Assignment 6: 10 Social Interactions

Interaction 1:

I met with the head of the orientation team for Fall of 2009 when turning in my application to be a woolie. His name was also Brian. I asked several questions, none that were too detailed but enough to seem very enthusiastic. I even brought up a few ideas for Welcome Week activities that he seemed to be rather interested in.

Interaction 2:

I made sure to stay after class to talk to my management teacher in order to make sure that he knew who I was instead of just being "one of the students." I asked him several questions about his previous jobs and how he got into those fields. I followed up with telling him about my major and asked him if he was doing anything else besides teaching. Turns out he owns his own company that designs and distributes original board games.

Interaction 3:

I did not initiate this conversation, however once it began I started implenting HTWFAIP methods. My Chin102 teacher found out earlier in the semester that I was half asian and asked me about my experiences with Chinese before and which of my parents were asian. We ended up talking about each of our trips to different parts of Asia and how he learned how to speak Chinese so fluently even after he was much older than the ideal age for learning a second language.

Interaction 4:

I met with my Sci 100 group to start planning out our project, and by praising just about every idea and asking questions instead of giving orders, the feedback from the other group members was very positive, we got a lot accomplished, and they actually decided on me becoming the group leader.

Interaction 5:

After discussing ideas for our project in the previous interaction, I asked a girl in my group, Shane, if she could answer some questions about her phone for my entrepreneurship class:
Make: Apple
Model: Iphone 3G
Provider: AT&T
Uses: Calls, Texts, Voicemail, Calendar, Applications
TALC: Early Majority: she definitely wasn't one of those first in line to buy the phone when it came out, however she is still one of the relatively early people to have purchased the phone and gets new applications on a weekly basis.

Interaction 6:

I went to PG county on Friday to look at a beat-up old Nissan 240sx because I was looking for a cheaper car to fix up and take to the track. The seller, Victor, had no real extensive automotive knowledge and was trying to explain certain features of the car that were either nonexistant or wrong. Rather than call him out on it and use such tactics to get money knocked off, I tried to explain back in a way that expanded upon what he was saying and sort of corrected it in those explanations. I ended up saving $75 and only spending $650 on the car.

Interaction 7:

I ordered a meatball pasta from the commons (which takes much longer than what they normally do which is just handing a student a couple slices of pizza), so I ended up just making small talk. I asked about the history of the pizza place because there were many pictures with celebrities on the walls. She didn't know so I just asked her how her work day had been going so far. The conversation ended shortly afterwards.

Interaction 8:

Earlier in the week, I fell victim to bank fraud and over $300 was stolen from my account. While this was a horrible experience, the assitant manager of the Chevy Chase branch at UMBC was very helpful and we actually began talking about her experiences with fraud, and after i asked several questions and tried to remain as positive as i could in the situation, she gave me a lot of advice on how to protect myself from fraud in the future.

Interaction 9:

My ex-girlfriend (oh yes, I know the name, but I will not post it) called me the other night, and rather than ignore the call or seem resentful, I did my best to maintain my composure and asked her how school was going for her and what she had been up to lately. Granted I was not paying attention to anything she was saying, but it seemed that way, and the phone call ended with less drama than I anticipated. Small victory, I suppose.

Interaction 10:

I called Discovery Communications about a possible internship, and while I was not able to speak with anyone in charge directly, I asked the secretary a few questions, found out her name was Sam, and we talked for about five minutes about different people I can talk to depending on my specific interests.