Language Blog

   Using language be it spoken, written or gestures is a very important part of social development and helping a species thrive.

  Having being limited to facial expressions, hand gestures and body language didn't feel very difficult at all. I was still very much able to express mood and intent with no words. My volunteer began asking me more questions than normal however, because I wasn't able to be very specific they had to piece together some parts of the conversation. I never really noticed how much is said with our expressions and hands. In a meeting of cultures I feel the most advanced in terms of communication would have the bigger advantage. Being able to coordinate with others, like planning an attack or hunting strategy guarantees their survival as they would be stronger in number. In our society those whose main forms of communication are ASL put them at a slight disadvantage to the rest. Even though most interaction is done with social media and technology basic tasks such as going to the market or going to school can hinder them. Without words it may be harder for them get attention and express a specific need. I can imagine someone who may have a food allergy having trouble explaining the situation in a diner or restaurant. Likewise those trying to engage with someone who may be unable to speak will most likely have a hard time understanding.

 This exercise I felt was a bit more challenging. Changing the tone of our voice is a natural reaction to certain events. Being angered may cause you to change expression and without being able to tell if that person was angry it would also be hard to establish the cause. I was not able to complete to full 15 minutes before I finally had to change tone in order to express urgency. My partner also couldn't tell if I was being sarcastic or not and at one point became frustrated. They described it to texting or messaging someone. You read the message but you have to spend the extra time trying to figure out if that person is being serious or not. The people who have difficulty reading body language I think might be men. It is a common joke that men for some reason can not understand their spouses/girlfriends when they are upset. Does it remain true for everyone I don't think so, but you can easily see how it would be a problem. Building relationships and social interaction sometimes involve reading cues in body language. A salesman might pick up on the nervous and uncertain behavior of a buyer. A police officer will read the person they are trying to arrest in order to determine if they are hostile or not. Without those certain cues these situations become unpredictable and dangerous.

However there is one benefit in not being able to read body language. During a fight or battle no matter what the species being able to hide injuries is an excellent way to hide weakness. If something has an injured leg, limping would immediately signal to enemies that there is a vulnerable point of attack. So being able to conceal this would be very beneficial.