With or Without Language

SYMBOLIC LANGUAGE

I must admit that this experiment was immensely challenging for me especially since I'm a very social and emotive person. I grew up with people telling me "you talk too much" as well as being known for gesticulating quite a bit when I talk. So to completely eliminate any speech felt almost crippling to me. I conducted this experiment with my immediate family and my boyfriend and they were very amused at my attempt to communicate without verbalizing anything.

My boyfriend even made a crack about how I managed to control the conversation even with silence by just emoting through dynamic physical gestures. They didn't necessarily alter the way they communicated with me other than to poke fun of how the silence was driving me crazy especially when I have a tendency to get loud when I'm trying to convey a point especially when I nobody is listening.

Although in the beginning it seemed as though my family and boyfriend had control over the conversation as they had the power to speak, once they began to ask questions about why I took Anthropology and what this experiment has to do with the subject I began to really take over using my hands, pointing to things in reference to the point I was trying to convey and not letting them get a word in (a bad habit I have) when I wasn't finished emoting my points. My sister thought it was hysterical when I was getting frustrated when they all began to talk over my physical form of communication to see how I would overcome such an obstacle. It was very difficult in those moments as I couldn't raise my voice like I normally would to get my point across and I felt invisible when I couldn't use my voice.

The power balance was equal in some areas but not in others. When I was addressed one on one I had more control but when everyone began to chime in at the same time turning the focus from me unto each other, the power definitely shifted and it was uncomfortable and incredibly frustrating. However, what I've come to understand is that symbolic speech also forced me to listen more and really take in what the others were saying and I was able to pay attention to their body language more which also communicates volumes. This was a learning experience for me as it made me realize that silence is also golden and provides more power than most people realize.

In this regard, it has become apparent that although verbal speech is powerful, silence and symbolic speech can be just as powerful as it forces you to pay attention to things that you wouldn't normally do when actively talking with someone. I think in a conversation between two different cultures where one uses spoken language and the other doesn't, I would think that both cultures would have equal advantage as long as intently listening to one another is the primary focus. Even if a culture doesn't speak, the culture that does can still listen by the way the non-speaking culture communicates. Although it would be simpler to use verbal language, silent communication can be just as effective and profound as verbalization.

After researching about cultures who value silence, I found that in Japan, they've historically associated silence with truthfulness. This belief of the value of silence originated in Zen Buddhism, where verbal language was discouraged and silence was encouraged because it was believed that enlightenment could not be attained by talking about it. In this capacity, I've come to realize that silence can be just as powerful as any verbal communication.