Non-Verbal Communication

The television show that I chose to watch was the Bad Teacher. This show is seen on CBS for thirty minutes.

The characters at the beginning of the show were in the school cafeteria going through the lunch line. These people were teachers at the school. There is a man and a brunette lady in line and talking in what looked like a normal tone. There were no body gestures happening, they were just getting food, putting it on a plate as they went through the line. Than a blonde lady came over and crowded between the man and the brunette lady. The blonde lady threw her long hair back,  smiled and pushed herself  into line. She leaned in with her shoulder into the line, in front of the man. The blonde was talking to the man, smiling picking up food, smelling it and she put it back down on the tray.  She kept walking in line, picked up a piece of broccoli ate it gagged and spit it into a napkin. At that time another teacher, went in front of the blonde in line and joined the conversation. We will call her the teacher with glasses. As glasses talked her eyes opened widely as if what she was expressing might be important.  She had muffins in both hands. As glasses talked, the blonde teacher responded back by smiling and as she talked she was using her hands by moving them with a shaking gesture. The faster she was talking the faster she was moving her hands. I felt she was probably agitated at the glasses lady for entering into the conversation. It looked like the blonde ladies voice got louder. The man behind the blonde came close to the blonde talking into her ear. She smiled and walked away. I think the blonde and the man are in a relationship.

Watching the show, I learned that it was health week and they were being served healthy foods. The food was a vegan dish. The muffins the glasses teacher had were gluten free. The blonde lady had pushed her way into the line to complain about the weird foods being served. She said she would much rather have nachos and donuts. The glasses lady explained the muffins were gluten free, the blonde lady raised her voice yuck, shaking her hands, just give me donuts. The man whispered in her ear, you look good for all that junk you eat, meet me outside, I have something you want. She smiled and walked away. When she went outside, he had a nap sack of candy bars, donuts and junk food. They sat and ate the junk food on his car.

My assumptions were just that. I assumed the man and blonde were in a relationship. The blonde’s body language was invasive where she used it to crowd into line and she flung her hair back in a seductive manner smiling so she could really cut into line. They were not in a relationship. This plot of the show was set around the school trying to provide a healthy food alternative and get that staff involved being role models for the children. If this had been a show I watched all the time, I would have known the teachers were not in relationships. The ways they interact are based on their specific roles on the show. My aha moment for this assignment was learning that we make a lot of assumptions when we are unaware of the full story. We have to make sure we take the time to learn the full accurate story of any situation.