-Non-verbal communication
Luo Jiangxi education college affiliated school
This paper introduces the meaning of body language in different cultural backgrounds from the cultural point of view, discusses the cultural differences between eastern and western people from the aspects of spatial distance, gaze, physical contact, gestures and facial expressions, and discusses the importance of understanding cultural meanings in nonverbal communication.
Nonverbal communication, body language and culture
As a tool of social communication, language is not only the carrier of culture, but also an integral part of culture. The language prism of different nationalities reflects different cultural environments, lifestyles, ideas, religious etiquette, values and thinking habits. Every language (including body language and paralanguage) has a "cultural mission" and is attached with a layer of cultural color. Verbal communication is the main means of human communication, but non-verbal communication closely related to it often has the communicative function that dwarfs the former. Body language is a silent and true language to express one's inner world, which is the most noticeable among non-verbal means.
Body language plays an irreplaceable role in interpersonal communication. Psychological research has found that in the face-to-face communication between two people, more than 50% of information exchange is achieved through silent body language. Body language is international, and people from different countries can communicate with it when they don't know the language. It is found that people's daily average speech only accounts for 65,438+00% of the time spent with others, and the time spent with people is consciously or unconsciously communicated with body language. Sometimes, body language is enough to express all the information, but language is redundant. As long as people are within the range of each other's feelings, they should have body language communication. The so-called body language refers to those nonverbal body signals including spatial distance, gaze, physical contact, posture, facial expression and so on. Because different national cultures are deeply rooted and are not easy to accept signals contrary to their own habits, we can't ignore the influence of cultural constraints on body language and the different meanings given by environmental differences.
I. Spatial distance
When people communicate, the distance between the two sides in space is of great significance, which not only tells us the relationship and psychological state of the two sides, but also reflects the national and cultural characteristics. Psychologists have found that everyone needs a self-space around him that he can grasp, and the size of this space will vary with cultural background, environment, industry and personality. When talking, different nationalities have different views on how far the two sides should keep. According to Dr. Hall (American anthropologist), there are four kinds of distances to represent different situations:
(1) Intimacy distance 0-45 cm) Both parties are closely related, and the physical distance ranges from direct contact to about 45 cm apart, which is suitable for the most intimate occasions, such as couples and lovers.
(2) Personal distance (45- 120) This distance is generally applicable to the communication between friends, acquaintances or relatives.
(3) Social distance 120-360-360) is used to deal with impersonal things, such as general social activities or when doing things at work.
(4) The general distance (public distance 360-750) is suitable for informal gatherings, such as listening to performances in public places.
From these four points, we can see that human beings have or maintain different distances in different activities because of the intimacy of their relationships. Different nationalities and cultures constitute different spatial regions between people. Most English speakers don't like to get too close when talking, so they always keep a certain distance. Spaniards and Arabs will talk very closely, but for Russians, Italians talk too closely and Latin Americans talk almost intimately. More interestingly, the British talk to the Italians, while the Italians keep "attacking" and the British keep "retreating". In fact, when they speak, they just want to occupy an appropriate and established distance from themselves. Western culture pays attention to everyone's privacy, while the concept of "privacy" in the East is weak. Strangers crowded together on elevators, buses or trains. Orientals can tolerate that kind of crowded physical contact, but westerners can't. In terms of personal space demand, China people, Japanese people and even most Asians are much smaller than westerners. This is because cultural customs are different. Westerners value relaxed atmosphere and advocate individual freedom and rights, while the traditional culture of the East is deeply rooted.
The concept of space is three-dimensional, including not only the size and distance of the field, but also the height of the field. "Distance" has the function of maintaining identity dignity, and maintaining the height of space field is a way dominated by rights. The layout of courts, churches, auditoriums and conference halls pays great attention to the use of spatial distance to play this function to show superiority and subordination. In China, elders and leaders sit in the position facing south, while in the west, they sit at the top of the oval table, and so on. All these show that people with different cultural backgrounds have their own fixed patterns in the use and arrangement of space, which constitutes countless cultural differences and enriches the cultural functions of the use of space.
Second, stare.
In the process of interpersonal communication, it is very necessary to keep eye contact with the object of communication. Ortega, a modern Spanish philosophy, said in the book "People": "Every annotation tells the mental journey of the viewer." There is a saying in ancient China idioms that "make the finishing point", and there is flirting between men and women. From Shakespeare's "It seems that his eyes are locked on the whole soul" to music rock's "Stop it, your eyes have told me", all of which illustrate the important role of gaze in interpersonal communication. "Eyes are the most effective way to reveal people's inner world, and all changes in people's emotions, emotions and attitudes can be expressed from the eyes.
Almost everyone's activities and emotional communication depend on their eyes, and some unique cultural communication practices are also reflected in the use of eye contact. When two Arabs communicate together, they will stare at each other with very enthusiastic eyes, because they think eyes are the key to personal existence. From the perspective of American culture, this kind of gaze is not suitable for two men, and this long gaze is often part of the nonverbal code used by the homosexual subculture. Educated British men think it is a gentleman's demeanor to look directly into the eyes of the people they associate with, while Swedes look at each other more often than British people in conversation. The French especially appreciate an appreciative look, which conveys a nonverbal signal: although I don't know you, I appreciate your beauty from the bottom of my heart, so it is a recognized cultural norm for French men to look at women in public. When talking with people, the eyes usually fall on the other person's neck, while the other person's face and eyes should be on the outer edge of the eyes. They think eye contact is a rude behavior. Because of the influence of shame culture and see no evil, China people are uncomfortable and even at a loss to stare at their eyes. In the melting pot of western world culture, everyone has exercised their horizons, likes to express themselves generously and dares to vent their feelings openly. They often feel pang because the opposite sex is attracted to them, but they are not surprised. The etiquette of eyes, various staring behaviors and the role of eyes in communication reflect different cultural backgrounds and different national cultural psychology. Their meanings are very complicated, and there are many regulations, which need our careful observation and comparison, so as to promote the cultural exchange and integration between ethnic groups.
Third, physical contact
Just as language and posture can convey people's emotional information, the contact between the body and others also conveys information all the time in communication. The baby was shaken and slapped in its mother's arms. After caressing, it can not only keep psychological calm, but also stimulate and coordinate the motor organ-cerebellum and promote its development. Foreign scholars call it touch education. Anthropologists roughly divide culture into two categories: contact culture and non-contact culture. Arabs, southern and western Europeans, Jews and Latin speakers belong to the first category, while Americans, northern Europeans and orientals belong to the second category. From childhood to adulthood, different cultures give us different ways of contact, which parts should be contacted and which parts should not be contacted. Here, we focus on the different cultural connotations in the physical contact of interests as a social habit.
(1) handshake
According to some experts' research, shaking hands is a legacy left by cavemen in the Stone Age. When strangers meet, if it is harmless to each other, they put down their hunting sticks or stones and let each other touch their palms. In the process of human evolution, these gestures gradually evolved into holding hands. The opening of the palm means opening one's sphere of influence to the other, and the contact of the palm means integration. Today, in many countries, shaking hands has become a common courtesy to show affection and friendliness. But the habit of shaking hands varies from country to country. The French always shake hands with the host when entering or leaving the room, while the Germans only shake hands once when entering the door. Some Africans giggle their fingers after shaking hands to show their freedom; In the United States, men shake hands very hard, which may have originated from Indian wrestling competitions. China people shake hands while greeting, which is nothing taboo; Russians don't allow two people to shake hands through the door or across the threshold, which is considered unlucky. In the west, politicians who take part in elections will hold each other's right hand with their right hand, and then put their left hand on each other's back, trying to make the recipients feel that he is warm, sincere and honest, so it is called "politician's handshake".
An overseas staff member described an experience: when he was in Pakistan, he invited students to the embassy to watch China movies. A newly-married student with his wife. After seeing this, the teacher took the initiative to shake hands with the students' wives and hold them tightly to show a warm welcome. In class the next day, the students were very angry and refused to answer the teacher's questions. After class, another student told the teacher that he thought it was impolite for the teacher to force his wife to shake hands. It turns out that according to Pakistani custom, men can't shake hands with strange women. Only after the teacher said that he meant it out of courtesy and friendliness can the misunderstanding be eliminated. The concept of handshake often varies from culture to culture. In human communication activities, eye contact information transmission is subtle, but the signal sent by handshake is straightforward. If you shake your shoulders and arms, you actually enter the intimate area of the recipient, which is only popular among people with very close and harmonious feelings. Between the opposite sex, if the woman does not take the initiative to reach out, the man can't hold her hand. It is impolite to hold hands with your left hand. Handshake culture is so rich and colorful that we must study it deeply and distinguish it strictly to avoid cultural collision and misunderstanding.
(2) Hugs and kisses
Different cultural backgrounds produce different etiquette, and its significance is established. In many developed countries in the west, it is common for two girls to hug each other when they meet, and it is also natural for couples to hug and kiss when they meet after a long separation. But Arabs, Russians, French, Eastern Europeans, people from the Mediterranean coast and some Latin American countries, two men will also hug and kiss their foreheads. Arabs even keep smelling each other's bodies. For them, a good smell can make people feel refreshed. Monks and Lapps from Myanmar, Norway, Sweden, Finland and other countries will sniff each other's cheeks to show their greetings. In East Asia and English-speaking countries, men usually just shake hands to express their welcome, and rarely hug or kiss each other. In the eyes of many Europeans and Americans, a politician's kiss is synonymous with "falsehood".
These differences in hugs and kisses fully reflect the characteristics and strong social and cultural significance of different cultures, and are also the concrete manifestations of the deep differences of different national cultures on the surface of body language.
(3) Other contact information
As mentioned earlier, some ethnic groups advocate contact culture, while others believe in non-contact culture. Different cultures determine their own definition of contact. Buddhists, out of religious worship and belief, believe that the touching ceremony given to them by the living Buddha is lofty and sacred; In Thailand, you can never touch your head. It is a sin to touch your head and insist. In addition, Thai monks are particularly afraid of being touched by women when walking on the beach, thinking that this will make their hard training go to waste. People in China like children to caress her head or hug her kindly, but doing so to American children will arouse the disgust of their mothers. Although she knows this kind of action is harmless, it is considered rude in his culture. In Muslim countries, people regard knowledge about touch as a part of their whole culture. They eat with their right hand or do pleasant things, and touching others with their left hand is a social insult, because the left hand is used for defecation. In the traditional culture of China, "face" is more important than anything else. Face is the lifeblood of a woman. In China, touching a girl's face is taboo. It can be seen that the use of touch in different parts of the body is also different due to different regions and cultures. If we indiscriminately adopt intimate contact or non-contact culture, the world will be in a mess.
Fourth, posture and movement.
Some experts have suggested that people can send out as many as 500,000 different body signals, and using "various postures" as a metaphor is pale and powerless. Any attempt to classify them will only be disappointing. Therefore, we can only interpret some behavioral codes and cultural meanings from common gestures that convey communication information.
Gestures have different meanings in different countries, and different cultural backgrounds endow gestures with different communicative functions. China people hold up their thumbs to indicate "good" and hold out their little fingers to indicate "bad" or "bad", which shows a kind of "condescension". Cultural mentality of "orderly aging"; Americans give a thumbs-up to indicate that they want a ride, and thumbs down to indicate "bad"; Japanese people hold out their little fingers to express "love", while in America, people wave goodbye; In South America, people will not leave when they see this action, but will run towards you. In the United States, the thumb and forefinger are pinched into a circle, and the other three fingers are straightened up separately, indicating the word "OK"; In Japan, this gesture means money; Among Arabs, this kind of action is often accompanied by gnashing of teeth, which means that they all hate it. Fingers turn around the temple. China people use their brains, while Americans and Brazilians say they are crazy. Russians put their fingers on their throats to show that they are full; The Japanese used this action to show that they were "fired". Americans and Japanese eat with their mouths closed, but it is polite for Indians to chew with their mouths open. If an American accidentally sticks chopsticks into his rice bowl and then gives rice to China people, China people may be very unhappy. Because according to the custom in China, when offering sacrifices to the dead, chopsticks are inserted in the rice bowl. Americans point their fingers at their temples to indicate pistol suicide, which reflects the social and cultural background that it is not surprising that private guns are owned in the United States. The Japanese committed suicide by poking themselves in the stomach with their hands, which reflected the martial spirit in Japanese traditional culture. In new guinea, putting your hand around your neck means suicide; In China, this gesture means beheading, which is a relic of ancient criminal law.
The range and speed of posture movements, posture and sitting habits reflect different cultural backgrounds and mentality. Jews' hand movements are far freer than ordinary Germans, so Jews living in Germany during World War II should try their best to control their hand movements so as not to expose their identity. Young whites walk lightly, while young blacks walk slowly, which is not unrelated to their social environment. In the eyes of orientals, American women are bold and provocative, because their steps are bigger and their backs are straighter than those of oriental women. In the eyes of westerners, Japanese women's lianbu reflects their submissive and submissive psychology. The British put their arms crossed on their chests to show that they are not allowed to intervene, just like China's "standing by"; Americans pay attention to the casual and stagnant character, and often sit or stand in a sloppy way, so when an American foreign teacher sits at a desk in class, the degree of surprise of China students can be imagined. In European countries such as Germany, the lifestyle is relatively standardized, people pay great attention to etiquette, and laziness is often regarded as a sign of rudeness. These obvious and subtle differences in gestures and movements of different cultures often lead to inappropriate communication or even complete interruption of communication. Understanding these differences and taking necessary compensation measures is undoubtedly of great significance for people to understand each other, avoid misunderstandings and bridge the cultural gap in cross-cultural communication.
Five, facial expressions
The feelings or desires of human beings are unconsciously expressed through the changes of physical behavior, and the changes made by using the face are even more difficult to count. Compared with eyes, expression is a clue that can easily distinguish each other's mood and attitude. Everything happens without disguised expressions such as affirmation and negation, affirmation and negation, acceptance and rejection. The importance of facial expressions to communication is recognized, but the cultural connotations in facial expressions are hard to estimate. During World War II, people can know the tragic fate of Jews at that time from the vicious expressions cast by the Nazis. From the scene that white people in South Africa despised black people in those days, we can know the social status of black people in South Africa at that time, and the expression of feelings was acquired in the cultural background, which was different with different cultural expressions. It is natural that the Han people greet their guests with a smile, while the American Indian tribes welcome them in Lacrimosa. In some cultures, licking the lips is a sign of approval; In China culture, it means that it is full of flavor; In English culture, it means no taste; In many Mediterranean countries, this is a sign of exaggerating pain and sadness.
Smile is the most beneficial facial expression in interpersonal communication. Bai Juyi's famous sentence, "If she just turns to smile, there are hundreds of spells cast, and the sixth house of makeup fades into nothing", writes the most subtle expression effect. As Adams said, "When you smile, others will like you more". Smiling is not only a sign of happiness and friendliness, but also a message of apology and understanding. When you step on someone's foot on the bus because you braked suddenly, smiling is equivalent to saying "I'm sorry". When you meet or collide with strangers, you smile to show them that you are not hostile. People in the service industry often smile to show their welcome and friendliness. Orientals are reserved and their feelings are not easy to show. Unlike westerners, especially Latin speakers, secular desires can be seen. China people are used to hiding their feelings with their faces, not showing them. In China, the proverbs "Look at your face" and "Make people look ugly" apply facial expressions to a superb level. Therefore, "observing words and feelings" and "looking at faces" have become one of the important means of cross-cultural communication.
The difference of body language between the East and the West stems from cultural differences and the ever-changing nationality of cultures. Culture is not only national, but also contemporary and worldwide. In actual communication, people will inevitably find that not only the nonverbal communication behaviors of people from different countries and ethnic groups are different, but also the nonverbal communication behaviors of people from the same country and ethnic group are not exactly the same, even among people with different occupations, ages and educational levels in the same area.
In cross-cultural communication, we should clearly understand the relationship between nonverbal communication and culture. Culture and most nonverbal communication lines are passed down from generation to generation and acquired, and they are the same habits of a society accumulated over a long period of history and culture. Samova believes that culture and nonverbal communication are inseparable, and many nonverbal behaviors are the result of cultural acquisition. The formation and effect of people's nonverbal behavior are often determined by a certain cultural environment. Therefore, it is very important to understand the relationship between nonverbal communication and culture. Different cultures have different communication rules, and people from different cultures will inevitably have cultural misunderstandings and conflicts when communicating. Therefore, the key to the success or failure of cross-cultural communication lies in correctly treating cultural differences, persistently eliminating the interference of cultural superiority, cultural patterning and cultural differences, treating people correctly, treating themselves correctly, respecting each other and communicating on an equal footing, and constantly improving cross-cultural awareness. Only in this way can cross-cultural communication proceed smoothly.
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