Part
1:
This was a fascinating experience for me. I have never participated in anything
like this before and I am glad that I was able to take part in it. In the beginning
I believed this experiment to be an easy one but I was proven wrong. It was
difficult to keep yourself from speaking because it feels so natural to
communicate especially among your friends. It was also very hard not to move
any part of my body. I never really thought about it before, but being able to
express yourself through expression seems nearly impossible to do when only
speaking and no hand gestures. I had the most trouble with part 2 because of
it.
I also had trouble not turning to use sign language
because I know a little. I felt like I went through all the avenues of
communication and then realizing I couldn’t use any of it. It only encourages me
to get creative with my hand gestures. I
conducted this experiment among my friends. After I explained what we were
going to do they did alter the way they communicated with me because of my
absence to communicate. They began to ask me silly questions that required me
to laugh and I did but I held it and let out a chuckle or two. They also made
jokes and had me engaged throughout the conversation.
I would say that my friends were in control but one
more than the others and his name is Jason. Jason was the one who seemed like
took over asking the topics and the rest followed and responded. They would
keep me engage by directing a particular question towards me for all to hear
and stare at me while I was trying to respond. It almost seems like I was the
show on stage, Jason the director and my other friends the audience that
laughed and made comments. I was never excluded from the conversation; I was
the source of entertainment. Overall I do believe it was a balance of power among
my friends towards the middle of the conversation but Jason initiated the first
few conversations.
The culture that doesn’t speak has the advantage in
communicating complex ideas within their population. I believe this to be so
because a culture that uses hand signs, body language, non-verbal vocalization
can be more expressive with that they are trying to communicate with the other
culture. The types of attitudes that the speaking culture might have towards
the culture that does not use symbolic language is in the way that they behave.
They keep to their cultures because it might be easier to communicate with someone
of the same form of language.
Part
2:
This particular experiment was much harder than expected because it was
difficult to speak and not tag an expression along. My partner was observing me
while I spoke and looked at me looking confused because my tone of voice was
not matching what I was saying. I mean I was trying to tell him something funny
but could not add anything to make it seem more brought to life. My partner did
have a little hard time understanding me because of my consistent tone of
voice. When I was speaking, there was no emotion behind it and he was looking
at my face to see if it moved.
What this experiment says about or use of “signs” in
our language is that it is essential to what we are trying to convey in our
conversation with our partner. Non-speech language techniques are important
because the process of sitting there, it made me concentrate more on what I was
to say. When we communicate with someone
a person’s body language can tell you all about what is really going on. A person’s
body language can express an urgency, or describe something to better
understand what happen, happening and about to happen.
The adaptive benefit of possessing the ability to read
body language is being able to read a situation that might be dangerous for
that person. If you need something, having the ability to read a person can
aide in bringing them any resources they may need. You can communicate among your
culture to come up with a plan for hunting as well. You also attract your mate
through expressions because it creates feelings of butterflies in your stomach
and all in turn is the feeling of love and compassion. Thus reproducing with
that mate and having reproduction success.
There are people who have difficulty reading body language
and they are those that are cannot see, the blind. In a situation where perhaps
body language does not give you reliable information is when you see someone run out the door of store with a bag. You don't know what is really happening. You don't have enough information and is easy to make assumptions.
I agree that it was very hard to not even use a single form of communication. I talk with my hands in every single conversation and I found myself struggling to not use any gestures. I also think you have a great point and example of when body language wouldn't be helpful in a situation. In our society, there are a lot of ways the body language could be useful and it really does come in handy for a lot of conversations. You also have a great point about using expressions to communicate the feeling we have for one another. In a lot of dating aspects, I think most people will depend on body signs to see if they can make the next move, or if maybe they need to fall back. Overall you had a great post!
ReplyDeleteHello Lyssa Rebolledo
DeleteThank you for your response. Until this experiment, I didn’t realize how much body language comes into play when we are communicating among our friends, family and with the people we come in contact with on a daily basis. Have you ever had a bad day and have that expression on your face? When people see you they tend to avoid a person who doesn’t look happy and miserable. On the other hand, when you have a good day have you notice the people around you to be more conservative with you and friendly? Maybe even feel like, “today is your day?” Body language says a lot about a person.
It lets others know when your approachable or not. Body language sets the tone in the conversation I believe and it a crucial to the message. Try smiling for a whole day and see how different things go for you. A smile and a frown can dictate how your day goes, what you attract into your life and maybe makes someone’s day because they are having a bad day. Body language to me is the universal language that we all speak wither your human or animal.
Very good description of Part 1. Interesting that you seemed to become entertainment for them, which is another expression of power. Do you think this would have occurred if you had only engaged with one person?
ReplyDeleteGood discussion on the issue of power in the conversation and communicating complex ideas.
This statement caught my attention:
"The types of attitudes that the speaking culture might have towards the culture that does not use symbolic language is in the way that they behave."
That doesn't really answer the question. So what are those attitudes? Are they generally positive toward non-speakers? Derogatory? I do see your point about "staying with their culture" but that doesn't describe what the interaction is like when it does occur.
What about the final point in this section? Can you think of a real life example that mirrors the conditions in this experiment? To find a real life example of this experiment, we need to find a situation where you have a speaking population and another group that doesn't speak that language. We see that in the interaction between English speakers and non-English speaking immigrant populations. Think about how non-English speaking immigrants are treated in Southern California? Are they treated as equals?
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).
I agree that those who are blind do have difficulty reading body language, though they can read vocal intonation. Another group would be those in the autism spectrum.
The final question doesn't ask when body language might give you limited information. I would still want to read body language even if I don't have a lot of time to do so. The question is when it might be better to ignore body language, and the only time that would be a benefit is if body language gives you false information. So 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? If you travel to another country, can you trust the information you get from their body language?
I think that it would have gone differently if I only did it with only one person engaged in the conversation. I don’t think it would have been the same because everyone is different. When there is more than one person, you have a mixture of different opinions and topics. Some are more talkative than others and in a sense, a team effort was used to keep the conversation going. Instead of having one single person that has to constantly think about things to try to communicate with someone who can’t speak.
DeleteWhen I said behave I meant that they may act rudely towards them because the method of communication is different. Depending on the setting, I believe a person can become angry, become sarcastic and try to put the other person down.
For the final point I believe I have a good example and this is something that is always occurring. I speak English and Spanish but people tend to assume that I only speak one language. One day I walked into my local grocery store Vallarta. It is a store that sells primarily Spanish food. Well as I went to the meat department I waited in what I thought was the line. I see people come and go and after 10 min I was a little antsy. I asked one of the workers there in English, “can someone help me.” The man behind the counter looked at me and then helped the lady next to me as if I didn’t matter.
So it took me to change my method of communication to Spanish and after that, the man was really nice and was able to help me. But this got me thinking, imagine if I didn’t know his language what then? It happens a lot that people treat you differently when you speak their language. You may be treated as an outsider because the other party cannot understand you. It seems like it puts that other person at ease when you speak the same language. I believe immigrants aren’t treated as equals. When its flipped and the Spanish person is asking for help and is asking an English speaking person, that Spanish speaking person gets ignored and because the language is different people tend to not want to fully engage and that’s when body language comes into play I believe. It can aide in getting your point across but it can also be misinterpreted.
When the body language doesn’t match the spoken language I see little red flags especially in looking at body language to detect if someone is lying or not. For example, your late for work and you tell your boss that your late because you had an emergency yet your facial expressions say otherwise. Your explaining to your boss what happen, it was a sad situation but you have a smirk on your face. I believe we are more inclined to body language as well and doubt the words because the body language sets off an emotion that can be felt by the other person as the body language aligns with the words.
Body language can be ignored when the person you are receiving the information is vague with the body gestures. For example, I am in a foreign country and I am trying to get to a particular restaurant. Now a native local tries to understand my body language and points down the road and walks away. I believe that would be a reason to ignore because you’re not really sure if they understood you or they are sending you to a different place where it might be dangerous. I think that all cultures have their own unique way of using body language. I don’t think that it is exactly the same but I do believe that there are similarities between cultures that we all share.
Thank you for the response.
DeleteGood example for the thrid section of Part 1.
For the last paragraph, it isn't a situation where teh body language is "vague". Just like different culture use different languages, they also use different systems of body language and you run the risk of misinterpreting their body language if it isn't native to you.
Hello! I found that your experiences with the experiment were slightly different than mine. In my case, I only had one person to converse with, so there were times that the conversation would lag. Because of this, my partner would essentially just keep talking while I would react. In the second part of the experiment, I would also catch myself trying to use hand signs or other movements to elaborate my points. The point that stood out to me is when you compared your experience to being an act on stage. Since my conversation was one-on-one, I did not have the chance to react to multiple parties at once. I feel that having more people to “talk” to would be an advantage because it provides more insight on the difficulty or challenges that this experiment presents.
ReplyDelete