Workshop#3

I went to the workshop “Build Confidence! Improving Your Interpersonal Skills.” I was a little late on that day and when I came to the class I saw Mindy and Lalit sitting in the class. There were many other people sitting around and they definitely were nor freshmen. The first impression I had was that this class may be helpful since many others came here not for the reason of freshmen seminar. The professor was an Asian and she looked like she knew what she’s doing and what she should teach us. The class was not boring as I thought I would be. Instead, I found it interesting even though it was a little awkward at first. We first stood up and made a circle, then introduce ourselves in a weird way. We had to put our hands together like when praying and pointing it at someone else to introduce ourselves. She said that by doing this she can tell immediately who is not confident because someone avoided eye contact or couldn’t do the movement fluently. The lessons she tried to teach us are that eye contact is a very important way to show confidence but in some culture people avoid eye contact to show respect. After seeing some power points she had, we stood up again and did another activity. We paired up and tried to copy our partners’ movements while. She taught us that it’s human nature that people copy other’s gesture unintentionally. She also pointed out that it’s actually helpful when you doing that because it makes the person who you are talking with feel comfortable. The workshop ended very fast, and I had to run to my next class. However, I found the workshop helpful for the reasons that the professor taught us how to communicate and advices for interview.