Language Post



 

      This experiment was easy, however sometimes communicating your thoughts in a coherent way was difficult. At first when I was not aloud to speak, write, or use sign language to talk it was difficult to communicate complex ideas. I had to use hand gestures and act things out when I wanted to say something. This led to some pretty funny interpretations of what I was trying to say. I noticed that my partners changed the way they talked to me, instead of saying things that would lead to a conversation they worded things in a way where I could give a simple "yes" or "no" answer by nodding my head, or made it simple enough to where I could just point to convey my thoughts. If me and my partners represented two different cultures, my partners definitely had the advantage in their ability to communicate complex ideas. It is nearly impossible to convey a complex thought without speaking. The speaking culture might have the attitude that the culture that only uses symbolic language is not as intelligent as themselves. Immigrants in our country can have difficulty communicating in English if they are not used to speaking it in the country they are from. This means that people who do speak to them in English must make their sentences simple, and rely on hand gestures to make their thoughts easier to understand. This does not mean the immigrants are stupid. It takes a lot of time to understand the complexities of the English language, and you wouldn't speak the same to a person who is just learning English compared to someone who has spoke it their whole life.

    

      I did not make it the full 15 minutes without using physical embellishments. For the most part I only used speech with no emphasis on my tone of voice. My partners were making fun of me because I was so monotone with what I was saying. It was just the words coming out with no emotion behind them. It was easier to communicate only using speech then only using hang gestures. However, I had to add a lot more words to my sentences then I usually would. Instead of pointing to where something was I had to describe it very well so that I could be understood. This experiment made me realize that non speech language is very important to adding depth to our communication. Everyday we use a mixture of verbal and non verbal communication in our speech. If you take one out of the equation speech becomes difficult and in some cases makes it so you cannot communicate some ideas. There probably are people who have difficulties in picking up on the subtleties of body language. Reading body language is important because people do not always mean what they say. Body language allows you to pick up on sarcasm as well as other things. It also allows you to pick up on sarcasm as well as other things. It also makes a person able to communicate some thoughts when silence is necessary. Such as when soldiers use body language to communicate their strategies when verbal communication could alert the enemy to their presence. I cannot think of a situation where being able to read body language could be detrimental to a person.