Language
Language is a very important part of how we communicate with people.Sometimes I think we take for granted our ability to use a spoken language, because it is something that just comes natural. Doing this language exercise ended up being pretty difficult, but also very eye opening. In the first assignment we were supposed to communicate with someone without using any form of spoken language, or any sign language.I found it very difficult to communicate with my partner, and they were the ones trying to make conversation. I tried to use signs and nodding my head to answer but it quickly became a conversation were my partner was just making it short asking mostly yes or no answer questions. My partner was the who was in control the entire conversation, because if I tried to ask something he would have a hard time understanding what I was trying to communicate. I have to admit that by the time the 15 minutes were up we were both pretty frustrated that we couldn't communicate with each other.
If my partner and I represented two different cultures, one that had spoken language and the other that didn't, I think that the culture with the spoken language would have greater advantage in communicating complex ideas within their population. I think this because from the first experiment I witnessed how hard it was to communicate without any spoken language, so i feel that it would be extremely difficult to try to communicate complex ideas to a population without the use of language. Another problem that might arise is that when we are trying to interpret what someone is saying we are guessing what they are saying so many people could have different interpretations to what one person is trying to communicate. I feel that the speaking culture would look down on the non speaking culture because they might feel superior to them because they would feel that they were smarter for having invented a spoken language. I tried researching to see if there were modern cultures that didn't have spoken languages but I couldn't find any. So I thought that a good example would be between humans and animals we have a spoken language and we talk to our pets but they don't talk back to us. We try and guess what are pets want based on the signs that they give us.
For the second part of the exercise speaking without any physical embellishments proved to be a little harder than I thought. I had to sit on my hands so that I wouldn't move them , and I had to make sure that I was speaking in a monotone tone. I hadn't realized how much I use my hands when I communicate. This exercise was easier than the first in the sense that I could make and hold a conversation using spoken language, but it did make the conversation very awkward and robotic for me. My partner did not have trouble understanding me , but I could tell that it was weird getting answers with no emotion or body language. This experiment says a lot about how important non- speech language techniques are in our communication because our body language is what helps us read people. For example if someone is mad you can "read" it in their tone of voice or in their posture, or in their hand movements when they are talking. All of these things help us try to read someone.
The ability to read body language is very beneficial to people. When it comes to survival say if a person is being threatened they can try to read the other person and then try to react accordingly. We also use body language when it comes to reproducing successfully. More often than not we base if a person is interested in us based on their body language when we have a conversation with them. If they seem withdrawn and they look bored that pretty much lets you know they are not interested, but if they are engaging and showing signs of being comfortable it means that they at least enjoy having a conversation with you. I think there are situations when there might be a benefit to not reading someone. An example would be at a job interview. Some people might just get extremely nervous during interviews , and a future employer might see their signs of nervousness as a bad thing. This is where body language can affect us negatively because the employer might go off based on just the body language.
Hi Monica, I really enjoyed your post. I feel that we both experienced the same thing throughout the experiment. Especially when it came to the first experiment. I too found that the conversation turned more so into a series of yes or no questions controlled by my partner. I agree that the second part was definitely more awkward for my partner as it's wierd talking to someone with no apparent emotion; much like talking to a robot. I liked your interpretation onb when it's not a good idea to read someone's body language. In the case of a job interview I personally believe that it's always good to hire someone with confidence which can largely be surmized through body language. Therefore I believe that when it come to a job interview it's always important to have good posture as well as body language. However, I agree that even the best applicants may get a bit nervous and show it in their body language.
ReplyDeleteDear Jimmy,
DeleteI liked reading your comment to Monica. It was very pleasant and supportive of you in terms of everything you stated. Usually I would agree with all of your statements, but there are two specific "topics" that you stated which I personally do not really agree with. Even though it is essential to include body language into your conversations and verbal statements, sometimes, it can create a false interpretation about someone such as someone interviewing for a job position. If someone was not a very collaborative person and maybe they weren't always the nicest person to other people in general, then they could put up this act where it would appear to the interviewers that the person being interviewed is a good person to work in groups, but its actually the opposite in reality. For me, I cannot personally testify or support my statement through actual experience(s) because I have not ever interviewed for a job myself. But my supporting evidence is my friend who interviewed for a job in August and got the job immediately. She told me all about her interview and in the end, I questioned whether or not she regrets what she did. At first she was very calm and not very active, as in she wasn't really moving a lot, but towards the end of the interview, she said that she was trying to express herself as if she got along well when working with groups of people, which is not like her at all. In fact, whenever we had to work in groups for class assignments, we would pair up and everyone else would be in groups of 3 or 4, but my friend Hannah and I only worked with each other because she never felt comfortable working with people she didn't really know. In this specific case, I personally don't think that it was wise for her to act as if she worked/works well with groups since she really doesn't.
On another note, for my first experiment, it wasn't really a yes or no conversation. My partner did lead and take control of the conversation, but her questions actually needed responses with more details rather than just a yes or no. For instance, one questions she asked me was what I wanted to eat for lunch that day, and so I did my best to describe a burger for food and tea for my choice of drink, but she thought I wanted an ice cream sandwich. This said, I do agree with your statement of speaking in monotone made it sound as if I was a robot, as I also spoke in a monotone voice, but my partner didn't really feel uncomfortable compared to wanting to laugh at me for talking so weirdly and funnily. Overall, I really liked reading your positivity and supportiveness in your comment towards Monica's blog post. You did a great job, so keep up the great work!
-Emma Remnant.
Dear Monica,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your Language Blog Post. One thing that I personally found interesting is how you sat on your hands for the second experiment. I tried to challenge myself so I didn't do anything with my hands other than hold them together on my lap as I was sitting and talking with my partner. Another thing that I also loved about your blog post is how you were able to recognize the usefulness and difficulty of both sides, as in being in a verbal-communicating culture compared to a non-verbal-communicating culture. I also agree with your statements and opinions that it would be much easier to communicate with people (in general) when physically talking rather than a non-verbal conversation. My only disagreement with this is that, I know and use ASL so I am capable of communicating with people without using any noises but only my body language, hand movements, and my facial expressions, so its not necessarily impossible to communicate with people non-verbally, but the real difficulty is when you have, as an example, a non-verbal culture trying to "speak" with a verbal culture which complicates things a lot, which I can stand by through personal experience. But overall, I really enjoyed your blog post and keep up the great work Monica! (And good luck on your final!)
-Emma Remnant.
Part A: Good opening description. Thorough.
ReplyDeleteGood discussion on the issue of control in the conversation, but what about power? Are they the same thing? You could be leading a meeting with the CEO's of your company. You may be leading/controlling the meeting, but do you have the power? Or does that still belong to the CEOs?
I agree with your conclusions regarding the two cultures and the attitudes involved.
You don't need to find a culture that doesn't speak to answer the last question, and since this is an assignment on the evolution of human language, let's see if we can find a real-life example in human populations, since we don't expect other primates to speak. 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, and this results in a power differential, with the speaking culture having power over the non-speaking. 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?
Part B: "I could tell that it was weird getting answers with no emotion or body language."
How so? How could you tell? Usually the most interesting part of this experiment is the response of the partner. Some have actually gotten angry and stormed out. It would have offered more information for both you and your reader if this had been expanded.
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?
Missing an answer to the first question in the next section? Can you think of a group that has difficulty reading body language? How about those in the autism spectrum or those who are blind?
I suggest that any time body language gives you accurate information, you shouldn't ignore it. You can just chose to not act upon it. But is there any situation you can think of where body language might actually mislead you, not because the person is lying but because you don't know how to read the body language? 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?