Language Experiment

I found the first part of this experiment quite easy during the first few minutes, but it became frustrating soon after.

At the beginning, the conversation was very one-sided, which made it easier for me, since all I had to do was grunt and wave my hands to show my partner I was listening.  However, when she suggested doing something that I didn't want to do, grunting suddenly was not enough.  By the time I got her attention and gestured for her to stop talking, she had already moved on to the next idea.  I could not tell her what I was stopping her for, since I had no way of repeating what she had said in her previous statement.  I tried miming the issue, but since we had already moved on to the next part of the conversation, she still didn't know what I was referring to.

When she began speaking directly to me, my partner addressed me mostly in yes or no questions.  Although this made our conversation easier to carry, I could tell she was irritated by the fact that she had to spend so much time asking me questions about what I was thinking or what I was referring to, when I could have told her within a few sentences.  She was not the only one who was irritated, either—after a few attempts at communicating, I started feeling very childish, being unable to express myself through speech.  

To make the conversation more interesting, I told her (in words) to ask me a question that would be difficult to answer without words.  In response, she asked me how I felt about being mixed-race.  Since I have no issues with it, I jumped around and smiled.  When she asked me why I felt that way, I found I had no way of explaining the reason.  Without some kind of spoken language, I could not describe the fine points of why I was comfortable with my race, I could only tell her that I was happy with it.  As a result, I was silent for a very long time, and could only communicate my frustration to her by frowning.

Even though I could communicate some level of emotion with my body, voice, and face (like happiness, anger, disappointment, excitement) during this conversation, I couldn't give her any specificity about what I was feeling, or exactly why I felt it.  Furthermore, I was completely unable to explain myself when it came to more complex topics, such as why I felt a certain way.

That being said, if this had been a meeting of two people from two different cultures, then my partner would have had the upper hand in expressing complex ideas.  With spoken language, a person is able to describe things in a much more detail.  Also, when it comes to more abstract ideas, it would be impossible to have meaningful discussions without a spoken language.  Even if those around him held the same ideas, they have no way of telling each other this, since they could not describe the idea in the first place.

Most likely, the person with the ability to speak would view the person without that ability as barbaric, or unintelligent.  Judging by my actions during our conversation, the non-speaker’s becoming frustrated at their inability to express their thoughts would probably be seen as impulsiveness or lack of control to the speaker.  Also, even if the person who lacked a spoken language had a mental capacity equivalent to the speaker’s, he would have no way of making this known, giving the speaker the impression that he had never thought about anything more complex than what he could communicate non-verbally.

There are several different disorders which affect the ability to understand and communicate through speech, such as aphasia, and those who are mentally challenged may also find it harder to communicate through spoken language.  Very young children, who are just learning to speak, also are unable to communicate using language—they express their needs only through body language and nonverbal sounds, such as crying, laughing, and crawling.  As a result, those with higher language skills may use simpler language to accommodate these sorts of people, and communicate through more frequent body language and enhanced facial expression.

***

The second part of the experiment was cut a bit short from 15 minutes, since neither of us could not stop laughing throughout the conversation.

Since I had the entire English language at my disposal this time, there were no problems with communicating more complex ideas.  Even so, my partner found it very difficult to sustain a conversation with me.  Despite my telling her beforehand that I had to talk without using gestures or voice changes, my lack of physical reactions still made her a bit uncomfortable.  No matter what she said to me, I sounded very disinterested and bored whenever I responded.  Also, no matter how hard I tried, I could never speak without changing my voice somehow; I've grown so accustomed to changing my voice for emphasis that it was almost impossible to keep it at a constant pitch.  After a few minutes, we could not continue the conversation; my partner told me I sounded “too much like a robot” to be taken seriously.

Language is not only about verbally expressing thoughts, it’s also about expressing how you feel about those thoughts.  Even if you stated that you were excited, there is something about speaking in monotone with no facial or bodily expression that is not convincing.  Humans are naturally very excitable animals, and we tend to become engaged in whatever thoughts or activities we’re experiencing.  This involves changing our voice pitch, tone, and moving our bodies.  If we do not include these things in our speech, we seem detached, and are viewed as insincere.

Frankly, using body language is a time-saver.  By acting excited, you save yourself a few minutes of verbally explaining how excited you feel.  In a way, during normal speaking with pitch variation and gestures, it’s almost as if you are speaking two languages at once.  If this is true, then it would take twice as long to explain anything using only verbal or body language.  Judging by the outcomes of this experiment, I would say this is a valid assumption.

There are certain medical conditions which impair a person’s ability to read body language.  For example, Asperger syndrome affects a person’s reactions to gestures, facial expression, and posture; they may not understand or recognize the other person’s reactions, and be viewed as insensitive.

Because humans are able to use and recognize body language, we are able to gauge the importance of a person’s speech.  Body language allows us to see if a person is truly invested in what they are saying, and whether they are excited, dishonest, or disappointed.  And although body language itself is not sufficient for expressing ideas, it is useful for signaling if we are in pain or in trouble, which can be extremely important in situations where we need assistance and are unable to speak.

If there was a situation where a listener wanted hear to a speaker objectively, without any sign of opinion or preference, I think ignoring body language would be useful.  This way, the listener would not come to any quick conclusions about the attitude of the speaker based on his movements or how he looks as he is speaking.  Also, the inability to read body language can be very useful to a liar—of course, this can cause many problems for the person who is being lied to.