A speech community is a group of people who share a set of norms and expectations regarding language. There are so many speech communities that you can be in hundreds in your life time, and at one point in time you can overlap and be experiencing several communities in one interaction.
I read an article called "Christian Speech" from families.com, which spoke on this exact topic. The article talked about how Christians should be different in the way they use language than the way the world uses language. There are certain things that are held from Christian's speech as well as certain things that should be present in their language. The article spoke more on the way Christians should speak to be different to strengthen the speech community. It said that Christians should cleanse their speech of curse words and using God's name in vain. It also stated that our speech should be full of love and encouragement.
The is a prime example of a speech community, because this group (Christians as a whole) share the same ideals and values in the way they use language in everyday life. If someone who was not part of the Christian speech community came into a group of interacting Christians, they might be confused. The Christians may use words or phrases that they understand but others may have never heard. There are terms that correlate with each speech community. For example, Christians might use the phrase "born-again" or talk about different activities within the church like "AWANA", and if you were not familiar with that language and that social group, you would not understand the meanings of those words and phrases. This is the same in any speech community. This is the same for white groups, black groups, Indian groups, UW-Parkside students, etc. Each of this mentioned groups has a specific way of speaking and has specific language that they use that is particular to them only.
It is easy to become wrapped up in many different speech communities in one setting. For example, if I am talking to a girl from my church about what we are going to do this weekend, I am using language from my Christian speech community, as well as the white language and the female language. If a black man walked into our conversation, he would have a hard time understanding us, because he is not apart of our speech communities.
Do you think the different speech communities really draws lines in our society? Is it harmful to have these speech communities, because they keep us separate instead of bringing us together?
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
The Power of Body Language
This video was very interesting to me, as we I compared it to Chapter 4 of Chaika on kinesics. "Kinesics is the technical term for all aspects of this silent language" (Chiaka, p.108). Kinesics is a combination of so many things, including: smiles, lying, proxemics, gestures, eye contact, and touching.
In this video she discusses the power we hold by solely using our body movements. For example, the way we stand during a conversation can tell the person we are talking to how interested we are in the current conversation. You can also tell who holds the power in the relationship by their stances or the way they touch, or don't touch. One part of the video I found interesting was that of difference between gender body language. She spoke on women being more perceptive to body language and men needing to see the movement repeated to understand what the female was saying.
She also spoke on proxemics. In Chiaka, it discusses the difference in cultural proxemics, but here she discusses it as an out from the conversation. I think proxemics does, however, have a lot to do with culture. Even if the cultures aren't as different as Americans and Middle Eastern, there can be a great difference between the cultures of males and females. For example, in the video she shows a man and women talking, and the man moves closer to the woman, the woman doesn't like the movement so she steps back, he doesn't understand so he takes another step closer. Within a woman's culture, we need our space and will take if it uncomfortable, but in a male's culture, he thinks they like each other and wants to get closer as fast as possible. Both of these people have completely different ideas of what is going on in this interaction with causes problems when reading into each others body language.
The last thing I want to discuss is the overall message a person sends on a daily basis without using any words. In the video she discusses the basics like if your shoes are shined, your wearing clean and ironed clothes, or if you carrying a nice purse or briefcase. as things that people perceive and make judgments about. It is human nature to look at someone and have an opinion, and judge what that person is all about. It may not be right, but it's not going to change, so we have to be aware of it. The things you put on your body, tattoos or piercings, and the way you present yourself will determine who you interact with and where your future will go.
So I ask you, what are you showing the world about yourself today? Do you think it's true that people judge you on the basis of appearance and body language?
In this video she discusses the power we hold by solely using our body movements. For example, the way we stand during a conversation can tell the person we are talking to how interested we are in the current conversation. You can also tell who holds the power in the relationship by their stances or the way they touch, or don't touch. One part of the video I found interesting was that of difference between gender body language. She spoke on women being more perceptive to body language and men needing to see the movement repeated to understand what the female was saying.
She also spoke on proxemics. In Chiaka, it discusses the difference in cultural proxemics, but here she discusses it as an out from the conversation. I think proxemics does, however, have a lot to do with culture. Even if the cultures aren't as different as Americans and Middle Eastern, there can be a great difference between the cultures of males and females. For example, in the video she shows a man and women talking, and the man moves closer to the woman, the woman doesn't like the movement so she steps back, he doesn't understand so he takes another step closer. Within a woman's culture, we need our space and will take if it uncomfortable, but in a male's culture, he thinks they like each other and wants to get closer as fast as possible. Both of these people have completely different ideas of what is going on in this interaction with causes problems when reading into each others body language.
The last thing I want to discuss is the overall message a person sends on a daily basis without using any words. In the video she discusses the basics like if your shoes are shined, your wearing clean and ironed clothes, or if you carrying a nice purse or briefcase. as things that people perceive and make judgments about. It is human nature to look at someone and have an opinion, and judge what that person is all about. It may not be right, but it's not going to change, so we have to be aware of it. The things you put on your body, tattoos or piercings, and the way you present yourself will determine who you interact with and where your future will go.
So I ask you, what are you showing the world about yourself today? Do you think it's true that people judge you on the basis of appearance and body language?
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