1a. I found this half of the exercise to be much easier than
the second. I did this exercise with my fiancée, who knows American Sign
Language and has taught me some, so communicating without words is not new to
us. However, it was difficult to resist the urge to use what I know of ASL to
communicate more efficiently, instead of just using general motions and facial
expressions.
1b. She was taken aback by the proposal of the exercise but
once we were underway she was instantly comfortable. She did not have to change
how she communicated with me at all since she knows how to communicate with
deaf people. She had no issue translating my gestures and my expressions into
what they truly were—we think on the exact same wavelength very often, as if
our brains were telepathically connected, and this is where I think
communicating with her gave me a slight edge in this exercise.
1c. It is definitely more advantageous to be able to
communicate in a more complex form of symbols. Simply using arbitrary motions
and expressions are very vague, and even though a culture that does not speak a
certain language may not understand exactly what the “spoken-language” person
is communicating, having a more specified vocabulary ultimately makes it easier
to communicate precisely.
A speaking culture may be taken aback by a culture that has
not adapted toward speaking. As a person from a speaking culture, it seems so
inefficient to communicate without speech (assuming efficiency is the ultimate
goal, here). However, there are definite situations where it is advantageous to
communicate without having to use sounds, like when a group is hunting or
during a covert operation mission.
The easiest example to give for people who have difficulty
communicating with spoken language is deaf or partially deaf people. Fully deaf
individuals, especially if they were deaf from birth, can find it very frustrating
to try to understand someone who only knows how to speak a language. Trying to use sign language with someone who has
no idea what the symbols mean can be taxing if both parties are not patient. I
know barely any ASL myself, and what I do know did take quite some time and
repetition to understand.
2a. For the most part, I was actually able to complete this
exercise. There was only one point at which I really let it go and broke “character.”
However, there were quite a few times where I was making an interrogative
statement and inflected my voice. This is one of the things that is very hard
not to do. This exercise was much more difficult for me because I felt like I was
incredibly restricted, as if I were imprisoned within myself. Having to keep a
straight facial expression and speak in a monotone voice was incredibly
annoying and irritating for me.
2b. Again, she did not have too much trouble trying to
figure out how to communicate with me. This time she just had to stop and pause
every time I was talking because I was trying to pronounce every syllable of
every word in the exact same tone so as not to waver from the non-expressive
state. Also, the times I would ask an interrogative question and successfully
mask any inflection, she would have to repeat the phrase or statement back to
me using her own inflection to acquire affirmation that it was or wasn’t actually
interrogative. I also noticed that, through the “freezing” of my facial
expression, her facial expression varied much less than it normally does. She
is a very expressive person and I think she was subconsciously imitating my
stone-face as a sympathetic response to that me in my restricted state.
2c. As the old adage goes, you don’t know what you have
until it’s gone. Once I was restricted from making facial expressions,
shrugging, or varying my vocal tones I realized how truly dynamic the
communication process is. This really is something that we don’t talk pr think
about too much but the use of non-verbal communication is just as, if not more,
important that verbal communication. Facial expressions and body language are
very telling signs for the emotions behind words and phrases, and understanding
the feelings behind words and phrases in communication definitely gives more
depth and understanding to what exactly one is trying to say. It is certainly
possible to communicate solely using a monotone voice, but it is difficult to
ascertain whether or not someone is asking a question or giving a command, etc.
This can be demonstrated in written language by taking away punctuation and
capitalization—if all of the letters are lower/upper case and there is no
punctuation separating the words and phrases, do you really know what exactly
the author is trying to say? It takes much more work to figure that out.
2d. Blind people would be an obvious selection for people
who cannot read body language. Also, I imagine that anyone who would be raised
in an incredibly dark environment or an environment where they only
communicated with other humans in different rooms from them (e.g.: a prison)
would also have difficulty understanding body language.
An adaptive benefit to body language is the understanding of
the emotion and physical intention (if any) underlying the message itself. If
my fiancée were mourning but could only communicate to me with a monotone
voice, it would be difficult to actually believe that she was sad about
something; but with nonverbal communication, she could hang her shoulders and
make a devastated face, which clarifies what exactly the words are trying to
express. Also, if someone is being aggressive, one would not be able to discern
that solely from a monotone voice, but from tension, stance, and the actual
inflections of the voice.
The only sort of situation I can think of is one where it is
beneficial to know less than to know more—possibly some sort of secret meeting
where the information is life-threatening, knowing less might actually cause
someone to live longer. It is difficult to imagine a circumstance where knowing
less is beneficial because throughout my whole life it seems that more
knowledge and clarity have always been positive, and the converse—obscurity and
ignorance—seem the negative.
