Language in the Vortex of the Twilight Zone

Part 1: Huh?

The experiment felt like a ship trapped in the Bermuda triangle. All guiding compasses no longer function and you are surrounded by dense fog. Since it is not customary for us to communicate symbol free, it is rather difficult to convey any detailed thought. Seeing that this was the case, it seemed that I was confined solely to the use of simple verbal gestures, and even this is being gracious. For the most part the conversation consisted of a bunch of “huh” grunts. However, in thinking over this experiment I think if this was my customary form of communication it might become easier to understand one another, but as far as the depth of thought that could be communicated, in my opinion, it would be limited.

My partners faces displayed confusion and for some even frustration. Despite the mass confusion and flustered friends I can’t say any really altered their mode of communication. If anything they assailed me with a barrage of questions. It was like a game of charades gone bad.

If both I and my partners represented two cultures meeting for the first time wherein they represented a speaking culture and I the non symbolic culture it is with little doubt that they would have the advantage when it comes to communicating complex ideas. Since speaking cultures can communicate abstract thoughts or complex ideas and non symbolic cultures are limited, in my opinion, the attitude of the speaking culture would be one of two, generally speaking. First, one being an attitude of superiority, and the other being one of helpfulness. The latter desiring to understand and help teach a more useful way of communication, and the prior one of sheer arrogance. Sadly, in our culture the mentally disabled would be one group of people that have difficulty communicating with spoken language. However, the sadness or shamefulness falls more so on those that can communicate freely with spoken language. From my brief experience the mentally disabled are by passed due to complexities that arise when communication is attempted. So rather then try to learn to communicate and understand it is easier to neglect.

Part 2: Attack of Monotoned Ben Stein

Unfortunately, in trying not to use any physical embellishments in my conversation I couldn’t last more than five minutes before I caught my tone changing. After the tone fluctuation I was more conscious of that aspect until I realized how much I move my eyebrows when I speak. I also had a constant urge to rub my beard or put my fingers on my eyes. It was easier not to use hand movements as I clasped my hands behind my back, but I was well aware of the desire to do such things. Through all the constant fumbling I managed to persevere to the end of the conversation. It is no easy task to attempt to impersonate Ben Stein.

My partners in this experiment seemed to think it was comical that I was trying so hard to be monotone and straight faced. However, some of what I actually said was misunderstood because they could not differentiate my opinions on the matters being discussed.

I would conclude through this portion of the experiment that our use of “signs” has become imbedded within our overall communication and that spoken language without such physical embellishments or tone fluctuations is not as effective. We as a culture have become dependent on such “signs” to interpret one another’s emotions, thoughts, or attitudes toward life. However, I would also say that these very signs also lead to a world misinterpreted ideas because of such a heavy dependence on these “signs.” Moreover, there is a degree of difficulty in reading body language depending on the people involved in the conversation. People of different cultures or classes, for example, might have extreme difficulty reading one another’s body language. When I lived in Germany for 9 months I first thought that all the Germans were so angry with one another based on their tone and body language, however, it was just their normal communication that I was misinterpreting because I was either different culturally or lacked the ability to accurately read their body language. Overall, the ability to understand body language, even if it is misinterpreted at times, is beneficial to us as a society because there are times when words fall short or cannot be used.