| admin | Date: Monday, 2013-01-14, 11:03 AM | Message # 1 |
|
Colonel
Group: Administrators
Messages: 156
Status: Offline
| Gestures and Body Positioning
[G] Gestures are specific body movements that carry meaning. Hand motions alone can convey many meanings: “come here”, “go away”, “it’s O.K”, and “that’s expensive!” are just a few examples. The gestures for these phrases often differ across cultures. For example, beckoning people to come with palm up is common in the United States. This same gesture in the Philippines, Korea, and pares of Latin American as well as other countries in considered rude. In some countries, only an animal would be beckoned with the palm up.
[H] As children, we imitate and learn to use these nonverbal movements to accompany or replace words. When traveling to another country, foreign visitors soon learn that not all gestures are universal. For example, the “O.K” gesture in the American culture is a symbol for money in Japan. This same gesture is obscene in some Latin American countries. (This is why editors of a Brazilian newspaper enjoyed publishing a picture of a former American president giving the “O.K” symbol with both hands!)
[I] Many American business executives enjoy relaxing with their feet up on their desks. But to show a person from Saudi Arabia or Thailand the sole of one’s foot is extremely insulting, because the foot is considered the dirtiest part of the body. Can you imagine the reaction in Thailand when a foreign shoe company distributed an advertisement showing a pair of shoes next to a sacred sculpture of Buddha?
Facial Expressiveness
[J] Facial expressions carry meaning that is determined by situations and relationships. For instance, in American culture the smile is typically an expression of pleasure. Yet it also has other functions. A woman’s smile at a police office does not carry the same meaning as the smile she gives to a young child. A smile may show affection, convey politeness, or disguise true feelings. It also is a source of confusion across cultures. For example, many people in Russia consider smiling at strangers in public to be unusual and even suspicious behavior. Yet many Americans smile freely at strangers in public places (although this is less common in big cities). Some Russians believe that Americans smile in the wrong places; some Americans believe that Russians don’t smile enough. In Southeast Asian cultures, a smile is frequently used to cover emotional pain or embarrassment. Vietnamese people may tell the sad story of how they had to leave their country but end the story with a smile.
[K] Our faces reveal emotions and attitudes, but we should not attempt to “read” people from another culture as we would “read” someone from our own culture. The degree of facial expressiveness one exhibits varies among individuals and cultures. The fact that members of one culture do not express their emotions as openly as do members of another doers not mean that they do not experience emotions. Rather, there are cultural restraints on the amount of nonverbal expressiveness permitted. For example, in public and in formal situations many Japanese do not show their emotions as freely as Americans do. More privately and with friends, Japanese and Americans seem to show their emotions similarly. Many teachers in the United States have a difficult time knowing whether their teacher is looking for more facial responsiveness than what the Japanese student is comfortable with in the classroom situation.
[L] It is difficult to generalize about Americans and facial expressiveness because of individual and ethnic differences in the United States. People from certain ethnic backgrounds in the United States tend to be more facially expressive than others. The key, is to try not to judge people whose ways of showing emotion are different. If we judge according to our won cultural norms, we may make the mistake of “reading” the other person incorrectly.
Eye Contact
[M] Eye contact is important because insufficent or excessive eye contact can create communication barriers. In relationships, it serves to show intimacy, attention, and influence. As with facial expressions, there are no specific rules governing eye behavior in the United States, except that it is considered rude to stare, especially at strangers. In parts of the United States, however, such as on the West Coast and in the South, it is quite common to glance at strangers when passing them. For example, it is usual for two strangers walking toward each other to make eye contact, smile, and perhaps even say, “Hi”, before immediately looking away. This type of contact doesn’t mean much; it is simply a way of acknowledging another person’s presence. In general, Americans make less eye contact with strangers in big cities than in small towns. People would be less likely to make eye contact in bus stations, for example, than in more comfortable settings such as a university student center.
[N] Patterns of eye contact are different across cultures. Some Americans feel uncomfortable with the “gaze” that is sometimes associated with Arab or Indian Communication patterns. For Americans, this style of eye contact is too intense. Yet too little eye contact may also be viewed negatively, because it may convey a lack of interest, inattention, or even mistrust. The relationship between the lack of eye contact and mistrust in the American culture is stated directly in the expression, “Never trust a person who doesn’t look you in the eyes”. In contrast, in many other parts of the world (especially in Asian countries), a person’s lack of eye contact toward an authority figure signifies respect and deference.
|
| |
| |
