Culture Eye Contact

In today's world, we are lacking in social skills, as the technology increases, our social skills decrease. As our children grow up and develop, so does the technology, the kids get stuck behind those screens and tend to forget there are people on the other side of them and that they have feelings. One huge area kids and even adults need to work on is eye contact. When I was in grade school my teachers would say look at their nose or look above their head. Eye gaze would be a great idea to use with children that do not like making direct eye contact. With eye gazing, the child looks in the general direct of where the person they are talking to is looking at. For example, if the other person is looking at a flag, the child would have to see where the person eyes are pointing to, use that person's body to

The social norm that I decided to break was involved with human interaction. I chose to break the norm of eye contact when speaking to others. The purpose of this norm is to show engagement to another individual when communicating to them. The focus of maintaining eye contact is to show that you are paying attention to them and actually listening to them, it demonstrates to the speaker or listener that you are taking them seriously and are engaged with them. It can also be taken as a show of respect, a notable example of this is the classic line of “Look at me when I am talking to you.”. By not maintaining eye contact when someone is speaking to you it shows them that you do not care for what they have to say and they interpret that as disrespect.

Eye contact: Teachers who make eye contact open the flow of communication and convey interest, concern, warmth and credibility.

Eye contact is important in America and Europe, but it can be rude in most of Asian countries and in Africa. Closing your

It’s not only how we speak to people but it can also be reflected through our body language. We have to bear in mind that other people’s cultures may find some gestures offensive to them. Being respectful to their beliefs and cultures is important in maintaining positive relations. A raise of an eye brow or shrug of the shoulder can send the

It is easy to think that a child that does not look you in the eyes when you speak to him/her is being disrespectful or is socially incompetent because that’s a belief that the American culture has, yet for other cultures, such as for Hispanics or Latinos, looking at an adult in the eyes is a form of disrespect. Teachers should be aware of the

In practice, good eye contact suggests confidence and honesty, also a more meaningful therapeutic relationship. As a doctor, you create a positive atmosphere with your patients by simply looking at them. Communication research suggests that a doctor's message will be decoded as being more favorable when associated with more eye contact than with less eye contact. Good eye contact lets your patients know that you care. Experts speculate that it is almost impossible for an individual to disguise eye

People from different background use and interpret communication method in different ways. Ethnicity and background influence how we use communication and our understanding to it. Many factors such as culture, age, gender dialect can determined our interaction with others because English may not be their language, culture can play a major role on how we communicate with people. In some culture for instance, it is not acceptable to give direct eye contact to an elderly person when they are communicating with you. However, in some culture not giving eye contact will be term as being rude. Also, different people from different background

Social contact was a main distribution of what residents wanted within two people to be sure they were in the same social class and for safety reasons. However, the behavior of looking into one another’s eyes was a sign of being aware of each other’s presence (Anderson, 220). Eye contact is perceived as whites tending not to hold eye contact with a black individual (Anderson, 220). Although, it was very uncommon for a white man to hold eye contact with a black man, rarely it would happen where the black man would be very surprised (Anderson, 220). Today, eye contact in different situations mean different things: awkwardness, politeness, and rudeness. In my life experience, I tend to avoid eye contact when passing males at nighttime because of safety

People from parts of India shake their head from side to side to show agreement instead of nodding like Americans do. In some Australian Aboriginal cultures, looking an elder or person of higher rank than you in the eye is considered disrespectful. It's important to research cultural differences in body language prior to visiting or interacting with someone of a different culture.

When communicating with others, it is important to consider the context in which we are working. For example, more formal language and behaviour would be used in a meeting and the school will have a range of types of planned communication with other adults – when dealing with other professionals, there will be meetings and discussions as well as more informal communication at different times. However, there are also the non-spoken forms of communication such as how quickly we respond to an email or phone message, how attentive we are when speaking to someone, how we dress. Different cultures will have their own norms of behaviour which will extend to gestures, body language and eye contact. In some cultures, for example, it is not polite

There are eight key forms of nonverbal communications used on a daily basis. These forms can affect the way people view another person; however, without understanding the forms of nonverbal communication there is certain to be a lot of misinterpretations. Cultural and language differences are a common reason for miscommunication. When communicating with people in different cultures, a person should be extremely aware of the hand gestures and nonverbal communication tools they are using. Many of the hand gestures used in the United States that mean good things, mean offensive and profane things to other cultures. Nonverbal communication is described as body language, hand gestures, and facial expressions. It is known that people reveal more information through nonverbal communication, than words alone to get a point across. There will always be some interaction between two or more people that everyone’s

How contact is made, what the responses are, and how a person has grown up are all main factors in communication. When two people are exchanging information in the form of talking face to face, making eye contact lets the talker know that the listener is in fact listening. Every person is different and has their own way of listening and responding. “Yeah”, “mhm”, “uhuh”, are all ways to let the person talking know that the listener is

Usually you use eye contact with your parents if you are in trouble to show respect (rez, 1999). If you are just having a normal conversation you do not need to use eye contact. If you are speaking to a stranger especially two males, eye contact can be interpreted into a challenge or to intimidate. With younger people you also do not need to use eye contact. Facial expressions are also use to show special meaning. When you are sad, angry or happy your facial expressions will show others what you feel. The acceptable way of greeting people is by giving a hand shake that ends with a hug if you are a male greeting another male. And if you are a female, you usually give kisses on the cheek to greet another female or

Since Europeans and Americans often associate eye contact with honesty and respect, it is easy to misjudge others for whom steady eye contact would be a sign of disrespect. There have been cases where attempts by Puerto Ricans and Native Americans to show respect to persons in authority by not looking at them have been interpreted as dishonesty or disrespect by those accustomed to greater eye contact. Traditionally, Hopi and Navajo people generally avoid steady eye contact, as it is considered offensive, disrespectful, and rude. Racially, blacks tend to make less eye contact than whites (Adler, Elmhorst, & Lucas,