Saturday, October 6, 2012
Gestures
There are many differences between nonverbal gestures in the United
States and those in other countries. For instance, in most Asian cultures
pointing with one finger is considered to be disrespectful and they normally
will gesture with their entire hand to bring attention to an item. Most Asian
cultures also regard the touching of another person’s head to be highly
inappropriate as the head is considered to be a sacred part of the body. I hadn’t
really thought about it much but we do have a tendency to lightly pat small
children on the head or play with their hair as sign of friendliness or
affection. This would be considered
highly inappropriate and very disrespectful. There is also a difference in how
eye contact is viewed between cultures. Here direct eye contact is normally
regarded as honesty or attentiveness, but in many places around the world
direct eye contact is considered to be rude or aggressive. In some Middle
Eastern cultures direct eye contact between opposite genders is even considered
to be a sign of sexual interest.
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It’s interesting how nonverbal behaviors can have such on impact on everyone. I really like how you pointed out the fact that some gestures could be offensive to one culture and complete opposite meaning to another. I could see how miscommunication can occur. If each culture has their own gestures with their own meanings, and then when cultures mix up, confusion and miscommunication can happen. Like you mentioned, there are many differences between cultures. Thanks for sharing about not touching anyone’s hair in Asia. Who knows, could be useful in the future. One thing I think will help reduce miscommunication is to keep an open mind when you are speaking with a person from a different culture.
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