Experimenting with language.

     It sure sounds easy at first but I came to find out that this assignment was much more difficult than I originally thought.  Fifteen minutes in a conversation where only one person understands what the other is trying to communicate gets very frustrating fast.  It is like trying to play a very long session of charades.  I found it to be very difficult to try and get any point across.  I did not feel like a had any significant thing to add to the conversation in the first part of this assignment.  As the experiment continued the person who was trying to communicate with me pretty much toook control of the conversation.  It seemed to me  like it turned into a yes, no and alot of hand gestures, that the person I was trying to communicate, did not understand.  I noticed that as the conversation continued, my partner seemed a bit frustrated as well.  I noticed they too were using more hand gestures.   Maybe as a form of helping me  to try and help me communicate with them with the same type of hand gestures.  I think the culture who has a symbolic language has the edge in communicating complex ideas.  I think it is easier for a culture with a symbolic language to try and interpret things by helping tie some hand gestures or facial expressions  with an actual vocabulary word.  I believe the culture with a symbolic language might consider themselves superior to the culture without a symbolic language.  I have first hand experience with trying to communicate with language barriers.  I grew up with parents who's first language was spanish.   My father began his business in his mid 20's and most of his clientiele was solely english speaking.  I was surprised that although there was a language barrier my father and his clients always came to an understanding at the end of their conversation.  I think since these were business transactions and both the parties new there was a language barrier, there was always a friendlier approach and method to communicating with each other.  As a little kid I noticed that my father and his clients used a lot of hand gestures and facial expressions in helping understand each other.

     The second part of the experiment was very difficult as well.  I honestly did not last the full 15 minutes in trying to not use and form of physical or vocal experession.  I knew what was being asked in the experiment but through old habits I could not get myself to not use and physical expression.  I would catch myself using my eyebrows or taking deep breaths in frustration.  I couldn't even keep the conversation in a monotone voice.  My partner explained to me that the believed the conversation was a little more on the boring side.  The lack of expression made it  a less appealing conversation.  I have taken speech courses before and I think physical experessions is the key in keeping your audience in tune to what you are speaking about.  It is possible to communicate with just language but when mixed in physical expression, it gives our conversations a different life.  I think that people who can read body language have a better understanding of conversations.  I think being able to read body language plays a key role in helping people work together in life or in a working environment.   The benefit in reading body language would be a great help in ameliorating situations that might need it.  For example a person in a sales enviornment would thrive in being able to read body language.  They would have a  better understanding  in meeting their customers needs by reading facial expressions and body language.  They would know what direction to steer a customer before they even had a chance to communicate through language.  I think children also have a great understanding of body language.  I for one knew when I was younger, what not to do just by looking over at my parents facial expressions..  They never had to say a word and I understood exactly what they were thinking.  =)