This experience was really new and exciting to me; the dialogue in connect express was truly unique and different from other types of online communication that I use and am aware of. The difference was mainly that I got to talk with many people from extremely different cultures and backgrounds and the talk was facilitated by two communicators rather than everyone just talking randomly or having a professor/teacher with us in the conference call. I never experienced talking to people from different countries, at the same time, and talking about a lot of controversial topics that we as a group get to choose and that made me feel more engaged and not forced to talk about something I do not know or that I am simply not interested in. Also, I got to here the diverse point of views of my group. Moreover, the facilitators made me more comfortable to share my thoughts and feel included in the conversation, and at the same time I didn’t feel the pressure that I would have felt, if I was having this conversation in class with a professor grading me for discussion; the conversations went much smother and easier for me because of this. Also, meeting my group four times for two hours each session, has helped me build a connection and a bond with them and by time, each session I was becoming more myself and I was more comfortable with opening up and discussing things with them without feeling judged.
I was able to discover myself more through these sessions , as I noticed that I need to be asked questions directly to feel included and that sometimes I will hold back from sharing my opinion if it is not similar to that of the majority of the group; but then again when we take turns in sharing our thoughts, that helped me gather my courage and speak what is on my mind without the hesitation of whether I should share my thoughts or not.Furthermore, I discovered that to have constructive communication both online and offline, it is best if I have an open-mind to the things that are being said. Also, I should try as much as possible to listen carefully to what is being said even if it apposes my thoughts or beliefs, because that will make me aware of the person’s exact points and thoughts so that, if I want, I can tackle\challenge them effectively and have the conversation to be a two-way one where each person is able to express themselves clearly and easily.Moreover, I learnt that I have to be more considerate of the other person’s emotions and try to portray my thoughts in a subjective, calm and unoffensive/not aggressive manner, bearing in mind that it might be a more sensitive topic, for some people, than I thought it is.
Overall, I really enjoyed this experience and found it to be eye-opening not just because of the aspect of having students from different countries but due to the point that I also got to learn about myself more and about how I present my thoughts and how sometimes I can be quick to judge people/cultures without knowing them truly.Also, I really appreciated the fact that we had different controversial topics to talk about freely and that we are the ones that got to pick them in the first place.
