Rapport is one of those old-fashioned words that is hardly heard today because it has been superseded with the more modern phrase "communication skill". But once the emotional nuances of the word rapport are understood, or better yet, experienced, the word will always be well remembered by the person who has experienced the full force of the definition.
Rapport is communication skill but encompasses a whole lot more using a lot less. It is a French word meaning communication, relationship, connection. No relationship can exist without communication in some form or another and when you build rapport with someone or something, you are building a relationship with them. This relationship forms a connection to the person or the thing.
The more modern phrase of communication skill, is limited in feeling and ability. A person can have a rapport with a beautiful scene, a poem, a play or a movie, or anything else they feel a special connection with. Rapport is feeling an emotional connection with something or to something.
People can admire, respect, enjoy something but this does not necessarily create a rapport with it. It is impossible to 'communicate with' a landscape scene, a book, a poem or anything else simply because it is a very one sided affair. Even a TV set, that 'talks' is not something that a human being can communicate with. So help me, I've tried! Every time certain politicians appear on my TV I talk to them but to date, none of them has ever communicated with, or even to, me. So I certainly don't have any shared communication skill with them. Nor do I feel a rapport with any of them. OK, levity aside, I'm sure you understand what I mean.
Now to have a rapport with another human being, means that the first step is communicating with them. This can be done with a smile, a wave, a nod of the head or in any number of other verbal or non-verbal ways. Anything that acknowledges the existence of the person, and they you. No-one likes to be ignored and in fact, should this ever happen, human nature starts to 'kick-in' and the opposite effect of this snub can be felt and acted upon for many years. In some cultures, it can last generations.
Rapport is simply a two-way street of emotional connection. If you feel a rapport with a play or poem, then the poet or author has said or described something, a feeling, that resonates with you. It could be a philosophical belief, a description of a beautiful scene, an act of kindness, a beautiful landscape that you feel comfortable and at home in. Rapport is a simple word that carries so much weight and yet needs so little to activate it in the human psyche for good communication skills.
