Language Blog

 Part 1: 

1. From my perspective, the experiment was difficult. I relied mainly on hand gestures and noises to emphasize my points and respond to questions, but often the meaning I was attempting to convey was missed. It was hard to maintain an actual conversation as I was not easily able to participate. Not being able to use ASL was especially hard. From the perspective of my partners, my brother and sister, it appeared comical and we mostly ended up just all making hand gestures and weird noises at each other, so it was pretty quickly derailed. The way that my partners communicated with me was to change their linguistic habits to match mine, or almost "dumb down" their speech so I could more easily answer.

2. Throughout the experiment, the "speakers" definitely maintained the power in the conversation. I could not even ask simple questions like "how was your day?" to start off the conversation, so it was almost entirely led by those who could use complex language. Even when I attempted to ask questions or talk through the use of hand gestures, it was usually interpreted by the "speakers" in to something different or not what I had originally intended, so they still held the power. 

3. The culture that would have the advantage of communicating complex ideas within their own population would be the culture that has the ability of symbolic language. Without symbolic language, it would be difficult to approach ideas that are outside of concepts that can be captured in hand gestures. For example, I might be able to gesture to a building with my hands but I would find it hard to ask for the significance behind a building just using my hand gestures. 

I believe that the speaking culture might look down at the culture that does not use symbolic language, and have an attitude of arrogance. Individuals in our culture that might have difficulty communicating with spoken language would be people who are affected by speech impediments and disorders, such as a stutter or aphasia, and autistic people. I believe their experience would mirror mine in that it is difficult to communicate in a conversation, and subsequently an entire world, that is based off of and geared around spoken language. It would be easy to be excluded from the conversation and treated differently.

Part 2: 

1. I was not able to last the full 15 minutes of using only speech for communicating. So much of my body language and intonation is subconscious. I would be talking and focusing so much on keeping my voice monotone and not using hand gestures, but I would still be moving my head while I talked and making expressions without realizing it, and vice versa. This made the experiment very difficult, as intonation and body language is ingrained in how I communicate. 

2. My partners said that it felt weird to communicate with me while I was using no body language. They did not feel entirely comfortable, as it appears very unnatural and odd. My sister specifically pointed out that it felt like I was trying to be "funny" by acting like a robot, as without body language that is basically what your actions are reduced to. 

3. Our non-speech language techniques are incredibly important when using our ability to communicate effectively. Intonation just by itself is necessary, as we raise our voices at the end of a sentence to show that we are asking a question, make our voices louder to express anger, and so on. Expressions and hand gestures are a universal concept that is integrated into all forms of language. It is uncanny to communicate without non-speech language techniques, as our verbal message falls short without the hand gestures, intonation, and expressions supplementing it. 

When our body language does not match our spoken language it appears strange. There are a lot of non-verbal cues that body language experts can pick up on to determine when someone is lying, therefore body language can reveal more about someone than their actual speech can. This tells us that body language is an integral part of communication. A lack of body language can also alter the effectiveness of our communication, as the recipient will be disconcerted.

4. People who might have difficulty reading body language are those who are on the autistic spectrum. An environmental condition where there might be a benefit to not reading body language might be in a cross-cultural situation where different gestures hold different meanings. For example, in America "thumbs up" stands for okay/good whereas in some Middle Eastern countries "thumbs up" would be an insult. 

Part 3:

1. I think the experiment in Part 1 would have been a lot easier if I had been permitted to use written language. Through using written language, I would have been able to actually guide the conversation and have deeper discussion, rather than just gesturing.

2. Written language provides many advantages to the culture the develops it and uses it. Written language leads to the preservation of culture, as it allows for them to encapsulate their beliefs, theories, ideas, history, and so on in an actual record. Writing also means that information can be spread more easily, allowing for better advancements within a culture. 

3. Written language has impacted "globalization" because now, with the use of technology, we can effectively reach audiences all over the world. Rather than a small culture communicating with just each other, written language grants us with the ability to commune with other cultures and interact globally. Spoken language required you to be face-to-face with someone, narrowing your audience, whereas written language is not restricted by the boundary of face-to-face communication.