Part 1-
This assignment was hard to start with but as it progressed it seemed to get easier. For example when my friend was telling how cold it was outside I just shivered and he understood that I thought it was cold also. My partner did alter the way he would speak to me asking mostly just yes or no questions to make it easier on him. Also, he was laughing at the way I was trying to communicate just using hand signals and hitting things. After doing this experiment it is clear to me that a culture that uses vocal communication can communicate ideas with each other much easier then a culture who uses does not use vocal communication. I would think that a culture that uses vocal communication would look down on a culture that uses symbolic language. It is very difficult to have a conversation with someone who does not speak. I have a friend who has a brother with down syndrome and it not always easy to communicate with him, even though he knows what people are saying and understands most things. I noticed that people never really speak to or have a conversation with people who can't speak because it can be hard to understand there symbolic language.
Part 2-
I lasted about 8 minutes then slipped up and started to move my head around. The experiment was hard for me because I like to move around when I am talking, the hands were not hard for me to keep still, just moving my head was a bit difficult. My partners were not really affected by my limitations in speaking because I could still speak but had no expression. In our society non-speech language is important for example you can tell if a person is mad, happy, sad, or even sick just by looking at there body language. There are people who can have a hard time reading body language at times. Reading peoples body language can help you know if a person is mad and you probably should not talk to them or ask a favor from them. Also, in the game of poker it is a good thing to know how to read body language well, you can use the expressions people are making to help determine if they are bluffing or not. An environment for not reading body language could be if you are in a foreign country, and by using body language you could tell they do not want you there, this could be a good time because if you are happy it might make you mad if you could look at people and know they don't like you.
Hi Troy,
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you on the game of poker and being able to read body language. In being able to do that the players have an advantage over others. I also agree with you on being in a foreign country and being able to read body language. However, I think that we as people also can take things the wrong way. The people of the country may not be saying they do not want us their by their body language, that just may be the norm for them and their environment. I had a hard time not moving my hands. I use my hands in almost every conversation. I actually ended up sitting on my hands so that I would not move them. Great post though!
Excellent pick-up on the parallel with Down's syndrome. I also liked your observation that speaking people tend to look down on those who can't. This also applies to people who speak different languages and is partially the source of the "Ugly American" syndrome, where American's tend to talk down to people who don't speak English when traveling in non-English speaking countries.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you with your friend who has a brother with down syndrome. It's hard to communicate with some one who just uses hand movements. I work at a restaurant and one of the bus boys is deaf and since he is too poor he never went to school to learn sign language. So he points to things and uses his hands a lot in order to communicate with us. It is actually pretty fun to talk to him, but it would be hard to know how he is feeling and sometimes it's hard to know exactly what he wants.
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