Non-verbal communication

I found it extremely difficult to communicate without speaking. I felt like I didn’t have a voice, and I felt very restricted.

The impression of the other person “holding” the conversation was that of frustration. They couldn’t really understand me and why I wasn’t reciprocating the conversation like they were. My actions made them feel like I was uninterested in the conversation.

The culture with the upper hand would most certainly be the “speaking” culture; they would have a way getting their complex ideas across because they would know how to formulate their words to convey a specific idea.  The speaking culture might look down upon the non-speaking culture because first off, their different, then their inability to verbally communicate the way the speaking culture is accustomed to.

Throughout there is one group that immediately comes to mind where referring to non-speaking communication. Deaf or those hard of hearing, people have a specific way of communicating without the use of words. They use sign language to communicate effectively. Often times I have noticed that when a person who is using their words to communicate tries to communicate with a person who cannot use words, they often speak louder in hopes that they can be heard by the person hard of hearing, which is definitely not the case and not necessary.

                                                             Speaking without gestures

         I definitely tried to last all of the 15 minutes without using my hand gestures or any body language at all. I really did not realize how difficult this exercise would be and what an intricate part of language hand gestures are. What made it difficult was that I didn’t feel like I was being as descriptive as I am used to.

This type of communication was very boring and mundane. The conversation was left to be very uninteresting and the other person did not seem like they were interested in what I had to say. Non-speech communication is extremely important to those that are hard of hearing. Their hands are their ears and without them they would most certainly have a harder time communication if at all.

I wouldn’t say that there are people who cannot read body language; however, what I would say is that there are people that misinterpret body language. If you are able to read body language effectively there would be little to no need for conversation in some cases.