LANGUAGE EXERCISE
So-I am actually going to start with the second exercise first, simply because I found it so interesting. This exercise-which required me to communicate verbally but in no other way-was EXTREMELY challenging. I completely underestimated the degree to which I communicate nonverbally. Also, my family had a great time with this little exercise because they were well aware that I had toi limit my communication.
One thing I noticed was how emotionless I became. In an effort not to break the rules I found myself much more straightforward in the way I spoke. Evidently, my version of sarcasm requires a lot of nonverbal cues. My family loved it-my son kept busting me with every eye roll, every raising of my eyebrows. It was actually a lot of fun.
With raged to communicating nonverbally, this was tough also. Even though-as I previously mentioned-I communicate a lot nonverbally, without the verbal component my ideas needed to VERY simple. I could only convey the most mundane things-I'm thinking, or I'm hungry, etc. My family also had fun with this as you can well imagine.
As for who controlled the conversation, that was not a huge factor when I was able to communicate verbally. It was all straightforward, but I found it fairly easy to carry on the conversation. However, when it came to going completely nonverbal my participation was minimal. I was not able to control the conversation at all, but I could participate minimally. After awhile my family and I just had fun with it. They were making fun of me for all the hand gesturing and pointing-it was one big crazy game of charades and it was so much fun!
The last question regarding the two cultures is s simple one for me. I think the nonverbal group would have a difficult time expressing complex ideas without the ability to verbalize. I also believe the verbal group would look down on the nonverbal group, or at very least there is the huge potential for the nonverbal group to be misunderstood. This is most certainly a metaphor for the some of the situations that exist in the world today. There are cultures in the world that choose to shun a lot of the conventions that Americans find important-such as social media-and because those cultures choose a more simple existence there are some in our culture that look down on those cultures. Sometimes it takes a considerable amount of effort to understand someone, but in the end it's usually worth it. In the end, that is certainly a more positive choice than the choice to hate in a knee-jerk fashion what we do not understand.
I'll start with the first experiment.
ReplyDeleteGood description from your own perspective, but often the way your partner(s) responds is the most important part. Other then enjoying your own discomfort, did your partners change they way they communicated with you?
There were a separate set of questions for the second part of the experiment. It seems like you used the questions from part one for both experiments?
Good description on the situation of power in the conversation for part one.
Good final discussion on the issues of both cultures and I agree with your example of real-life attitudes toward different cultures. One specific example is the situation faced by immigrants in our country. They have difficulty speaking symbolicly and rely a lot on body language.
You describe the second experiment but missed the questions for that part of the post?
I loved reading this because I was in the same boat as you. I'm a very talkative and VERY emotive person who gesticulates when I communicate. I found this experiment to be quite challenging even though my family found it amusing.
ReplyDelete"In an effort not to break the rules I found myself much more straightforward in the way I spoke. Evidently, my version of sarcasm requires a lot of nonverbal cues." This comment gave me a good chuckle because it's so true how our non-verbal cues are just as powerful as the words we speak especially with sarcasm. It's eye opening how our non-verbal cues can communicate just as much if not more than anything we say verbally. It gave me a lot to think about and demonstrated that silence can also be a very powerful communicative tool as well.
I loved reading your post, must have been interesting to do this exercise with the whole family instead of one other person. You used the same word I did for part 2 of this activity and that is emotion. I never realized how much feeling and emotion your body language shows. I had that problem as well.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your post Sean, and I too was amazed at how much I use facial expressions and body language to communicate. Fortunately for me, however, my version of sarcasm still comes through without them. I also did the experiment with my family and it ultimately turned into a farcical game of charades and make fun of Daddy.
ReplyDelete