Language Post

NO verbal/written/sign language

      After taking part of a 15 minute conversation where I was not able to communicate with them through speaking, sign language, or written words, I realized how difficult it was to “communicate” with the two people. To me it was kind of like charades, however, it was much harder because it was an actual conversation and not just acting out a specific action. I don't know any sign language except spelling my name so that was easy to not use that form of communication. Without using any sign language, written words, or verbal speaking, it made me noticed how important those are to us.

      My partners were confused on what was going on and they kept telling me to speak because they had no clue what I was doing, although, they did catch on and were able to understand some things here and there. They did not necessarily alter the way they were communicating with me, they just slowed down and took their time to try and understand what I was doing. They had a confused look on their face the whole time but they caught on by the time the 15 minutes were up.

      If both my partners and I came from different cultures, it would have been even more difficult trying to talk to them through just hand motions, not even sign language where movements actually represent something. I feel not all cultures use sign language or use hand motions as much as me. I use hand motions even when I'm just talking normal because it puts emphasis on what I'm trying to explain. I feel like the speaking culture has the advantage because they can use emotion and symbols with the hands compared to the culture that doesn't have symbolic language. The speaking culture could be getting annoyed how the other culture isn't understanding what they are saying. It would be extremely difficult for other languages to comprehend what we are saying because we are used to the way we communicate, unlike them. In our culture, there are people who have lost their hearing and are deaf. I had a boy in my class last semester in English who had to have a person with him every class in order to tell him what his teacher is saying. The interpreter used sign language to communicate with the boy in order for him to know what to do. Obviously he was able to read, so if a paper was handed out, he could understand that, however, if he was confused, it's not like he could walk up to the teacher and ask what to do. The interpreter was a huge help and I give her props because I want to learn sign language and after watching her do all the symbols was interesting.

Verbal Communication ONLY

      This was also a difficult task to complete. I tried my best to use only one tone of voice. The tone of voice can be a dead give away of the information being said. It uses a lot of emotion because if you're mad, you would obviously yell, if you were sad, you would cry. Raising your voice is the beginning of noticing someone's mad when talking to you. No symbols or sign language made it difficult to put emphasis on what is being said. I use hand motions in general so it was really hard for me. One tone of voice is so boring to talk in, in my opinion. It makes people a boring person and it is something that I do not choose to do again. Haha.

      In this part of the experiment, my partners were like “okay what is going on with you now? Have a heart, show some emotion!” I did not warn them what I was going to do, I just kind of joined their conversation uninvited. It was just my mom and my dad so no big deal. My parents were affected as much as the first part of this assignment because I was able to use verbal language. I can tell them stuff but I was just a boring person talking, that's all that was different then talking normal.

      Our signs in our language is very important and we just don't know it. Symbols are used in every day life and no one notices it because they don't think they are portraying symbols in any way. Hand motions are an example of symbols. We all use them but we don't think we're moving our hands when we're talking.

      Children, I feel have a difficulty of reading body language and the elderly also. I work with children so I can definitely see them not understanding the body language I use when talking to them. I will try to not saying anything and use my arms and hands to tell a child something if it's too loud in the room. Most of the time they just yell “WHAT?” At that point, I will call them over to me and explain what I was saying. When it comes to the elderly, I can see this also because my grandpa lives with us. He is only 62 years old, however, he has Alzheimer’s. I will joke with him a lot and he will joke back, but a lot of them time he won't understand what I am doing or saying to him. He will also just like the kids say “what?” but he won't yell it like them. It's sad because my grandpa will probably never again be able to talk to use like he did when I was little, but when it comes to the children at work, they will grow up to learn the different ways people communicate using body language.