Language Blog

Part 1: After having to engage into a conversation for 15 minutes without any use of symbolic language (no speaking, no writing, or ASL) it became really silent in the whole 15 minutes. This assignment was very difficult not to communicate without language. My partner altered the way she communicated with me because she started doing facial expressions. When my partner started doing facial expressions I didn't know what she was doing or talking about. She would raise her eyebrows at someone or move her head to try to point out who to stare at the library it became funnier by the second.

My partner was the one in control of the conversation because she was nodding her head, rolling her eyes, starring at people, and I didn't know how to continue the conversation. My partner initiated and changed topics by using facial movements. I was usually asking questions as of what she was doing and she will answer my questions by her facial expressions. If I conducted this experiment with one person I would definitely be excluded from this conversation. I do believe that a conversation has a balance of power between two or more individuals, the one who would have the power in this conversation would be my partner because she keeps the conversation going no matter if you understand her or not, she keeps it going whether you know what's going on or not.

The culture that has the advantage in communicating complex ideas within their population is the culture that speaks the language. The attitudes that the speaking culture might have toward the culture that doesn't use symbolic language is that they might get frustrated, angry, hopeless, mad, and sad because they don't know how to communicate with the other culture. Any modern situations that mirror or resemble this relationship between a culture that can speak and culture that can't is that my mother is a housekeeper and she doesn't speak English; furthermore, when we go see the house I decide to go with my mother to be her translator, and days when I'm in school she writes down the price on a sheet of paper and see's the reaction of her clients whether it's a good price or not my mom still wants me to call back to see what they thought of the price.

Part 2: After communicating with my partner for 15 minutes without any physical embellishments, no hand signals, not vocal intonation, not head, facial or body movements my own experience was just starring at my partner the whole 15 minutes usually making nothing but eye contact. I find this assignment way more difficult than part 1 because at least then I could do facial expressions, move my head around, but this time it was a just starring contest. My partner responded well with my lack of body language because she only starred at me the whole time she didn't have body movement.

This experiment says a lot about use of "signs" in our language because without them we wouldn't how to communicate if we didn't know the other persons language.  Non-speech is really important language techniques in our ability to communicate effectively because we learn how to communicate with other people in different cultures and languages in a way it prepares us when it does happen. I know it's happened to me when I didn't know the language and I used signs and it helped me understand the language or what the person was trying to say. The type of information humans receive about the words a person is speaking when they "read" a person's body language is emotion in their face, emotion in the way they say it, body language in which they point to what they are looking for or what they need help with or what they want you to know.

The adaptive benefit to possessing the ability to read body language is knowing that you can understand what the person is telling you without specifically knowing his/her language. The ability to read body language help a person survive, obtain resources, and reproduce successfully is seeing the "signs" they're showing you whether it is holding their throat and coughing at the same time asking you to save their life, whether it is pointing at a particular item or place asking for help you see the "signs" the person is giving you and it's face expressions, eye movement, emotions, body language and the list goes on.

I don't know people who have difficulty reading body language and due to that I can't identify them. A situation where perhaps body language does not give you reliable information is when I was in an Armenian household when my mother was cleaning the house and the whole family was speaking their language; I thought they were all mad at each other because they were using strong hand gestures and screaming at each other and then two seconds have past and they all start laughing together. That was a situation where perhaps body language does not give you reliable information.