Language

   For the first part of the language experiment that we were asked to preform in week six, I asked for the help of my girlfriend and her mother. After explaining to them the object of the experiment, I began to think of a starting point for our conversation. This turned out to be more difficult than I thought; not being able to use words to communicate proved to be quite difficult, but I eventually came up with something. To communicate with my girlfriend and her mother, I used different methods such as signaling with my hands, head movements, facial expressions, and non-verbal vocalizations such as grunts. To me, the most successful of these methods were the head movements and hand movements. Although, the non-verbal vocalizations came in handy as well for simple answers to their questions. I felt that the tone of my vocalizations really helped a lot in aiding the communication between us. When it comes to the changes that they made in order to bridge the gap in communication between us, I felt that the most helpful things that they did were asking a lot of simple questions that would require a yes or no answer (if I could use words) and incorporating some hand signals and head movements of their own. To me, it was cool to see this happen and I was able to compare it to the time that I have spent in Spanish-speaking countries. Recently I went to Santiago, Chile, which is in South America. In some of the rural areas outside of the city, there are not many people that speak English. For me, this was quite difficult as my abilities in speaking the Spanish language are not fully developed. But as I found out, communication between two individuals that speak different languages is eased when each know at least some of each others language. When speaking to someone, I would try my best at Spanish, substituting words that I didn't know with English words. They would do the same, except with the English words they didn't know, they would use Spanish. This concept is exactly what happened between my girlfriend, her mother and myself. They used some of my "language" and (excluding verbal vocalization) I tried my best to match my methods of communication with theirs. This eased the communication between us.

   In terms of who had the power in controlling the conversation, I think that each side had relatively equal amounts, but it was slanted in favor of my girlfriend and her mother. I feel that they were more in control of the conversation due to their ability to use words. In any interaction between two people or two groups of people, I would say that the power lies with whoever is able to ask the questions, and change the topic of the conversation.There is no doubt that you can ask a question with words, but it is a lot more difficult to ask a question with just hand signals, non-verbal vocalizations, head movements, and anything else besides words. The same goes for changing the topic of the conversation; without words, the other people in the conversation might get confused and think that you are still referring to the last topic. Although, this could be resolved with a simple yes or no question that would be answered non-verbally. There were times that I was slightly excluded from the conversation, especially when they were conversing among themselves to determine the meaning of what I was saying. But, this was not long-lasting as they would then turn back to me and ask questions that I would then try to answer.

   If I was to imagine myself in this exercise as a representation of a culture that does not use a spoken language, and my girlfriend and her mother as a representation of a culture that does, I would with 100% certainty say that they (the spoken language using culture) would have a definite advantage over me (the non spoken language culture) in communicating complex ideas within our populations. Just as I said in the previous paragraph, the two most difficult aspects of the conversation were asking questions and changing topics. My girlfriend and her mother had the advantage in preforming these actions because they were able to use words to communicate. Without the use of a spoken language, communicating complex ideas is very difficult. There is a chance that things would be misinterpreted during the communication process due to the difficulty of asking clarifying questions if words are not able to be used. This concept would lead one to think that if these two cultures met, the one that was able to use words would see itself as far superior to the culture that did not use any form of spoken language to communicate. In a way, I think that my girlfriend and her mother demonstrated this excellently. During and after the experiment, they (jokingly) called me a "caveman". Even though they did not mean this seriously, it shows that the lack of the use of spoken language is associated with low levels of mental capabilities. To put it plainly, the culture that is able to use words to communicate would see the culture that does not use words to communicate as dumb, and on a much lesser intellectual level. One modern day example of this happening is the attitudes we have towards immigrants in the United States. Let's say a family of people from Africa just came to America, and they do not know enough of the English language to communicate with others. This could prove to be a big issue for the family, as in the past we have seen many instances where immigrants have been ridiculed for not knowing the English language when they are in America. It is quite unfortunate that this is true of the United States, but it is all too common that you hear the saying, "this is America, we speak English here." The lack of the ability to communicate through spoken language can even prove to turn hostile, where in some cases those who can use spoken language verbally or even physically attack those who cant.

   For the second part of this assignment, we were asked to have a conversation with others by only using our voices and no other forms of communication. The people that I chose to interact with were the same as in the first part of the assignment, my girlfriend and her mother. During this conversation, myself and the others found it to be significantly more difficult to communicate than in the first part where I could not use words. For me, the most difficult part of communicating was not being able to express emotion, or use any form of body language. This lack of emotional expression through tone, facial expressions or body language also made it difficult for them to understand the meaning of my words, and it forced them to ask a lot of yes or no questions. This was especially true when we talked about things that had to do with emotion, and other subjects that you could not just understand by taking the words I was saying at face value. Emotion being projected through expressions other than my monotone voice was needed in some cases to communicate and this made it difficult on both sides.

   After coming to the conclusion that communication is very difficult without the use of emotion, body language and other "signs" that give away our feelings, it is clear that through our use of spoken language to communicate that we rely heavily on these things. Without them, as myself, my girlfriend and her mother witnessed, communication would be very difficult and almost impossible. By reading another person's body language, a lot of different things can be observed. By examining someones facial expressions as they speak, looking at their posture or body position in relation to who they are talking to, and even observing the excess or lack of movements of their hands, feet, and eyes, you can pretty much tell exactly how a person is feeling. Also, when in combination with the words they are saying, the observations you make about someones non-verbal expressions can help you to understand the meaning of the words they are saying to a greater extent. In addition to this, the tone of their voice and the level of volume at which they are speaking are also very important factors that help to communicate meaning in a conversation.

  The adaptive benefit of being able to understand body language is such that those who are capable of doing so have a significant advantage over those who can not. This advantage, in humans,  is displayed in a multitude of different ways. For example, the ability to read body language is important in increasing our chances of survival during a situation where danger is present but not immediately obvious. It is possible that during a life-threatening situation, someone may be trying to communicate the danger of the situation through non-verbal forms of communication while keeping the danger hidden through their spoken language. This situation could possibly happen during a convenience store robbery, where the cash register attendant is being held at gunpoint by someone under the counter, out of sight of someone buying an item from the store. If the cash register attendant can communicate the danger to the customer through non-verbal forms of communication, they may be able to alert the authorities, or at least get the customer out of the dangerous situation. Another example of the adaptive benefit to being able to understand body language may be obtaining cash resources during a poker game, where being able to read body language can mean the difference between winning and losing. This benefit is also important while attracting mates, where the ability to read body language can help you to know if someone is interested in you or not.

   One example of someone who would have difficulty in reading body language is someone with the condition of autism. Individuals that are on the autistic spectrum may have a significant difficulty in reading other's non-verbal communication. And, although people that are blind can still understand changes in the tone and volume of someone's voice, they would be another example of someone who can not understand body language. One example of a situation where it would help to not be able to read someone's body language and non-verbal communication would be if you were traveling to another country for the first time; specifically one that is very foreign to your own culture. Not all cultures and places around the world express the same body language and non-verbal communication, and it may help you to communicate if you did not understand how to read theirs. It is possible that in their country, eye rolling could mean something completely different than it means in the United States, and this would throw you off significantly in the process of communicating.