The Importance of Language

Language is the main method of human communication, but what happens when all language is lost? There is only one way to find out, I took to talking to a close friend of mine by simple hand gestures. My plan was to communicate about plans for the weekend, this started with walking towards a calendar and pointing at Saturday and Sunday. My friend did not understand right away and said phrases like “what about saturday and sunday?” and “why are you pointing at me and then pointing at the calender.” It took a good about of time to finally get across that I was asking about his weekend plans. I would point at him, then point at the calendar, and then back at him, and nod yes or no to his questions. This seemed fairly easy, in the since that I could answer all his questions with a simple head nod, but hard by constantly repeating myself and becoming frustrated.  My friend had mentioned that without the head nods there would be no way to communicate thoroughly and with full understanding. I would say the person in control of this conversation was me because without my head nods of yes or no the conversation would have gone nowhere. I asked my friend this same questions and got an answer of him feeling in control, he said how he had control of the questions so moreover, he was in control.

After he realized what I was asking him, he answered and followed up with a question, “what are you doing over the weekend.” This was hard to answer because I couldn't think of how to get my message across to him. I googled a picture of the beach and showed him, this seemed to be the most logical way to say “i'm going to the beach.” Without my cellphone, this task  would have been challenging. The majority of this experiment he asked the questions and would answer with a head shake. I feel as in this situation he had the power because he could ask the questions and all I had to do was reply with an answer. A culture that has complex ideals when it comes to the unspoken and spoken language would be the deaf. Using sign language with another person who also knows sign language is a universal way for those who are incapable to communicate. I believe that people should go out of their way to explore sign language and any languages for that matter. You never know what situation you could run into and have there be a barrier between cultures. A modern situation could be people speaking spanish in California, where mostly english is spoken. If people learned spanish we could have a bilingual culture all together and not have there be a separation. This experience showed that humans heavily rely on physical body movements when it comes to communication, it enhances and gives a better understanding to verbal communication.

Non-speech language is so important in today society because we could use it as a form of communicating overall. Humans can learn all types of information from simple body gestures. For example, someone sitting across the room with a straight face and arms crossed most likely does not want to be spoken too, but this is just how us humans read it, body gestures are simply everything in today’s world. But what happens when gestures are taken away?

Being able to speak and communicate is one thing, but having body movement sets the tone for the mood I am in when  talking. For this part of the assignment, I talked to someone who had no clue I was doing an experiment. We talked about the Bachelor and about the new Bachelorette, this person constantly asked me “are you okay?” and “is there something going on.” They did not have a difficult time understanding me but more of a hard time wondering why I was just simply sitting there. I have found after conducting this experiment that humans automatically assume something is wrong when body movements are not involved. The ability to read body language is so important because it can answer questions without even speaking. I believe reading body language can also send the wrong signals, someone could be sitting and enjoying their day and the person walking by could think they are upset or mad. Body language plays a large role in society as well as the language itself.