Language Post

Travis Shearer

5/21/13

Anthro 101

Language Blog

Part I:    For the first part of the experiment I did it with a small group of people. I was with my girlfriend, her parents, her sister, and her sister’s boyfriend. I explained to them all what I was going to be doing and then tried my best to partake in the high energy conversation they were all having. I found this extremely hard to maintain. I wanted so bad to just blurt out what I was thinking but couldn’t. For myself I noticed two distinct changes due to my lack of ability to verbalize. The first was that I felt distant from a conversation that I normally would have been a welcome part of, even when the conversation was directed to me. Second, I noticed that when interacting with me they had to exclusively ask me questions. I was unable to steer the conversation, I Simply had to react. A normal conversation with them is fast paced, but due to the difficulty in communicating with me it was severely slowed. Eventually in regards to them I noticed that I became less and less part of the conversation as they seemed to become tired of trying to facilitate my restriction and began to exclude me.

                If this had been two cultures meeting for the first time I don’t see how there could even be a meaningful conversation. I found it so difficult to even talk about food, let along be able to explain to someone the complexities of my culture for the first time. I definitely believe the culture using symbolic language has the advantage in expressing ideas. For example I can explain to someone the exact reasons I do or don’t like a painting, I can talk about color patters, size, complexity, brightness, or skill. But without the ability to have a complex language I could really just point and nod, or shake my head. I know if I encountered a culture that didn’t use such a language, I would see them as less developed. Even though they could have a complex and advanced way of life, if they can’t communicate it to me I can’t understand it. I work for a company whose majority of employees are Hispanic and only speak Spanish. The work we do requires a high level of precision and attention to detail. Not being able to communicate those ideas without basically pointing and acting it out is extremely frustrating.

Part II:   For the second part I chose to only speak with one person so I could attempt to focus as much as possible on how I was interacting. I didn’t think it was too hard until my partner told me I was fluctuating my voice. I found that the most difficult to stop, though after some practice I was able to eventually. For my partner, she had trouble not using facial expressions while listening to me talk. Both My partner and I agreed it made the conversation boring, and hard to keep participating in. I believe if it wasn’t for the fifteen minute minimum the conversation would have ended much sooner. It was also confusing at certain points to discern exactly what her feelings were, I found myself having to ask for clarification. This experiment showed me that the signs we express during conversation are a major aspect of how we interact and understand. If someone doesn’t possess the ability to read or understand body language, tone or facial expression they are at a major disadvantage. I compare it to reading a text with no punctuation, no using punctuation to make faces, or no terms like “lol.” In a lot of ways you’re left guessing. So I don’t see when not having that ability would be beneficial. You just loose so much ability to interpret the other person’s emotions.