Personal Space And Body Language : Nonverbal Communication Across Cultures Essay

Non Verbal Communication: includes gestures, facial expressions, and body positions (known collectively as “body language”), as well as unspoken understandings and presuppositions, and cultural and environmental conditions that may affect any encounter between

Communication involves more than exchanging words between people. Gestures, postures, facial expressions and even eye contacts are important during communication. Both verbal and nonverbal cues are important during communication and can help a person understand the speaker or listener’s emotions, attitudes or status. Understanding the existence of various cultures is necessary since different cultures have varying ways of communication (Lustig & Koester, 2012). Therefore, a communication style that is perceived as bad by a culture may be good in another culture. Besides, characteristics that may be essential for a particular culture may be quite irrelevant for another. In line with this dissimilarity, individuals need to adapt carefully and understand communication preferences and desires among cultures.

Nonverbal communication or body language makes up 55% of effective communication. This plays the biggest part in communication, and it shows the client or colleague more information than words alone ever could. Nonverbal communication includes facial expressions, body movement and gestures, head movements, eye contact, posture, and the use of distances and space. Understanding and using nonverbal communication can enhance the connection between you and others, navigate challenging situations and well as expressing interest in the conversation. this can also established effective rapport between you and the client or colleague.

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

Nonverbal communication plays an essential role in any conversation. Individuals who are aware of nonverbal actions during conversations can more effectively interpret what is being communicated.

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

Body language (the process of communicating nonverbally through conscious or unconscious gestures and movements). People all of the world use body language or gestures to communicate nonverbally. I personally think that nonverbal communication and body language are one of the biggest barriers in communication especially between one culture to other. Body gestures can be misinterpreted as rude or disrespectful depending on the country, region, or even the city you’re from.

While communication across cultures relies on speech to convey the messages of those living in the same society, usually the unspoken language has a larger role to play in delivering these messages. Similar to the country’s language being specific to the region it surfaces from, body language and facial expressions also have individual characteristics within a particular region. There are shared attributes of nonverbal communication across the world but these are commonly divided into high and low context cultures. This results from different cultural beliefs and attitudes within such societies and impact on the social norms of communication. In Japan, the citizens communicate with actions and gestures to a larger percent in comparison to their speech, as they are able to understand each other’s meaning without additional words. Due to it being a high context culture Japan relies heavily on its nonverbal communication for its society to function efficiently and for adequate comprehension to be achieved.

Nonverbal communication plays an essential role in any conversation. Individuals who are aware of nonverbal actions during conversations can more effectively interpret what is being communicated.

Nonverbal communication plays an essential role in any conversation. Individuals who are aware of nonverbal actions during conversations can more effectively interpret what is being communicated.

The main difference between a group and a team is the member’s attitudes and level of dedication. A team is characterized by clear individuality and a high level of dedication on the part of members. A group does not necessarily mean “team”. A group must go through a growth process before performing as a “team”; most teams are often incapable to progress through the development process.

Jun’s appearance and his use of facial expressions and gestures by showing Roberto the tattoo on his arm with his uncle’s address has conveyed to Roberto of his disastrous situation and uncertainty in this foreign country while lacking in intercultural competence therefore Roberto brought Jun home to help Jun to find his uncle. From this scene it is evident that the use of body language and gestures is an essential tool in supporting intercultural communication because while when people are incapable to communicate verbally the use of body language are very effective to assist proper communication and understanding between people from different culture. Some past experiences related to the use of body language is back when I couldn’t speak English after moved into Australia. I was unable to communicate with people and tell people about my thought and was very uncertain about my surrounding. Where once I was at the school swimming lesson and I didn’t have a swimming cap but I couldn’t tell the teacher that I need one due to the language barrier so I had to point at someone else’s swimming cap and point at my head and shake my hand to express that I didn’t had a swimming cap, fortunately the teacher understood. This is when I found the appropriate use of body language is very important when individuals can’t

A society is made up of different people, which means societal forces and individual forces play a role with each other. Communication is influenced by societal forces. These forces refer to the social structures of a society based on politics, history, and economics. The individual forces that affect communication can also be influenced by societal forces. Behaviors can be perceived differently when dealing with communication between multiple persons of different societies. Nonverbal communication is greatly affected by differences in societies. Many gestures and nonverbal messages vary greatly in meaning when expressed in different societies. “Participants bring their beliefs, values, norms, and attitudes to each interaction and the cultures they belong to shape each of these factors.” (Alberts 2012)

As professional caregivers, nurses are required to communicate with patients to assess, diagnose and provide interventions that result in desirable outcomes. An ever changing cultural and spiritual population is a hallmark of the US identity since its inception two and a half centuries ago. This poses a challenge for nurses who must be able to quickly and accurately identify client needs and provide appropriate care. Language differences are a natural barrier to communication, as are cultural differences in body language, communication styles and cultural beliefs. People whose culture differs from the nurse may have different views about overall health and well-being, choices for interventions, responses to pain and opinions about death and life-prolonging care. Nurses must be open to differences in cultural beliefs and educate themselves about the diversity in their area to best meet the needs of the community.