Language Experiment

This is going up late, I apologize.  Time got away from me today.

I chose to do the experiment with a friend who knows me very well.  Jonathan is my assistant director of the music group I read, as well as a good friend.  We did the experiment while walking around when he was working as a janitor on Saturday Night (this is something we do every week, walk and talk).  He's a tolerant guy and I knew he'd probably get a kick out of the experiment.

Part 1: No words, all non-verbal communication.
This was far easier than part two. It wasn't easy, and he definitely did NOT understand me all of the time, but I found that asking questions made the conversation keep going (since he could talk and I couldn't).  I did have to resort to a few interpretive dance moves (and borrowed one from the Village People) I also found that the more complex the idea (such as trying to say something was longer, or trying to ask if the hours at the new job were better, or trying to comment on someone losing a bra, "don't you NEED that?") were much more complex than simple yes, no, why, maybe, stupid.  I also told him he sucked when he said something sarcastic (I pointed at him and made a sucking sound) at which point he wasn't talking anymore because he was laughing too hard.  I did occasionally have to tap, or slap my hand so he'd look at me.  He was working, so I did have to get his attention.  I know that he and I have had partial conversations with kids in the room (as I said, we lead a music group together) not using words (or only using very large ones).  What did surprise me was that he did understand me quite a lot (on somethings that were surprising) and on others that seemed simple he was totally confused.  Though, trying to pantomime "don't you need that" in discussion of a bra was sort of... well... awkward.

Jonathan's overall language didn't change, though he did find my inability to always relate my ideas genuinely entertaining.  I should mention, he's kind of a geek.

My roommates in art school were both English Second Language students (and graduate students) so I am familiar with the issues that sometimes occur in trying to share complex ideas across language barriers.  It's hard to understand inflection in a language that is not your first, especially when you are struggling to understand meaning.  What was interesting was that both of my South Korean roommates were fine talking to me in person but had legitimate difficulty understanding English over the phone or if there was any kind of heavy accent (such as a heavy southern accent, Bostonian accent, or even an English accent on TV).  Being able to hear in person made it easier, and some body language was different but gestures did help in being able to understand each other

Part 2: No inflection or body language, words only.
I found this all but impossible.  It was exceptionally difficult.  My first coping mechanism was to keep my questions and answers very very short (why. Yes. No. and. Stupid.) but failed frequently during this part of the conversation.  I found that I HEARD how much vocal inflection and variation of pitch there is when I speak, and even, to an extent, when I write.  I kept failing and getting frustrated and Jonathan noted (we are both musicians, though he is a more trained and accomplished instrumental musician than I am) that when you are a musical person you hear tones and when you are a particularly energetic and animated person (as I am.  Thank you ADHD... it makes me a great teacher), inflection just comes naturally.  I can say a single word a dozen different ways and have a dozen different meanings.  As I said, I found this very frustrating.  What I eventually resorted to was something that came musically.  I picked a pitched and talked at a measured single pitch, slowly and deliberately on that single pitch.  Monotone speech does not come even slightly naturally, and I am naturally animated with lots of vocal inflection and body language.  I know that I speak more without my words than I do with my extensive and expansive vocabulary. The resorting to using a single pitch at a measured consistent rhythm worked pretty well but took a lot of concentration and sounded boring as crap.  And Jonathan watching me get the constipated look on my face having to work so hard to NOT be animated found it very entertaining.

There are, obviously, people who cannot read body language and meaning.  Those who are sight impaired would not be able to read body language, and those who are hearing impaired have a wholly different system for reading inflection (which is almost entirely physical inflection and really fascinating to watch).  But those who are most significantly effected by this are those with autism spectrum disorder who lack the ability to read other people's emotional states.  An interesting detail is that I, someone who has what could be termed as an exaggerated sense of inflection and animation, find myself to have a great affinity with individuals (adults and children) with autism spectrum disorders and Aspergers. I have known an worked with nearly a dozen different individuals in this range in the last three or four years and find that somehow I bond quite easily with kids who have autism.  I intuitively read them very well and I do not have trouble getting them to hear me or communicate with me.  I don't know if it is the fact that my body language and inflection are generally pretty exaggerated or if it's just that, as my friend who is a therapist frequently suggests, that kids know when you have a big heart because you've had troubles to, and it makes them want to trust you.

I can honestly not think of a way that this sort of thing would be to an advantage, though.  When reading body language would be at a disadvantage.  Possibly if you had some kind of anxiety disorder, and you misread people's body language as threatening then perhaps you could benefit by being able to do this less, but I cannot see an evolutionary advantage.  I do know, in my experience, that children who have come up in abusive homes sometimes get very skilled at reading tone of voice and body language as a survival technique, as one who can read when their abusive parent is becoming enraged is more easily capable of negotiating the dangerous situations.

I found both sides of the experiment interesting, but also found that I could communicate many things much easier without words than I could WITHOUT signs or inflection.