Language Blog

Without any version of symbolic language, communication is incredibly frustrating and difficult for both parties in the conversation.  For my two partners, Holly and Lauren felt irritated at the fact that I could not respond or make any indication of what I was thinking.  I tried to communicate with hand signals and facial expressions to show my agreement and understanding, but it was frustrating when my friends did not understand what I was trying to say.  When Holly or Lauren would turn to specifically me to say something, they started talking slower and with simpler language as if I did not understand.  The problem was not that I couldn’t understand them, rather it was the fact that I was unable to respond.  The conversation tended to lean towards just Holly and Lauren talking, rather than keeping me involved.  Though they wanted to hear my opinion, the struggle to share my thoughts was tiring and I slowly stopped responding and tended to listen instead.

            My partners were definitely in control of the conversation.  As said before, the conversation swayed away from talking to me and I felt left out.  It was very frustrating when I had very relatable comments I could have contributed to the conversation but was unable to do so.  Whenever Holly or Lauren asked me a question and I was unable to add sufficient input, they changed the topic.  The topics tended to change quite frequently as they tried to find a topic I was able to communicate about.  The powers of the conversation were in the hands of my friends because since they were able to be a big part in the dialogue, they were able to slow down or speed up the talking, change the subject, and add commentary. 

            If my friends and I were representing two different cultures, my friends’ culture would be advantageous over mine.  Holly and Lauren’s culture allows the individuals to take a subject of conversation to the next level and involve not only facts, but also ideas much deeper using opinions and personal perspectives. Cultures with a more complex and advanced language will generally be more advanced in their society and environment.  The speaking culture might look down upon the cultures without a developed language and think of them as inferiors.   The culture of many monks living in Asia who have taken the vow of silence compared to the westernized culture of many large cities in Asia as well as all over the world mirrors this situation.  Though the act of not speaking was a choice, the monks live incredibly different lives than us, much of which is because of their vow of silence. 

            I thought this part of the assignment was going to be much easier, but I found so much of our language involves non-verbal communication.  When you picture people conversing, you don’t see people talking in monotone, without any hand movements or facial expressions.  In order to show the emotion, you use these non-verbal signals.  They are incredible important.  I had a very tough time not being able to raise or change my voice.  I found myself using a lot of descriptive words and talking a lot about how I felt in order to compensate for not being able to use physical embellishments.  My friends found it funny to see me without any expression.  They were also confused, and thought it was hard to figure out how I felt about what I was talking about, like whether what I was saying was a joke or something serious. 

            Body language and the ability to read it are extremely useful because it can tell so much about what the person is saying.  In all aspects of life, you can tell someone’s feelings, intentions, and needs by merely watching their body language.  For survival and obtaining resources, you can use your body language to intimidate predators and prey and for reproduction, you can indicate if you would like to reproduce or if you are attracted to that individual.

            I can tell whether someone has trouble reading body language because they seem to be unaware when you might be trying to tell them something without speaking it.  For example, Holly could definitely tell how frustrated I was in the first exercise by the way I was standing and my facial expressions, yet Lauren did not notice how frustrated I was.  It seems Lauren lacked the ability to read my body language intently.   A situation where it might be advantageous to not read body language might be when a person is under the influence of drugs or alcohol.  When someone is under the influence, many times, that person does not realize what he or she might be communicating with his or her body.  During times like these, it would be best not to read into the signals their bodies are sending.