I found the experience to be very difficult at times because there were points during the conversation i had no idea how to reply to what my cousin is telling me. But there were points during the conversation where i can make a simple hand movement or facial gesture to reply to my partner. my partner at times understood what i was trying to say. My partner most definitely had to alter the way they were speaking to me. My cousin will talk very slow, and ask me many questions to what i was trying to say.
My partner, who was allowed to talk was in control of the conversation because she had a voice. She was the one in control of the topic and was in control of changing the topic, i simply just went along with what she was mainly talking about. There were times when other family members joined our conversation and the ones with a voice excluded me from the conversation.
The culture that has spoken language has the ability to communicate complex ideas within their population. The population with spoken language may see the symbolic language population as inferior. There are those who are in a def culture, blind, and handicapped. I attended a high school that had a def school and sign language class within it. I played football with a def student who had an interpreter communicate with me and the rest of the team.
This experience was interesting, but difficult because there was no communication at all. My partners responded by staring at me. They tried very hard to read any emotions from my face and body language. They couldn't understand stand me, not even a little. This experiment shows that we need symbolic language to at least communicate and show some sign of emotions. This experiment shows that without communication we can't socialize and share knowledge to grow as a population. Body language is very important for us, it shows importance of key words and topics we are trying to express.
Body language expresses our feelings, and our feelings control our actions. Because of body language, humans are able to determine others attentions, which is important in communication and ultimately survival. Body language can be sexual, and sex leads to reproduction and the search for resources to maintain a populations needs.
People who are blind can have a hard time reading another human beings body language. Body language can be misintepret at times. Body language can give you a sign of very bad news. There can be times where you know someone went terribly wrong because another body language has already prepared you for bad news. you can be fooled by body language by others, so body language isn't always reliable.
Good description and discussion of your Part A experiment. You made this comment:
ReplyDelete"The population with spoken language may see the symbolic language population as inferior."
I agree, but why? Why do we tend to associate the ability to speak with someone's worth or even their intelligence. We see this often in the treatment of non-native speakers by native speakers and the reason for this connection is worth exploring.
"They couldn't understand stand me, not even a little. "
You have a very strong response in Part B. Why do you think your partners couldn't understand you even though you were able to speak? It is actually common for students to have similar responses for Part B, with some partners even reacting angrily. Why such a strong reaction for the lack of body language?
While I agree with the points you do raise in addressing the information we get from body language, you miss a point that may help explain your partner's response. Humans actually use body language as a bit of a lie detector. If your words don't match your body language, we tend to believe the body language, which is harder to fake, and assume you are lying. This causes problems if you know the person, but think about the implications if you are meeting a person for the first time. Would you trust them if their body language didn't match their words? Do you think you would trust them to be reliable, to help when asked, to act fairly in a business transaction? Probably not. Reading body language tells us who we can trust and who we can't and it has far-reaching implications throughout our lives.
Yes, people who are blind have difficulty reading body language, though they can read vocal intonation, which is also body language.
Doesn't it help you prepare if you might suspect bad news is coming? This isn't a situation where body language is misleading you. You just don't want to read the information because it makes you uncomfortable. Do all cultures use the same system of body language? If you travel to a different country, could you trust the information you get from reading the body language of the native people there?