Communication skills are essential in progressing personal career and effective interpersonal interactions. Although communicatio nprocesses appear effortless, its adherence to principles that ensure the sharing of information is successful.  Communication is strategic and aims at attaining set objectives.  However, environmental factors, channels, physiological, preoccupation, biases, and stereotypes affect communication. The paper offers a description of my experience with a person from a different ethnic group.

1. Description of Past Interaction Experience

In the past, I interacted with a member of the Latino community in an initiative that sought to criminal activities and drug abuse.  My engagement was with White who had in the past been charged with drug possession and was on parole.  The success of the communication processes required that I create a personal connection with White, his values, interest, and opinions.  Our first meeting was in a public park where we shared personal details such as names, areas of residence, interest, career, and family.

White was opposed to personal questions as he had the fear that the parole officers were monitoring him. I realized that he concealed many details thus making it hard to have an in-depth understanding of his criminal record and drug dependency problem. Additionally, semantic barriers in the interpretation of words meant that thecommunication took longer than expected. The meeting did not yieldfruitful results prompting the second meeting in my place with the objective of swaying the environmental, physiological and psychological factors that disrupt communication.

The second location was ideal and made White feel free and comfortable sharing his personal information. He explained that he was introduced to drugs by a family member and had in the past struggled to drop the behavior. I employed short questions and narrations in collecting more information from White.  Likewise, the decision to use synchronous communication like face-to-face communication was influenced by the need to save time and create a personal connection with the audience.

2. Types of Noise (Environmental, Physiological and Psychological Factors)

Chapter one refers to noise as disruptions to the smooth flow of informationduring communication. It hinders the encoding, transmission, and decoding of the messages.  During the firstencounter, there were disruptions from environmental factors such as sounds from other people in the park.  There were babbles of noise from people, annoying sounds from the hootingvehicles, and hot weather.  Sounds from other sources meant that we had to repeat parts of ourcommunication and raise our tones making the interaction uncomfortable.

There were disruptions from physiological factors as White had a hearing disability with one of the ears. Although he had a hearing aid, there were constantdisruptions from other sounds. Additionally, the drug addiction problem meant that he had a message comprehension problem and took the time to reply to questions. On the other hand, psychological factors such as fear, anxiety, biases, and prejudices disrupted the communication process. I had the preconception that second language speakers such as the Latino had a reduced comprehension of English.  White noted the bias I had towards his group and become more defensive and reluctant to respond to the questions.

Additionally, White was suspicious that I was investigating whether he was complying with the terms of the parole. He was thus defensive and gave misleading information. Likewise, his past addiction to drugs gave me doubts that he was telling the truth and made me make my conclusions as opposed to taking his feedbacks. Much success in the interaction would have been attained through the elimination of disruptive factors.

3. How I was Able/Unable to Communicate

After determining the objective of the intended communication with White, I came up with channels that march goals like speed, richness, and control.  I realized that settling for asynchronous communication such as e-mail would be sluggish and create a barrier.  When I noted that White was uneasy and defensive, I changed the tone of my messages and adopted a personal dimension. I was successful in making White feel free to confide in me.  A consideration of the values and beliefs that are held by the Latino community also aided me in creating a personal connection with White.  Through showing interest in the traditions of the group, he felt free with me.

The changing of the location of our second meeting was beneficial as it yielded more results as compared to the first interaction. It saw the elimination of disruptive environmental factors such as extreme weather, stuffy weather, and noise from other people.  The home environment gave a relaxing feeling and cast out the doubts that I was spying on him.  Contrary to dominating the interactions, I ensured that I gave White adequate time to express his opinions, ask questions and respond.

Nonetheless, there were challenges in the elimination of semantic barriers as cultural factors influence them. I managed the problem by using synonyms and allowing White to take time to respond.  I further dwelt with the hearing disability and the comprehension by using symbols. While I did not attain all objectives, I can define the communication processes as having been successful.

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