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Body Language & Its Origins | ||
Tags: Gestures/Body Language | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Philological Room |  | |
| Vos Diglot Senior Member Australia Joined 5377 days ago 766 posts - 1020 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Dutch, Polish | Message 1 of 3 23 December 2011 at 11:40pm | IP Logged | ||
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Rick Perry overdub
Mitt Romney overdub I’m posting these here, to be honest, partly because I simply find them hilarious. However, a few questions and thoughts came to me whilst watching them, and those have to do with body language. Now clearly whatever they were saying when they were giving their speeches or talking to the public, wasn’t anything remotely related to what the people have dubbed them over with. Yet they’ve taken and used the emotion carried in the body language and facial expressions, to make even the absurd sound like, or atleast look like, what they are saying in the videos could have actually been coming out of their mouths. Which got me thinking, yes it’s pretty common knowledge that more than half of communication and the majority of its emotion (so science tells me) is wrapped up in body language, but the interesting thing is that we don’t learn it, nor do we consciously make an effort to employ the body as a communicational tool when we speak. It's more a reflection of and an unconscious reaction to what we are feeling in regards to what we are saying/thinking at any given time. So when we are learning foreign languages, in the very early stages of our learning when we know very little and can’t communicate too well, is our body language hindered, enhanced or unaffected when we try and communicate in the early days of our new language? Hindered, because our self-awareness of not speaking the language well may convey itself into our physical and emotional presence, thus focusing more on the not- knowing rather than the conveying of what we are attempting to communicate? Enhanced, because as our language skills are rather basic at that point, we rely more on our body, hand gestures and facial movements in order to get across what we’re trying to say? Or simply Unaffected, does body language adhere not to whether a language is known well or poorly, but simply is an unconscious, unspoken, primeval communication tool, an evolutionary device in its own right, which has very little to do with the spoken word, and thus functions autonomously, accordingly, and aptly at all times? I find this area of communication/language rather fascinating.. it really is at the core of things. As soon as we are born we communicate with our bodies and express needs via gestures, which perhaps explains why, at least to my mind and what I’ve seen, why children who grow up with deaf parents can express themselves via sign language much more effectively and in more detail, before the same level is reached in those children learning a spoken language (I wonder if there is some science which backs up this or which at least has looked into it?). Or perhaps it’s simply that the mechanisms involved in physical communication are less difficult to learn and wield then those of the voice. Or that the ability and know-how of communication through the body has simply been around for a much longer time than spoken language, and thus is more deeply rooted in our beings. Questions, questions, questions... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 5822 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 2 of 3 28 December 2011 at 9:57pm | IP Logged | ||
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Body language is not as natural as you make out. It has to be considered as part of the target language -- I specifically look to imitate the gestures of native speakers when I learn.
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| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 4941 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 3 of 3 28 December 2011 at 10:58pm | IP Logged | ||
There may be some gestures that are specific to certain cultures, but by and large the differences are minor. When motioning for someone to come closer, we equally understand it whether the hand is facing downward or upward. When holding up either three fingers or a thumb and two fingers, we understand that the person doing the gesture means "three". R. == 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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