Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Language Blog

Part one of the experiment was quite difficult at first because it felt like playing charades.  I asked my sister to help me with this assignment and she had a very difficult time trying to figure out what I was trying to say.  After a couple of minutes I began to point things out and each time she got it wrong I would shake my head saying no or yes.  My sister had the advantage in communicating complex ideas.  The culture that uses symbolic language would obviously get irritated because my sister was getting irritated.  Individuals in our culture such as foreign exchange students would have a terrible time speaking.  When I was in middle school I met some girl that originated from Japan and she couldn't speak any English and her only way of communicating was through her small computer which she would type what she wanted to say. 

Part two of the experiment was very hard for me and I can understand the frustration my sister went through.  We didn't get to finish the 15 minutes (ended at13:50) because it was a daunting task for me because we kept having to restart.  I'd catch myself raising my arm, etc... and we would start over from there.  In a sense I enjoyed messing around with my sister because she had little to no patients to these sort of things.  The use of signs in language is very important because there are certain things that words can't describe.  Reading body language is very difficult and it's so difficult that there are class for reading body language.  The benefit to having the ability to read ones body language is the fact that you can determine their emotion.  The only time when reading ones body language wouldn't benefit you is if you were in the middle of an ocean during a storm.

2 comments:

  1. Okay on your personal description of your experience in the first part. Often, the most interesting part of these experiments is the way your partner responds the circumstances, how they respond emotionally and how they change the way they communicate to adjust to your limitations. This was glossed over and needed to be addressed more completely.

    Yes, people migrating to another country and learning the language are a good example of this part of the experiment. Do you see any connection between this issue of language and how immigrants are sometimes treated in this country?

    Again, good explanation of your own experiences for Part 2, but aside from frustration at having to constantly restart, how did your sister respond to the actual conditions of the conversation? How did she respond to your lack of body language? As I mentioned above, the responses of the partner to these conditions is usually the most interesting part of the experiment and it is important to try to understand why they respond as they do.

    Can you think of a specific group of people who are characterized as having difficulty reading body language?

    The final question asked when it would benefit you to NOT read body language, as it when would it be better if you ignored the body language you were seeing. Do all cultures use the same system of body language? Is there ever a situation where body language might "lie" to you and it would be better to ignore it?

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  2. Patrick, for the second part I understand completely about having to restart because you catch yourself using body language. Just shows us how much we rely on body movements to convey and express what we say. Once we are aware that we can’t use our body to speak it becomes harder and more difficult to maintain. Great post.

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