Language Blog Post

                Using only hand signs without language itself was very hard thing to do. They were having hard time reading my hand signs or my body language. No matter what I tried to say, my partners did not understand and, at least once, they always replied with “what?”  or “‘do’ that one more time”. Our conversation was based on talking about our family members but we were not even near to the finishing conversation. In these 15 min. my partners’ impression was changing from fun at first to frustrate as the time passed. Later, they were so frustrated that they just wanted to finish the conversation and get it over with. In my opinion, the speaking culture had the top hand on speaking complex ideas. With my body signs, they were limited to certain point where I cannot describe the word with my body like “He is Korean”. It seems simple but even though I tried every way to tell him he is Korean, my partners did not get what I was trying to say. In our communities, there are Deaf and Mute communities. Through this assignment I realized that they would have the most hard time communicating with speaking culture people. Even though Mutes can hear, they cannot talk, in other words they have to use sign languages with speaking culture people who is not aware of it just like my partners. Deaf communities would have the same problems since they cannot hear and uses sign languages. For speaking cultures, as my partners reacted, they would want to finish the conversation fast in frustration.

                The next part of assignment was insane! Even though I had the idea of how I should talk, my body won’t let me and they react on their own. I try not to move my eyebrows but they just move out of nowhere and when I’m surprised, there was no way of showing that I was shocked. Other than that, it was easy assignment. Whenever I was able to talk without any motions or movements involved, my partners were able to understand what I was trying to say. But even though, my partners were able to understand most of the times, time to time, there would be a pause from my partners not knowing if whatever I said was a question or just a statement. Not using any kinds of motions and movements, it limited my conversation with no emotions shown. In my opinions, using signs and body movements would make all the conversation clearer and more effective but does not affect too much on our conversation. I believe there are some people who are more accurate in reading body languages and sign languages but I have never seen one or either I’m not good at body language. Will there be any benefits from knowing body and sign languages? It is obvious question; it helps to find emotions, and questions clearer than people who do not. What is the benefit for not having the ability to read body and sign languages? In my opinion, there is none. Even though one would be able to communicate but there is a limitation on how much you can express. By expressing yourself to the fullest the whole world would be able to understand you in one or the other way.