness. The self-concept explains that our communication reflects a person's inner being just as a mirror reflects the lens in front of the mirror. “Self-awareness is our understanding of who we are” (West & Turner, 2011); and “Self-esteem is an evaluation of who we perceive ourselves to be” (West & Turner, 2011); as communication occurs, each individual processes the message through their self-concept and responds according to their own parameters of understanding, for this reason it is essential to understand our point of view to ensure that we do not communicate only from our point of view without taking into account consideration consideration those with whom we communicate. The concepts taught in this unit challenge me to the core, make me feel burnable, I'm left withsee my reflection in a mirror see all my flaws and discover a great aspect of myself that I have never seen before. The first challenge was accepting the fact that I tend to assume I know an individual's character or a situation based on my self-concept. My assumption has created a barrier that makes it impossible to communicate with an individual who appears to be different from me or who has upheld values ​​(West & Turner, 2011, p. 101). I have never seen myself as someone who makes assumptions about others before I get to know them, this revelation makes me reflect on my work as part of my occupation. I am required to make basic assumptions about the scope of work on a project that does not include people and it was something I was eager to change because I liked this flaw in my character as I never saw myself as a judgmental person. Furthermore, I have found that growing up in three different countries with three different cultures and two different languages ​​is one of the reasons why I do not feel inferior to a particular group of people or background (West & Turner, 2011, p. 100) while this has affected my self-esteem for many years it was really surprising to come to this conclusion also it was clear to me that I have two different communication styles at work I am a more abstract communicator than at home without forgetting that occasionally I can be a pseudo listener while all this seems negative , I see a great opportunity to develop better communication skills that will help me in my new chosen profession. Each week, when I completed a new exercise, I was presented with a new challenge, given the opportunity to understand which area of ​​my communication needs to change, and I took the opportunity to focus on the possibility of improving my communication. The first area to develop was to stop assuming I knew people since this was my first neighborhood in communication (West & Turner, 2011, p. 96). I start by asking myself: what is that person's story? This helped me a lot since from the moment I started asking myself this question I recognized that my knowledge of this person was nil, therefore my communication has changed, my listening has improved and I approach the person with a different core set . I have to be honest, I have to stop myself from taking people for granted from time to time, however, this concept has changed my communication style and interacting with people, in general, has changed. Also, I now feel more comfortable around people I don't know; because I stop judging people, this gives me the ability to see people for who they are. The next challenge was paying close attention to my abstract communication style at work (West & Turner, 2011, p. 123). Being aware of how I communicated helped me start building a new relationship with my colleagues, since our communication styles are different, I'm taking the time to give them more context to our discussion. One of my colleagues, in particular, is a great pseudo-listener, he can nod, look at you, and do all the characteristics of a great listener (West & Turner, 2011, p. 199), however, he is a pseudo-listener, as a result of my learning I ask more questions as part of our discussions, I give him the opportunity to have the conversation later since it seems like we aren't listing each other down, and he feels more responsible for telling me if he doesn't need the information I have to give him. I can see the benefits this has brought to our relationship. As I take time to consider my future, I reflect on the privilege it has been to take part in this professional communication unit as the concepts presented in this course are.