Week 7 Language Blog

Overall the experiment was quite interesting and comical. My partner decided to talk about the basketball tournament (March Madness) and I was not agreeing to his conversation therefore it was hard to express myself without using my voice because I couldn’t argue back.  I also didn’t realize how much hand gestures I use when I speak than when I was missing one or the other it was frustrating to me to be restricted to just using hand gestures. My partner was taking advantage of the situation and telling me everything he agreed on and that I disagreed on because all I could really do was wave my finger or put a hand up so that I could communicate. Another thing was that it was like a guessing game since he had to figure out what I was trying to say with my gestures so he would repeat a lot of the phrases and I will either shake my head yes or no.

Overall I think I was in control because the main topic of our conversation was me signaling him. Whatever signal or symbol I gave my partner that was the direction that the conversation would go into. It was hard to argue with my partner or continue the conversation so we didn’t really get into too much detail either but we managed to get the main points across.

In my opinion I feel that if me and my partner where two different cultures the one that would have the advantage would be my partner since he used language instead of symbols. Using symbols gets the “big picture” across but misses out on the details that can be communicated if you use language.  Probably the culture that spoke a language would think that they are smarter or more advanced culture than the one that uses symbolism to communicate. 

Part 2

This part of the experiment was also difficult because I am the type of individual that uses face expression and hand gestures when I communicate and in some instances, I also use body language. My partner agreed on how he had to do a double take because since I was using no expression but my voice he didn’t understand my emotion toward our conversation and he said that made it difficult because he didn’t know where the conversation was going. So, the conversation was basic and we didn’t get into too much detail because I was lacking emotion.

What this experiment taught me was that “signs” are useful when we are communicating. Certain body language can make or break a conversation. The information we get from language with symbolism or a tone of voice and expression can say a lot or little about a conversation.

Reading body language is important because bod language reinforces what a person is communicating. You can also observe body language to detect information about emotions or attitudes. Body language can be used as a clue to discrepancies in behavior to really see what a person is thinking or feeling. Body Language can help us survive because body language can express emotion so if we use body language in a positive way it can open doors.

Not all body language is created equal. You can be a class and someone could be slouching; you may think they’re tired but there just comfortable. Someone can be sitting up straight and you might get the impression that the individual is proper but really, they have a back problem. That is why I believe that language and symbolism go hand in hand. They average each other to get the point across, a lot of problems can be solved with just communicating.