Language!

Part 1:
I personally thought that this exercise was difficult. I never realized that understanding language also derives from tone of voice and body language. Doing this first part, I honestly thought that this part was much harder than the second because when trying to reply to questions asked by my family, I felt like all I could reply was a nod, a shake of the head, or a shrug of the shoulders. Being that was the only way I could reply, they were asking questions that were just yes or no answers like if I ate lunch, or if I completed my homework for the day. But what I did also realize is that facial expressions say a lot. At the time of working on this exercise, my family and I were about to prepare dinner, and my aunt asked me if I wanted chicken. I gave her a face of disgust because I felt like I've been eating chicken for lunch and dinner for the past week. Just by the look on my face, she already knew that chicken was not what I wanted.

I felt like that my family was the one initiating conversation, because if you cannot speak, it's pretty hard to start a conversation with just facial expressions or a nod of the head. I felt like they were the ones interviewing me and that all I could reply was a yes or a no. I did feel excluded from the conversation because they would only ask me questions that I can say yes or no to, then they would continue the conversation with the rest of my family that are able to say a complete thought. I felt like my family had the power of controlling the conversation because they can actually say a complete sentence that can spark a conversation whereas with myself, I could only have facial expressions.

I feel the culture who can explain a complete thought with words has a huge advantage with communication because they'll be able to express complex ideas. I feel like the culture who could explain a complete thought, will look down upon the other culture who can only converse through actions and expressions. They will probably feel like they cant converse because the other culture doesn't share the same quality of conversation through words; being they do not have the same quality, they will just exclude the culture of conversing through expression. When I was in high school, I worked in a group for my Rhetoric class which in the end we all had to present. We had a total of 4 people including me. One person out of the four of us was a exchange student from South Korea. The other people in my group felt that she'd be perfect for the very last part- which was only three sentences compared to the paragraphs the rest of the group had to present. Being that her main language is Korean, she had trouble pronouncing some words in the English language- completely understandable, however, not everyone thinks that way. When she stated the conclusion of our speech, I was looking around the classroom and it'd looked like no one was even paying attention to her- when everyone else was paying attention to the rest of my group. Everyone was looking down, or looking around the classroom, with faces of complete confusion.

Part 2: 
This part was pretty hard for me, but it was a lot easier than communicating with no words. I thought that this part was the most fun to me just by the reactions of my family. They were all confused, trying to figure out what I mean because I had no tone of voice. So my lovely family said that I sounded sarcastic and angry. They thought that I looked "sketchy" by having zero body language. My family knew what I was talking about, but they just didn't understand my feelings towards what I'm saying (whether I'm mad or angry, or even happy). They actually referred me to the TV show Dexter- a psychopath whose a serial killer and hides in plain sight by having a profession of a blood spatter analyst. He actually shows a good example of talking with no facial expression or body language to cover up what he is really thinking.

This part of the exercise really emphasized the importance of body language when it comes to partaking in conversation. Through body language and even tone of voice, we can tell what the person is feeling just by a simple smile or by a high-pitched tone of excitement. This shows that having different tones of voice and how you carry your body correlates to the mood that the person is in. I also feel that when one "reads" body language, you can also see some personality just by the way they sit (like how laid back people like to have their feet up or leaned back on the couch or chair or conservative people like to cross their legs).

Having the ability to read body language, you one can see if that person is trusting or not. Usually caring people have sympathetic voices when something wrong happens or a high pitched voice when they are trying to be nice and help someone out. For example, if a woman is approached by a random man, the first thing the woman looks at is the way a man carries himself. If he seems very quiet and really hard to read because he shows no emotion- it becomes a huge red flag. That usually means he is trying to hide his true intentions. If he seems very loose and answers/asks questions with enthusiasm, it shows that he is just interested in getting to know you.  By knowing how to read people, it can help a lot of people from being taken advantage of.

I do not know anyone personally who cannot identify body language due to how picky I am when it comes to getting close to someone. I don't feel like there is ever a situation where not reading body language is benefited. Having the ability to read ones body language is a huge plus for protecting yourself because there are crazy people out there, you just never know when one is sitting right next to you. So it gives one an upper hand to get out of situations where it could become dangerous.