I grew up watching Tony Randall and Jack Klugman as Felix Unger and Oscar Madison in The Odd Couple. I have not watched the remake starring Thomas Lennon and Matthew Perry. So, I decided to watch an episode of the new Odd Couple on mute to see if I could follow the episode through the non-verbal cues. The non-verbal cues that were most present were facial expressions and very limited body language.
I rewatched the episode with the sound on. I had accurately identified when characters were happy, shocked, angry (arguing), and confused. In one scene, I knew that Oscar was being consoled by Felix because after an arguement Felix placed his hand on Oscar's shoulder and his face displayed empathy. I had mistakenly assumed that Oscar was tired at the beginning of the episode; I discovered that he was actually hungover. I also had difficulty in reading sarcasm through non-verbal cues. Overall, I had a general understanding of what the episode had been about, but having both the verbal and non-verbal communication made comprehension so much better. Give it a try and let me know your experience!
P.S. I prefer Jack Klugman as Oscar Madison!
Jennifer,
ReplyDeleteI agree that sarcasm is very hard to pick up on through nonverbal communication. When I am with friends and family, I know that I can be very sarcastic, but I tend to say it with a straight face. I also tend to hide when I am hurt from others. I am not successful with those that know me well, but to casual acquaintances, they would not know how I was feeling. As an administrator, I feel that it is important to be able to hide some things when talking to families. I have had families in our center that I had no respect for things they were doing, but I made sure they would not know how I was feeling from our interactions.
Jennifer,
ReplyDeleteYes I was tempted to turn on the subtitles too :) It is hard to try to follow conversations especially when there is not a lot of body language, the show that I watched (Jessie), had a lot of facial expressions and body language so it was easier to follow. I was also able to identify the emotions, but could not identify the cause of some of them. Like you I was not able to identify sarcasm because of the lack of sound, but was able to pick up that something was wrong because the emotions changed from happy to sad. It was a learning experience, but it has taught us the importance of why it is not wise to make assumptions about others.