COMM 115 Glendale Community Verbal and Non Verbal Communication Discussion

Plz reply to the four different students post. Just 2-3 sentences are fine.

Here is the question

Consider the following questions:

• How easy is it to guess what is being portrayed in a game of Charades?
• What about a game of Simon Says?
• Which is more powerful Verbal Communication or Nonverbal Communication? Why?
• Nonverbal Communication can be very complex and easily misunderstood. How do you overcome these difficulties?

Student#1

In the game of Charades, the goal is to portray a certain character or thing through physical actions, avoiding the use of vocal communication. The game of Charades can be agreeably difficult, because of the power of verbal communication in today’s society. In many instances, if a topic in Charades is too difficult to illustrate through body movements, the game can reach a dilemma in which there really is no way of knowing the topic. When compared to a game such as Simon Says, Charades can be seen as a much more challenging game. This revolves around the idea that verbal communication is the primary source of interpersonal communication. While gestures and facial expressions can impact conversation, the things that people say to one another have the strongest affect. Simon Says consists of the idea of failure in a game of easy success. While you can do the right thing that “Simon says” over and over again, the game is meant to exhaust the verbal awareness in a person and eventually make them ignore the crucial words “Simon Says,” before the sentence.

Verbal Communication is a lot more powerful than Nonverbal Communication. While Nonverbal Communication can impact one’s impression on another and show possible emotions that a person doesn’t mention, it does not have the straight forwardness and recognition that Verbal Communication has. Verbal Communication has been integrated in to human society as the primary way of communicating, and it is because we are able to express everything through the English language. The actions that may be taken through Nonverbal Communication could possibly mislead or confuse the receiver, which can be avoided through experienced Verbal Communication. Nonverbal Communication can be very misleading for the reasons that others can portray things as different they are, like in Charades. The entire time you can be guessing all kinds of animals like an eagle, an owl, or a chicken, when in reality the person was trying to portray a manta ray. This is similar in the instance of communication. You could be assuming by someones facial expressions and physical action that they dislike you, but when you finally confront them they were really just upset with something else in their life. Verbal Communication is very important in society and people also need to realize the dangers of misusing both Verbal and Nonverbal Communication when interacting with others.

Student#2

In the game of Charades it is very difficult to guess what is being portrayed because it uses nonverbal communication. The point of the game is to not talk but to act out a movement or word while the people around you guess what you are acting out. The game is supposed to be difficult because all the silly guesses are what makes it fun.

Simon says is the opposite of Charades, in Simon says you listen to the leader giving you demands to do for example “sit down,” “stand up,” and “jump” but if the leader doesn’t say “Simon says” before the action and you do it your out. You have to really listen and pay attention to what the leader says before the action they give. Simon says is easier than Charades because you are using verbal communication compared to nonverbal communication.

Verbal communication is definitely more powerful than nonverbal communication because you use your voice and get to explain exactly what you mean instead of acting out or making facial expressions which can be misleading and confusing. For example, in the game Charades people can make different gestures that mean the same thing so it can be very confusing when trying to guess what they are doing but in Simon says you just do exactly what the leader says. Nonverbal communication can lead to misunderstandings and frustration because it is very hard to portray exactly what you want to say without saying it.

Some ways to overcome the difficulties of nonverbal communication could be to pay attention to facial expressions, maintain eye contact, and ask questions. If you can’t figure out what they are trying to say then use verbal communication but if that’s not an option then they could always write down what they are trying to say.

Student#3

Verbal communication is using language to speak and communicate with others, even sign language although there’s not much talking in that. It seems pretty rare but humans communicate non-verbally all the time, through body language. Body language is a pretty big tell for all animals because we use body language to communicate with animals too. It’s not an extremely intelligent conversation but with body language, it’s much easier to communicate with them because they don’t speak any language unless you’re a gorilla who knows sign language.

One of the reasons why body language between humans is more of passive communication because it’s not all that explicit compared to using a language. This is why charades can be difficult because body language is so narrow. Sometimes you’ll accidentally find yourself cheating by making sounds or speaking in the game because body language is frustrating to read and not our primary method of communication. It’s very easy to misunderstand body language, which is probably why we scare off animals relatively easily because we can’t explain our true intentions. Humans can combat that confusion by simply explaining themselves, even if it’s awkward, the communication has more clarity.

Student#4

• How easy is it to guess what is being portrayed in a game of Charades?

—Charades uses nonverbal communication. Acting out the person, item, action, or thing in the round. Nonverbals are used a lot in music when improvising or indicating a dynamic area in the music. However, the greater length of the sentence in the game the Charades that more complicated and difficult it becomes.

• What about a game of Simon Says?

—As we know in the game of Simon says the idea is to trick people into doing something be a play on words. Obviously this uses verbal communication, and as long as you focus on what the person is saying this game is easier than the game of Charades, regardless of how long the instruction is.

• Which is more powerful Verbal Communication or Nonverbal Communication? Why?

—Obviously context is key. Like I mentioned earlier in a music setting nonverbal communications is more powerful simply because verbal isn’t allowed in the middle of a concert (in a professional setting). Obviously in the majority of instances where communication takes place verbal is preferred, because ultimately it’s the most powerful and the most efficient. You can in theory can go without nonverbals, but can’t go without verbals.

• Nonverbal Communication can be very complex and easily misunderstood. How do you overcome these difficulties?

—To complicate my point although in theory verbal communication can exist without nonverbal communication, it will lead to more issues. We see this in present day society with common misunderstandings over text, email, or anything that restricts nonverbals. Usually if I’m communicating anything more important than simple conversation I try to do a few things to make a more clear meaning of what I’m communicating. I either will send a voice message so the receiver can hear my tone, the pauses I take, and how exactly I am saying the message. Or I will flat up face time them so they can see and hear almost everything that I can communicate (nonverbals and all) in 2021.