Language Experiment

       This experiment has been eye opening to say the least; it’s interesting how the average human takes both symbolic and gestures in language for granted. I found both parts of the assignment to be difficult, even though when I first read our assignment I thought to myself, “this will be a piece of cake.”      

     For part one of the assignment we were asked to engage in a conversation for 15 minutes where we were not allowed to engage in any version of a symbolic language including speaking, writing, or ASL. I surprisingly found this experiment to be rather difficult; I was tempted to talk out loud so many times within the 15-minute conversation. Now, I consider myself to be pretty darn good at charades (typically) so when I did use hand gestures I thought I was coming across clearly; however, my partners seemed to have a difficult time interpreting what I was trying to convey. Also, is was difficult to express certain words and sentences because there was no easy way for me to physically act out what I wanted to say. Because they were having trouble trying to guess what I was attempting to communicate, my partners definitely had to alter their way of communicating, rather then participating in an actual conversation it became almost a game to see if they could guess the point I was trying to make and by the end we realized that we had not in fact actually had a full conversation. Eventually throughout the conversation they were able to guess what I was trying to express, it just took a bit longer then usual. A dialog that would have taken 3 minutes to verbally discuss took almost the entire 15 minutes to get out.  If my partners and I represented two different cultures meeting for the first time I think the culture that was able to use verbal language would have the advantage over a society that did not use symbolic language when trying to communicate complex ideas. Its very difficult to “act out” complex sentences and ideas using nothing but hand gestures and body language. The attitudes that the speaking culture would have toward the society that does not use symbolic language would be rather frustrating. My partners spent almost the entire 15 minutes trying to decipher the point I was trying to make, it felt like it took an extremely long time for them to progress with the conversation because they were constantly having to halt their discussion so that they could translate what I wanted to “say.” I felt their frustration (even though we thought it was a bit funny) I could see how challenging it might be if it was two different cultures meeting for the first time. It must also be difficult for someone in our own culture who is either mute or deaf to communicate with the other portion of the population because it is not standard for the majority of the population to speak ASL, I can see how frustrating it would be to communicate with someone that doesn’t speak the same type of language as the rest of their culture. As a server at a restaurant, I have had to serve deaf customers in the past, it consisted of a lot of pointing at menu items and written language, it was a difficult experience for the fact that I couldn’t understand ASL, we reverted to written language as opposed to verbal. I could only imagine the frustration of the person who has to love with that sort of exchange day in and day out.       

       For the second part of the experiment we were asked to communicate with out any physical embellishments including hand signals, no vocal intonation, no head, facial, or body movement’s. For me, this part of the experiment was much more difficult then the first part. As a naturally flamboyant and uppity person I really struggled with this part. I had no idea how much physical movement and different vocal tones come in to play within day to ay conversation. By the end to the experiment (which seemed to take an eternity) I was ready to be able to use my hand gestures again, facial and vocal expressions again. I have to admit, I did smile a bit during the 15 minutes and I even laughed once or twice I even had to sit on my hands because I kept on attempting to use them. I felt like a robot when I wasn’t smiling or laughing, it was very difficult to keep a straight face and to speak in monotone especially because my partners thought I was funny and maybe a bit crazy for sounding like a robot when I spoke. My partners laughed (almost uncontrollably) at me because they thought I sounded “monotoned and robotic.” After the experiment concluded I asked them how they felt about me no using hand gestures or facial expressions and they said it made them feel uncomfortable and it seemed to them that the way I was speaking was “unnatural.” They also said it was difficult to tell whether or not I was enthusiastic or indifferent during the conversation, they had no way of knowing because my voice kept the same tone throughout, same with my facial expressions, I was expressionless and they had a difficult time reading me. This part of our experiment shows that without hand gestures, facial expressions, or tone in ones voice it would be difficult to interpret the context in which the comment is made.  For example if a person was blind and someone spoke in monotone that would have a nearly impossible time trying to figure out the context in which the conversation was being spoken, they would have almost no way of telling if a person was excited about a subject or melancholy, that’s why having the ability to use expressions, intonation, and also the ability to read them in language is so important.       

       This experiment exposes how important both signs in our language as well as our vocabulary are and how imperative it is that they are used together. Without either form of language, it is increasingly difficult to communicate effectively with one another. As seen in part one of the experiment, communicating without symbolic language is nearly impossible especially when trying to convey complex ideas, and as seen in part two of the experiment it was difficult to decipher the enthusiasm or lack of excitement in a persons opinion when they are with out hand gestures, expressionless, and toneless. Both parts of language are vital for effective communication.