Part 1:
I found this experiment to be difficult because I wasn't sure how to express myself and have a conversation with my husband. Not being able to talk or use my hands was difficult. But when I talk I use facial expressions a lot, so not being able to talk I just emphasized my facial expressions hoping that my husband would understand what I felt about what he was telling me.
No, my husband did not alter the way he conversed with me just because I couldn't talk back. I found it funny that I couldn't talk because I am so talkative. So I would laugh. My husband would find it frustrating that I couldn't communicate back to him. When I would laugh he found it even more difficult to communicate with me because he didn't know why I was laughing and felt that I was laughing at him. So I would have to shake my head no that I wasn't laughing at me. The 15 minutes went by fast because he was trying to guess what I was saying with my facial expressions after he would talk to me.
If two different cultures where meeting for the first time, I think the culture that is able to talk, communicate, and understand the other party is at the advantage. The other side that is not able to communicate back is at the disadvantage. The speaking party might see the the nonspeaking party as not competent or even inferior. Individuals in our culture that have difficulty communicating our spoken language are immigrants that move here from their countries. Individuals who interact with these immigrants often are rude and don't have any patients towards them. But there are also individuals who are accommodating but these people speak the immigrants language. But that's still not always the case.
Part 2:
No, I was not able to last the full 15 minutes with just talking and no other form of communication. It was difficult for me because I do use a lot of facial expressions. Not being able to really fully express how I feel when talking to my best friend was really hard. She wasn't able to understand how I fully felt about things, because I was talking neutral with out any facial expressions or hand motions.
She wasn't able to read my body language because I couldn't interact with her to the full extent of which I usually would. She kept asking me more and more questions to try to understand more about what we where talking about and to understand how I felt. I finally got frustrated and started using facial expressions. Which didn't allow me to complete the full 15 minutes.
Our ability to effectively communicate relies heavily on body language, communication, and being able to fully listen and respond to the person or group of people you're trying to talk to. People not only are listening to a person talk but they are watching their expressions and body to see how an individual is feeling at the same time. It's very important for people to be able to understand the unspoken language, as well as the spoken language because individuals will cross boundaries unknowingly or even offend others if they cannot read their body language.
There are people that have a disorders, and disabilities in reading body language such as asperger syndrome, and even individuals with ADHD have difficulty reading body language. These people are at great disadvantage and often have a very hard time interacting socially in public areas. It's a great ability to be able to read body language because in a serious situation when an individual cannot talk body language would be key. Body language could be the only way to communicate to others at times. I don't think that any situation were not being able to read body language can be beneficial. In my opinion body language is just as important as spoken language. In any situation I think being able to understand both spoken and unspoken language is really important just because they do go hand in hand and that's how people express themselves.
Hi!
ReplyDeleteI like how you did the assignment with only one other person. I did it with two different people so it is interesting to see the different outcomes in the experiments. When I was doing the first part of the assignment, I seemed to just be a bi-standard in the conversation with my family. since I was unable to fully communicate with my words it seemed like they left me out a lot and just let me nod and express myself when I agreed or disagreed with what they were saying. I think it would be interesting to try it with two people like you did because you will get more of a straightforward reaction when its the only other person your communicating with. That is why I enjoyed reading your post. Good information!
I feel as though we had the same outcome in the first part of the experiment because my coworker also became frustrated when I would laugh and did not understand what I was laughing at. I am a person who exaggerates facial expressions and gestures when I talk so the second part of the experiment was the most difficult for me as well. I feel that it was easy for you to experiment with your husband because you are used to communicating with each other just as how it was easy for me to communicate with my mom. Great job!
ReplyDeleteI ran into a lot of the same problems you did. The second part was definitely more difficult than the first part, but the first part was still hard to do. I definitely agree that effective communication relies heavily on body language, and it was proven in the second part of the experiment. I do agree that people with ADHD have difficulties reading body language to a point, but I think people with aspergers or autism would have more of a problem in social situations, since most of the time, people with ADHD are higher functioning then people with the other two.
ReplyDeleteWith me the first part was also not as difficult as the second but it was still difficult to a degree. I do agree that gesture is very important in communication. Also with the immigrants , I believe if we cannot understand them we can try to read their gestures and try to understand them . I mean people do it with us all the time. Like for example tourists that go to Paris France , and do not know any english , they use gestures to get along. We can show them the same courtesy and try to meet them 50/50 and yes , not be rude to them . Great job Jess
ReplyDeleteVery good post! Good description of your experiences and good analysis in both parts. It was interesting to read the reactions of your partners in both sections.
ReplyDeleteYou did well to catch the issue of Aspergers in terms of not being able to ready body language.
Regarding the last question, what if it was possible that the body language was not going to give you accurate information, such as traveling to another country where they used different body language?
Other than that last point, good posts.
I really like how thorough tour report was even if it brought mine to shame. I also like how you mentioned the mental disorders associated with interpreting language both spoken and non spoken.
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