Language Blog Post
This week we were asked to communicate with a partner. The first part was communicating without language for 15 minutes and the second part was to communicate without body or facial language. So when it came to the first part of the assignment I found it to be very difficult not to use language at all. I personally love talking so this was difficult to accomplish. By not being able to communicate with spoken language I found that it did alter the way my partner communicated with me. At first, it seemed like my partner was confused by my absence of speaking but, he quickly turned to conversation to something where I could use body language and hand gestures to be able to answer him.
I think in this conversation my partner was in charge of what we talked about and when the subjects changed. This is due to the fact that I could not speak so they had free reign to be in control of what was brought up. My partner was the one asking the questions and I was the one answering. I find it hard to ask a question just based off body movements alone. Things tend to get lost in translation.
If this was a conversation between two cultures one using spoken language and the other not I believe that the culture with spoken language has the advantage to get complex ideas across But, this could just be a biased opinion on the matter. I think being in a culture that relies heavily on spoken language I find it hard to understand the concept of non spoken language being able to get complex ideas across their population. I think a good example of a modern situation would be with a person who is deaf. When a deaf person is trying to communicate with someone most of the time they need to write out their thoughts. This is due to most of the population not knowing ASL. I think that it is very frustrating for people who are deaf when they are trying to communicate.
I found part 2 of this assignment to be a little easier since I was able to talk. But, not being able to use any body language, facial expressions, or hand movements proved to be a challenge for me. For my partner they were at least able to understand me but, without the help of body language it was hard for them to judge how I was feeling about a subject.
This experiment proves that our society does rely on the use of body language to understand each other. By using body language we are able to portray how we feel towards a certain subject. By being able to read a person's body language we are able to respond in a manner that validates how the other person is feeling.
The benefit of being able to adapt and read people's body language we as a society have been able to survive better. You are able to sense if a person's intentions are good or bad and you can also sense if a person is attracted to you which helps with reproducing. This was a great adaption in my opinion the use of body language and the use of reading body language has made it possible for our society to communicate easier.
I do believe that there is people who have trouble reading body language and I think that it puts them at a disadvantage in this type of society. I can usually tell when a person is having a hard time reading me and I try to make it easier for them to understand the feelings that I am experiencing. I personally don't know of a situation where not reading a person's body language would be beneficial. I read people's body language all the time at my job as a bartender/ server. I use this ability to see how a person is feeling without them telling me. I am able to see if they are happy with the meal and service or not and if they are not I try everything in my power to rectify the situation.
Hi Haylie,
ReplyDeleteI had a very similar experience to yours when completing this assignment. You noted that it was very difficult not using embellishments in part two of this assignment, I had this same issue. When actively trying to avoid it, you notice how much you actually rely on non-verbal cues in everyday conversation. Additionally, I completely agree that people who cannot read body language are at a disadvantage in today's society. This assignment proves that body language plays a key role in communication and the lack of it's extra layer of complexity can make communication all the more difficult. I thought your example of your use of the perception of body language was spot on and helped to support your points. Great Post.
Hey fellow classmate,
ReplyDeleteI too had a similar experience minus the confusion part from my partner as I had informed him of the assignment. The conversation for me wasn't in complete control of my partner. For me it was like an unfair game of charades. You said that you think the spoken culture would have the advantage in getting complex ideas across. I would go so far as to say it would be nearly impossible for that culture go get complex ideas across. If they could get a system to work it would take lots of effort and time. It's interesting to see how you use the ability to read body language at your job. It is also nice that you try to make the situation better if you read that the customer isn't happy. I also use this ability when I tutor other students, although it became a little harder since my job is now online.
Part A: Very good opening description and good discussion on the issue of control in the conversation. What about power? Is that the same thing as "control"?
ReplyDeleteI agree with your conclusion as to which culture has the advantage and good real life example. With regard to this comment:
"this could just be a biased opinion on the matter"
Okay, that's fair, but what does the evidence tells us? There is a reason why every culture has a form of spoken/symbolic language. It provides an advantage over a language made up only of signs. Those advantages include communicating complex ideas more easily. Can you imagine trying to explain Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection without symbolic language? Or taking this class without it? :-) Also, you can communicate reliably to a large number of people, across great distances, with symbolic language via written forms. That is impossible with sign language. Remember that successful traits spread... that includes symbolic language. If sign language was advantageous, it would be the one everyone practices.
Part B: This is where you really needed to describe fully the experience of your partner. Yes, emotion is hard to determine without body language, but usually the most important part of this experiment is the response of the partner, with some actually getting angry and walking out. I would have liked you to draw a picture here (in word) of your partner's experience.
I don't disagree with your conclusions regarding the information we receive from body language, but you are only considering the situation where body language matches and supports the information you receive from spoken language. What does it tell you when the body language doesn't match the spoken language? Humans tend to use body language as a type of lie detector. If spoken words don't match with the body language, we are more inclined to believe the body language and doubt the words. Think about how being able to detect liars might help an individual's ability to survive and reproduce (which applies to the next section).
Okay on the benefits of body language, but what type of benefits do you get by being able to detect liars?
Like all human traits, there is normal variation in expression, and the ability to read body language is no different. But beyond that, there are groups of people who have great difficulty or an outright inability to read body language due to physical or mental disability, such as those who are in the autism spectrum or those who are blind (though they can read vocal intonation).
With regard to a situation where it might be beneficial to ignore body language, think about a situation where body language might lie to you. When might body language of others mislead you and it would be better to ignore it? Do all cultures use the same system of body language? They all use different systems of spoken/written language, so why would we assume their body language isn't different? If you travel to another country, can you trust the information you get from their body language?
Hi Haylie, for the first part of the assignment I had very similar results in my experiment. Without being able to audibly communicate, for me it was virtually impossible to instigate any type of conversation. From a speechless standpoint, it definitely makes it more difficult to add anything more to the conversation other than a simple "yes" or no".
ReplyDeleteAnother thing about your post I wanted to discuss is how the context can completely collapse in any conversation when speaking without any sort of body movement or vocal signs. It really shows how much as a culture we rely on multiple cues when orally communicating to one another.
I enjoyed reading your response!
Hey, This was a super well done blog post. I think that I really empathize with you because I too am very much into talking and leading a conversation. It was very hard to be having a conversation without speaking because I constantly wanted to interject and I felt as though I wanted to blurt out when I wasn't being understood. I like what you were describing as the benefits of reading body language. I thought that was very insightful and also an extremely important point. Great job with this experiment!
ReplyDeleteHi Haylie,
ReplyDeleteReally got some insight thanks to your piece, I personally felt more in control in the first part of the experiment. It felt a bit like charades but at least in my experience it maybe do to me finding something for us to talk about first when the experiment started. From what can tell thanks to your own experience, whoever initiates the conversation can dictate the flow of the direction of topics, or at least that's my own interpretation of the experiment. At any case the power balance is tipped in his favor regardless if he started first or not that much can be agreed upon.