Language Blog

      In the part of the experiment that I was supposed to engage without verbal communication, I found it very difficult. I actually tried this part of the experiment with two different cultures. In the first fifteen minutes I had my partner engage with me in English and I found it extremely hard with just hand gestures to make a point, the conversation pretty much ended as soon as it began. The second part I actually had my friend speak another language and I found that languages from the Middle East were much easier to communicate with hand gestures. My friend spoke to me in Farsi and it was easier for me to keep the conversation going. I never realized that when I speak a different language, how much hand gestures I used. My partner’s reaction in the whole process was that of boredom and frustration. He was bored because I was making him help me, and frustrated because through the process it was hard to keep the conversation going. If I was put into a culture that had no verbal communication, I think that puts that individual into a disadvantage. I noticed without any verbal communication that you can only express basic communication functions. Complex ideas would be extremely difficult to express in a situation where verbal communication was not an option. I started thinking about all the people that come to the United States and can not speak the language. Usually these people have a much more difficult time trying to adjust to a new culture. For example, when someone who speaks English to another person who doesn't, and they see that the next person is not understanding, they usually speak in a higher volume, as to assume that the volume of the words would some how make the next person understand. It generally puts the next person in a category of an invalid.

       The second part of this experiment was the opposite of the first one. I found that when I spoke in English without hand gestures it was much easier than speaking in Persian. In English I was able to go the complete fifteen minutes but in Farsi I was getting frustrated that I could not use hand gestures. My partner did not mind in the English speaking part of the experiment but he seemed visually frustrated at the second part of the experiment. I feel that hand gestures and body language is an important part of communicating with another person. Without certain body languages, certain words can be misrepresented in your speech. I believe there are a lot of people that can't read body language. Also it depends heavily on the culture on how body language is interpreted. For example, In the United States when you are angry and want to physically show your anger, you would generally extend your middle finger. In the opposite if you wanted to show someone they did a good job, you would give a thumb up. People from Iran, that did not know the language, would understand the thumbs up as exactly the middle finger. I think to understand body language in communication is very important and helps to express exactly what you want.

      If I was allowed to communicate in writing in the first experiment, I think it would have been much easier. I would have been able to write down exactly what I was showing with my body language. Even if one word answers were allowed to be written the conversation would have been much more interesting. The main advantage for writing, in any culture, is expression. With writing any culture can save their ideology, belief system, and anything that concerns a certain group of people. The impact of writing has been greatly influential on globalization. The ideas that have been saved through writings and translated through different cultures have been the greatest tool for spreading different ideas. The Bible is the biggest proof of that, throughout the years it has been translated to every known language. It has helped to progress to Judea-Christian belief to different nations.