Tuesday, October 7, 2014
Language Post
I have to say this was one of the more interesting assignments for this class, and it was fun to do as well!
For the first portion we were asked to communicate with someone using no words, writing or ASL. I had 2 friends help me out on this and they described it as being sort of complicated. I had to agree it was easy to gesture a basic idea of what I was trying to say but detailed of specific thoughts were complicated. Easy gestures such asking for an item and/or pointing to things was the base of my means of communication. They way they began talking to me was changed as well, they began to speak slower and simpler. It was almost if they felt I had no idea what they were saying at all. I think maybe it was because since my range of communication was limited they changed theirs as well. I can imagine this same scenario happening between cultures as well. A more "advanced" culture may be more inclined to treat the other as if they whatever reason had lower intelligence. However I noticed this occurring among people who speak different languages as well. It seems to be a desire to be understood, so speaking slower and clear may allow the other person to piece together a basic idea of what message they are trying to convey.
Part 2 of this weekends assignment involved the lack of gestures and vocal changes. Now this part i found to be more difficult than the 1st. I personally use a lot of hand gestures when speaking, and not begin able to change the tone of my voice took some work. It was easier for them to understand me of course but as for the tone of my message they were unable to decipher it. They couldn't tell if I was being serious, happy, upset or any other emotion. One of my friend's decided to take a turn trying this as well and they had issues with not being able to gesture using facial expressions. We all established that facial expressions were the most basic form of expressing emotion. Since other animals such as dogs use facial expressions to communicate it can also be considered somewhat necessary. Baring teeth as a form of warning can be very useful. As far as situation with no body language I can't really think of any. I mean even reptiles and birds for the most use body language so I can't really think of a situation where it would be helpful.
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Nicole I also found this assignment interesting. I found the second part to be harder as i also use alot of gestures while talking. It does become difficult to interpret tone and message. I agree that speaking culture would feel more advanced and see the other culture as less intelligent.
ReplyDeleteHello Nicole,
ReplyDeleteI just read your post and I was very interested about what you had to say in regards to the first part of the assignment. You mentioned that your friends began to talk slower as if you had a lower intelligence rate than them. Why do you think that people associate spoken language with intelligence? Why is it that people think that those who do not know fluently another’s language they have a lower education than them?
Good description of your Part 1 experiment.
ReplyDelete"It was almost if they felt I had no idea what they were saying at all."
This is a very common response and it always puzzles me, since there is nothing wrong with your ability to understand them. Good job trying to figure it out on your positive spin. I'm afraid I have a more negative explanation. It seems to me that humans associate speech with intelligence. If you don't speak "normally", there are assumptions made about the rest of your abilities as well. Unfortunately, this reflected in many interactions, including the treatment of immigrants who don't yet have a good grasp of the English language.
'We all established that facial expressions were the most basic form of expressing emotion."
Yes, but body language provides more than information on emotion. Humans use body language to validate what they are hearing. Is that person telling the truth? What does their body language tell me? Without that confirmation, we don't know if we can trust what we are hearing, like a missing lie detector. That makes us uncomfortable.
Can you think of any group that is characterized by an inability to read body language?
With regard to the final point, this assumes that you will always be able to trust the information your receive from body language. Is that the case? Are there any circumstances where body language might mislead you? Can it be misinterpreted? Do all cultures use the same system of body language?
DeleteThank you very much! I didn't want to automatically assume it was because they thought I had lower intelligence but that might have the case. It also didn't happen right a way, they slowly progressed into speaking in that manner. Perhaps toward the end of the experiment frustration kind of took over common sense. One of my friends at one point even leaned closer to me and waved their hands at me. I did ask what happened to cause that behavior and apparently she was in fact upset because of my inability to speak. She also exaggerated the movement of her lips, like my ability to hear was impaired as well. I thought that was a kind of odd response.
I can think of maybe the blind who go strictly by what they hear. Without knowing the person's body language it is entirely impossible to tell if that person is lying or not. Which goes back to the point how body language can be misleading.
Good! Thank you for the response. Yes, people who are blind will have more difficulty reading body language, although they can pick up on intonation. Another group are those in the autism spectrum.
DeleteHey Nicole,
ReplyDeleteI thought this assignment was very interesting because the second part for me I also found to be more difficult because I always use hand motions while I speak. My group found it difficult to understand me when i was unable to speak and just use gestures and facial expressions. I believe that it does make it difficult to tell what emotions that person is feeling at that moment without gestures.