Week 7: Language

          For part 1 at first, I thought that being asked to engage in a conversation for 15 minutes where I could not use any method of symbols language would not be very difficult because I thought I could convey meaning with my gestures. However, not being able to speak or use any version of symbolic language created a barrier, in which the communication between me and my friend was not successful. To test this task, I asked my 2 of my friends to participate with me and informed them the circumstances, in which I was not able to use symbolic language. We together thought 15 minutes of trying to communicate with me not being able to speak or write would be a breeze because we thought we could treat it like a normal conversation. The conversation began talking about Black Friday shopping plans and the deals that were going to be coming up at the shops, which ignited the conversation for my friends, but as for me I was trying to show my opinions about the stores' deals through emotions and by using my body, and we sort of progressed through the conversation. However, the more my friends started talking more about what they want to shop for and what is the plan we are going to execute for shopping, I had a very limited say because I could not necessarily communicate what I felt we should do. Seeing my difficulty, my friends tried asking more questions that were simpler to respond with a gesture than a game of charades put on by my attempt to communicate. During the conversation, my friends tried to include me as much as they could, but since I was not contributing much to the conversation, it felt as if they were becoming tired of guessing what I wanted to say. However, since we were trying to actual attempt to make decisions for our shopping on Black Friday, my friends started asking very basic questions in order to try to get my opinion, so we could decide our plan and actually drive the conversation somewhere. They started listed stores, in which I simply smiled or nodded if I liked or made a face with discontent for the stores I did not want to go to. Overall, we did end up creating some sort of conversation with the altered basic questioning of my friends, but not being able to speak or communicate with writing made it harder for me to express to my friends exactly my desires for our plans for shopping.
      Due to the lack of being able to speak or use symbolic language, my friends had total domination of the conversation, and they were the ones changing topics from what we want to buy to where we would like to go and what we want to do afterwords. It was very difficult for me to ask question, due to fact that I could not speak, so my friends asked most of the questions and mostly they both responded while I was just showing emotions or gestures as my responses. At times, I did feel excluded from the conversation because when talking about one subject, my friends would just talk on and on about what each other was saying. I was not contributing much to the conversation, so I feel that my friends felt that and at times I felt they were talking to each other. In the conversation we had, I felt that my friends had more power because they were the ones initiating and guiding the conversation. Lastly, I felt like I had no power within the conversation because I was not able to effectively guide it with questions and more complex opinions, which instead I was only able to make basic gestures to get my ideas or opinions across; I truly wanted to reply and contribute, but I felt there was a difficult barrier of communication without language.
     In addition, I feel that my friends as the culture that uses spoken language has the advantage of communicating their complex ideas within their population and society because they could actually express their opinions in a more understandable and effective manner. I think in a sense, the speaking culture may feel more at power and judge in a way the other culture who does not use symbolic language. In other words, the speaking culture may feel more superior because they have the advantage of expressing more complexity in concepts, whereas this other culture may be more simple in expressing necessary ideas. The only modern situation I can recall is the Deaf culture, who is not able to listen in order to communicate effectively, and in our society some of those people are not treated fairly to those who have those abilities. Sometimes we may treat these people differently, not regard their ideas, but we forget that just because we have an advantage does not make us superior, which is what some cultures have done, but in the we are all people with the potential to succeed.
    During part 2, I had a totally different outlook before I even had started; I thought it would be very difficult to speak without any emotional expressions or body language because I am very prone to talk with my hands or change my tone for certain expressions to express my thoughts. In this conversation, I started the conversation with talking about the Christmas movies I was planning to watch, and what recipes we can bake during the upcoming winter break. My friends happily responded to my questions about the movies upcoming and what they were planning on watching, but it was the hardest thing not get excited and not to show any facial movements. I really wanted to smile or exclaim how much I loved this one movie or express disgust when talking about this horrible cake recipe, but for me I think that limited my true opinion with what I say to complete my idea. This assignment was very difficult because I really like to smile or use my head to nod or show approval when talking about different ideas, but I was not able to do any of that to actually show how I feel about what I say. My friends did not truly understand what I truly meant with what I saying, and they could not tell if I was feeling very excited or truly disgusted with some of the ideas I was trying to express. In response, they tried to understand as much as they could with my words and relied less on my face because I could not express my emotions. They tried to create more subject that evoked less emotion and they tried to truly study my words to understand how I truly feel. Lastly, they had much difficulty as well in understanding my emotions because it was like I was monotone, and they were becoming disinterested because  they felt as if there was no life in me as I was not expression emotions or intonations.
      With the results from this experiment, it is safe to say that non-speech language aids conjointly with spoken language to create our ability to communicate effectively. I think this is very important the use of body language and changing our tone and changing our facial expression show how strong or candid we feel about what we are saying. For instance, if one were to say "Wow, that is so good." without any emotion or intonations, then we would not believe them and we would not feel the same excitement as if someone were to exclaim with a smile "Wow that is so good!" showing how tone and facial expressions can aid to effective communication. Humans receive the actual expression of how the person actually feels and an insight into their emotions when they "read" a person's body language. With body language, they can gain insight into excitement, anger, disgust, or plain candidness. Thus, it is very important to use non-speech language techniques in order to create a frank and effective communication within individuals.
     Being able to read body language is very important and adaptively beneficial because it may alert one of someone's feelings and may contribute to stress in order for the means of arrival. For instance, if one were to just inform the group about a danger with a monotone voice and no emotions, then the group cannot react and may not even be able to realize the urgency of the situation, but with a worried/frightened tone and trembling hands can stress the urgency to act fast to avoid the danger and survive. Reading body language can also give insight to the motives and more emotions of an individual, so if one is able to detect that the body language one is using, then they can deem if that person is harmful to them or if he or she is being frank. By understanding the body language, one can escape dangerous and stressful situations leading them to  survive and reproduce successfully.
     There are some people in this world that do have difficulty reading body language as it may be an ability gained from experience. However, I feel that from a young age we depend on body language to communicate our concerns because we see babies do that all the time. In our society, practically everyone reads body language to understand what each other is saying. However, children with autism have a difficulty with reading body language because they have a hard time making eye contact with the person they are speaking with. I think a situation where it might be beneficial not to read someone's body language would be when they are saying something, but feeling otherwise or known as telling a lie. For instance, if someone is telling you about a boy you like, but you get so hung up with the their tone and facial expressions that you do think they hate that boy, in which is a facade, so listening to their words would have been much better. Although there may be cases as this, people mostly depend on both speaking and body language for effective means of communication.