Language Experiment

Part 1: No use of Symbolic Language

Although this was a difficult experiment, it wasn’t as hard as I thought that it would be. It was just like being involved in the game of Charades which I used to play as a child. I think the most difficult part of the experiment was my trying not to get frustrated or laugh when I heard what people thought I was trying to say. For instance, while I was trying to make the sign in charades for “sounds like” which involves grabbing an ear, people thought I was trying to make a monkey impression and wouldn’t get off of the idea that I wasn’t talking about a monkey. The impressions of my partners in the conversation (who were my thirtyish year old cousin and her children) were that I was acting really silly. They thought it was funny that I was trying to use certain gestures to mean certain words. (In fact, my older cousin told me to remind her to not let me be on her charades team if we ever play) Although at times I was getting frustrated because I couldn’t get through my message to them, the children were excited to alter their way of communicating with me because of my absence of symbolic language. The younger children tried to get me to tell them what it was I was trying to say so that they could see if they could relate it better to their mother and make it easier for her to guess. The older child was trying to mimic me to see if it would make more sense once he was going through the same motions I was. Their mother stayed with using her symbolic language and decided to videotape the whole thing because she thought it would be funny to watch later. If my cousins and I were to represent two different cultures meeting for the first time, I thin that I would have had an even harder time since gestures can mean different things in different cultures. (For instance, in America, a pat on the head by another person can be considered as a good sign where as in an area in Thailand, a pat on the head can symbolize a bad thing like that the person thinks that you are low class like a dog.) I think that if my cousins and I were to represent the two different cultures meeting for the first time, the culture that would have the advantage in communicating complex ideas is the one that is using non-symbolic language which has more gestures and meanings for certain words because it would allow them a much better chance of getting their meanings across.  For instance, I can keep trying different ways to get across the same idea until someone gets it where as someone using a spoken language has little chance of the other culture understanding their idea if they aren’t familiar with the language. The attitudes that the speaking culture might have toward the culture that does not use symbolic language is that they are not as developed as or as intelligent as they are. Individuals in our culture that have difficulty communicating with spoken language are small children, or those with autism. Children just may not be as developed yet to know how to speak yet, where as those that have autism may know how they are feeling but can’t find the right words to express themselves. This affects how people who do speak interact with these individuals because it requires them to take the time to try to read their use of non-symbolic language. They need to try to figure out the meanings of whatever variety of gestures that the person using non-symbolic language can make as it can vary from person to person.

Part 2: No use of Physical Embellishments

            Out of the two experiments, this was by far the most difficult. Using only speech for communicating, I was not able to last for the full fifteen minutes the first time I tried it. I had to restart about three times to finally make it all of the way through. This experiment was difficult for me for two reasons. The first reason it was difficult was because as someone who is Italian, I happen to use a lot of hand gestures when I speak. That made the experiment very hard and was the reason I ended up tying up my arms under I belt I put on during my third attempt at the experiment. The second and most important reason this experiment was difficult was because of the mere creepiness in it. A couple of my cousins though I resembled a “zombie” with no emotion and were the first ones to say I looked creepy when I was talking without any physical embellishments. My partners in this experiment were affected by my communication limitations because they couldn’t read my face which is normally how someone would see whether or not I was enjoying what I was talking about, or being sarcastic. They also did no like to look straight at my face since they said I looked like I was acting like I was an alien from a scary movie. J This experiment says that our use of “signs” in our language is very important in our ability to communicate effectively. Non-speech techniques definitely help us get our points across when talking to other people. Without the use of a symbolic smile and elbow from your best friend, how can you tell whether or not they are just joking around with you when they say “Happy Birthday Old Timer!”? Without their symbolic gestures, you may misunderstand them and instead think that they are being mean to you. Physical embellishments in our language help those we are speaking to have a better shot of not misunderstanding what we are trying to say. Some people that have problems reading body language include those that have severe vision problems and are blind. There are definitely adaptive benefits to possessing the ability to read body language. For instance, in the medical field, doctors and nurses can try to read a patient’s body language which will a lot of times give away small clues about their body (like a face gesture or their hand holding onto their stomach showing that they are in pain) and how they are really feeling inside. Environmental conditions where there might not be a benefit to reading a person’s body language is if you have a job like a court reporter which requires you to stay on task and only write down what the person is saying instead of what their body language or inflection in their voice is telling you they mean.