There are many aspects of human language, many of which vary from culture to culture. While observing how people communicate the past few days, I have realized that my university town has a very large array of cultural expression. People express themselves and communicate with others in a variety of ways both verbally and physically. When a group of people spends a lot of time together, they tend start similar words, ways of talking, dress similarly, and use similar hand and facial gestures. People pick up these ways of communicating mostly from their family and friends. Therefore, people of different cultures and social groups express themselves differently. I have also found that people use different language when their environment changes.
Last weekend I went to a house party that ended up having a very diverse group of people present. I noticed many different cultural groups interacting, all in their own ways, although everyone used language that seems typical for young college students. I noticed that females often use more nonverbal codes to express themselves than males. Most of the male athletes, particularly the wrestlers, had a confident tone in their voice, and seemed to use a lot of facial expression and an average amount of body expression for males. There were a few “hippies” present, who seemed to be very mellow and friendly. The female hippies used an average amount of facial and body expression, but loved to talk! The male hippie also talked a lot and used quite a bit of arm movements to express himself. They dressed in clothing that gave them a laid back and environmentally friendly look. There was a lot of chatting, laughing, and dancing going on in the house, which made it easy to observe the communication trends between my peers.
I have had the chance to observe some of the same people who were at the party several times in a very different environment; church. When these college students are in the environment of church, they often have many of the same communication characteristics, but they also alter some of them. Even though my church has a casual dressing code, all of them were dressed very differently than they were at the party and their attire communicated a different message. Most of the females wore clothing that is less promiscuous and more sophisticated, and wore more subtle makeup. Most of the males wore nicer shirts that didn’t have writing on them. When in the church I noticed that there was much less slang and very little to no swearing used. For the most part, everyone in the church used the same body and facial expressions as they do in other environments. On the other hand, the people that are strict Christians (people who follow the bible strictly and attend church on a regular basis) have different communication habits than the others. The females don’t wear promiscuous clothing when in any public place. I have noticed that the strict Christians of the church I have been attending usually don’t use bad words, but still use plenty of slang.
I observed my aunt, uncle, and their friends and found that many of them feel more socially confident than people on my generation. They seem to use more facial expression when talking and give better eye contact. The physical appearance of the successful middle-age people I observed often seemed to communicate confidence, although I am unsure if that was just the particular group of people I was observing. Middle age people tend to care about comfort very much in their clothing, but also want to look nice. I have rarely seen middle-aged women dressed promiscuously. They often wear prominent jewelry, which may communicate a sense of economical status or an outgoing personality. They also use different words than people of my generation do. Middle-aged people typically don’t use as much slang, and often use a more extensive vocabulary. They seem to know what they want more than the younger generations and use filler words, such as “um…” and “so…”, much less. The group seemed to use lower-context language (Martin & Nakayama p.220) than younger groups, as they didn’t say as many abbreviated words or sayings and tended to make what they felt very clear.
The children I observed have the most unique communication characteristics of any of the groups that I have observed. I mostly observed the children that I babysit, and also a few that attend my church. The boys and girls seem to communicate very similarly to each other. When trying to explain something or tell a story, they tended to talk very quickly and use many arm gestures. They often included unimportant details that most adults would not mention, and used excessive arm gestures and physical expressions. On the other hand, I observed many children being very shy and hesitant to speak when they are in an unfamiliar environment or around new people. They tend to have much more high-context communication (Martin & Nakayama p.220) than older people. Once the children get to their teenage years they typically slow down how fast they talk and use a number of arm gestures and facial expression closer to the amount that collage students use.
The different ways people communicate is very interesting to study. It is amazing how people change their communication styles so drastically from childhood to late teens and early twenties, and then change them more by the time they hit middle age. It is also interesting how different social groups, such as the wrestlers and hippies, have different very different communication styles. The people that I observed used a vast array of communication styles to let others know what they think and feel about a large number of topics. The way that people communicate is very complex here in Ashland Oregon, and I can imagine that if I had an opportunity to observe communication in places with even more diverse cultures I would find much more complexity.
Bibliography
Intercultural Communication in Context. 2007. Martin & Nakayama. McGraw-Hill Higher Education
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