Style, Body Motion, and SPEAKING

I was able to make a connection between Elaine Chaika's work and the SPEAKING acronym we learned in class through the term kinesics. Kinesics is termed as the use of style and body motion. According to Dell Hymes, the SPEAKING acronym is used in sociolinguistics as a framework to describe a social setting. In order to bring these terms and ideas together, the first thing that came to mind is the stereotypical use of hands when Italians speak. I come from an Italian family, and as well as any other family member, I catch myself using hand gestures as well. Where did these kinesics come from? According to About.com: Italian Language, Italian is a complex form of Latin and because the less-educated didn't have as much of a grasp on the language as the higher educated and they therefore began using gestures to speak. Brought down from generations, I have seen my father's side of the family (participants) sitting at the dining room table (setting) over christmas (event). We'll be talking back-and-forth (act sequence) in a heated debate (key) about who knows what (instrumentality). Obviously other rules of engagement will ensue (norms and genre). One, thing that I've been able to look back upon is, that regardless of the situation (given the SPEAKING acronym), the hand gestures never change. Why is that? How is it that although I don't speak Italian, those gestures haven't left my family's side? 


This is what I'm talkin' about!

Two Forms of Talk in Mediation

Wedding Crashers Mediation

Warning- Explicit Language

       This is a clip from the film , Wedding Crashers. It shows a prime example of the two forms of talk in mediation: venting and negotiating. You can see here that the couple spends quite a bit of time "venting" and making crude and despicable comments toward each other in an attempt for asset battle. They have choice words and insult each other as to break the other person down in hopes that they can win the battle.  The characters played by Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson work as mediators to ease the hostility between the opposing sides. The "venting" turns into "negotiating" and the couple is able to come to some type of agreement about the assets. 

      It is the difference in the use if language and tone, that people are able to come to an agreement, and we are able to see the difference between "venting" and "negotiating." In mediation, we witness the use of words that help to make it to this transition. 

     Why is is that we go through these phases such as "venting" and "negotiating" when it comes to mediation? What can we say about how we communicate on the idea that "venting" comes before "negotiating" in mediation?

Dobkin, D. (2005) Wedding crashers. Los Angeles: New Line Cinema.

Language Matters: Questions

Do you agree that we can come to some kind of common ground with communication when there is a language barrier? When has language ever been a barrier for you?

Language Matters

      For this first blog, I wanted to reflect on a situation I was currently in where I was visiting on vacation in South America in Costa Rica and the language barrier I encountered. The primary language spoken in Costa Rica is Spanish; secondary is English. I found that on our resort, most people spoke both languages- especially those that did the most interacting with tourists. Off of the resort; however, was an entirely different story. The people of this country were very friendly and inviting, but it was like a third language needed to be constructed in order for us to communicate. A lot of hand gestures and visual aids were needed to get the point across. It did seem like the native people were able to understand English better than any of us could understand Spanish.
     Christopher Dawson, an English independent scholar, once said "The greatest obstacle to international understanding is the barrier of language." I completely agree with Dawson.The largest difference between the Spanish-speaking people of Costa Rica and our group of tourists was the language but the number one thing we had in common was how we tried to understand each other and how we came to a common ground in understanding each other. 

Dawson, C. (2011). Quotation. Retrieved from brainyquote.com on Jan 24, 2011. http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/c/christophe230776.html.