Part 1:
This was difficult for many
reasons and that because when I was having a conversation, my conversation
partner was looking at me with this weird and awkward look, and even asked me,
"What was wrong?" I just shook my head, no. I am so used to
responding with a voice. I feel a vibe from my conversation partner that I am
not pay attention it felt awkward. The partner in the conversation kept looking
at me constantly with these weird looks. It got to a part where she said
something, of the way I was acting by me having no voice, and what made this so
cool, was she is someone I talk to everyday. So when she asked me, I just
looked at her and lifted my eyebrows, with a smile and shook my head. After all
that she shrug her shoulders and kept talking, so it had an affect but not as
much. My partner would have the most advantage than me because she could talk
and do symbolic language, so I knew what she was talking about and her
emotions. Well there was a feeling I got from she like awkward and weird at the
same time, even though that was going on she kept talking. There was someone I
knew in school, and could hear but couldn't speck. When people would talk to
him and realize that he couldn't talk, people would either walk away, or ignore
him, or they would laugh with uncomfortable looks. This would frustrate him and
also upset him. There are people like me though and made communication by
either sign language, or writing it down, and this made him happy just knowing
that no matter what we put effort in communicating with someone.
Part 2:
Well I wasn't able the full 15
minutes with someone, so to keep thing interesting I split it up 5 minutes with
three different people. No one would go the full 15 minutes. This was difficult
for me because, not one person would finish the full 15 minutes. By just
speaking in a modern tone voice, with no movement, the conversation partners
would literally stop talking to me, and would say, " if your going to
sound like that, I’m not going to continuing talking to you." Can you say
rude that’s what I was thinking in my mind? When they would start walking away,
I would tell them about my assignment and then they would start laughing and
want to continue and I would because I wanted to do it with someone who doesn't
know, that way I know there not pretending with their reactions. Using signs
and even tones in your voice say a lot, a whole lot more than people think.
When we get angry our voice gets rough, when we get sad our voice gets a muffle
sound in it when we talk and crying tears come out of our eyes, or when we are
happy a huge smile comes upon our face. If we didn't have these movements and
if tones in our voice, just image what people would think, or how many would
misunderstand what we are trying to say. Yes, for example my boyfriend taking
everything the wrong way, probably because of the way my tone is or my
movement. There could be goo and bad to reading body language. Body Language
can tell a lot about a person, and if you didn't want it to show toward a
certain someone, for example: if someone asks, "will you marry me?"
and you say, "yes," with no smile, no enjoyment that’s showing, its
not good, your not happy, this leaves with bad body language. If you say,
"yes," with a smile, tears, and a huge smile, things are turn out to
be good body language.
Part 3:
Yes, by far it would be too
easy, because the point of the whole assignment would be as much fun as it was,
we would be able to know how everyone felt. We needed to see how important
tones and symbolic language is. By having NO WORDS, people thought extremely
different of me and I could tell just by their facial expressions. There has
been great advantage using written language, I mean what about letter from many
years ago that are important today, or even just today, I use letters to write
my family that are far away. The written language has been amazing all around
the world, from cities to cities, from states to states, and even countries to
countries. The written languages has told and showed the amazing cultures, from
the past ancient times all the way till know. We have learned so much from the
Egyptians to Aztecs, from Cavemen. Written language has had a great impact on
life for many years and many more to come.
I liked what you said about the guy at school who had difficulty talking, and how even if it was difficult he still appreciated people trying to write things down to communicate with him because at least it meant someone was making an effort. I think too often it can be easy for us to be like the people that you experienced while talking in monotone; we can ignore people that don't communicate the way we want to, or make false assumtions about them.
ReplyDeleteI also liked how you pointed out how important body language is in personal relationships. We rely so much on reading friends' and family members' faces and movements, and being able to have a better understanding of someone's body language is a sign of being close with them.
I could imagine that some people were pretty weirded out by the fact that you wouldn't talk to them but I do agree with you that it was rude for some of them to walk away. It just goes to show how considerate people are today. Just because you were not able to talk, they did not want to "deal" with you. I couldn't begin to imagine how those people are to those who cannot speak well due to being deaf. Just because you are of hearing and you can speak doesn't mean that they should just walk away.
ReplyDeleteI do like what you said about the written language. My wife has several letters that I wrote her while I was in boot camp and they were several pages long. We did not have any other way to communicate so letters were very important to both of us. I think people do not know how important hand written letters are anymore when we have the speed of emails.
I have to say that I enjoyed reading your post. One of the most amazing part is the "will you marry me?". I agree with you if we do not show emotions (facial expression) next to our answers (spoken language) than there is no ENJOYMENT TO WHAT WAS ASKED. Facial expressions shows enjoyment, happiness, and sadness all of these add more meaning to what is said. GOOD POST. Also, I loved how you pointed out that Egyptians now know their history from what was written down thousands of year ago. I would like to add the Egyptians also wrote down some recipes, medications, make up, and what ever they used to do which now we use. I think this was a great part of making history.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting to read your descriptions of your partners' responses. Good job doing this the "hard way", namely not explaining ahead of time what you were doing. This wasn't required, but you certainly get the full force of the experiment this way.
ReplyDeleteThere were a couple of questions from the guidelines that I missed in your post, which is too bad as I'm sure you would have addressed them well:
Which culture would be able to communicate complex ideas well, speaking or non-speaking?
Can you think of a group that has difficulty reading body language and could there be an advantage to not reading body language?
Good discussion in part three.
I really enjoyed reading your post. I can relate to being in a place where people ignored someone because they were unable to understand this person. It is very common for people in these situations to feel frustrated and that is what I think is the most difficult in language. Many people have been accustomed to being understood and comprehensive that they simply do not take the time to try to understand someone who isn't capable of delivering the best speeches. I liked how you split up part 2 for three different people, but I was wondering, if you had explained it to your partner that you are conducting an experiment, do you think you would have been able to last the full 15 minutes with one person without them being bored of the conversation? My partner was aware of the experiment which is, according to her, "was the only reason she could stand my monotonous tone". Overall, i thought your post was very well written and your discussion in part three was very interesting as well.
ReplyDeleteI have to say I enjoyed every minute of your post. My favorite part about your post was part 3; the written language is the amazing part about a certain language. I agree with you about, written language had a great impact on life it self. From written language we have learn tons of thing from the past between cultures, the way of life like, raising their children, hunting. Even the Declaration of Independence was a type of written language that had to travel to be signed. All I have to say is great post.
ReplyDeleteI liked your approach to part 2, how you broke it down with three different people. And how you didn't tell them about the assignment until after. I am sure that made it a lot more fun and interesting because your partners acted truthfully with their responses and actions.
ReplyDeleteI like how you shared the little snippet about the kid from your school. Some people are just mean and rude, but you did a good thing by finding alternate ways to communicate with him. There is no reason at all to treat someone like that because you have a communication barrier.