Communication

Non Verbal Communication. 2009. Retrieved on May 12 from:
http://maxatkinson.blogspot.com/2009/07/non-verbal-communication.html 

Non verbal communication includes any kind of communication without using words, and constitutes a big percentage of what we communicate. Facial expression, head or eye movements, hand signals, and body postures are some of the ways of nonverbal communication. All cultures make us of nonverbal communication, but the meaning differ across cultures. 

According to Hofstede cultural dimension, the differences in non verbal communication can be described as follow: 

• Immediacy and expressiveness: demonstrate availability for communication.  High immediacy cultures are called contact cultures, and are mostly located in warm-temperature areas like Arab countries.  
• Individualism vs. Collectivism: Individualistic cultures tend to remote and display less non-verbal communication, on the other side collectivistic cultures stress cohesion as a group and spend time in close proximity to one another. 
• Masculinity: Women in low-masculinity cultures show more synchrony in their movement than those in high-masculinity cultures. 
• Power distance: high-power distance cultures tend to be more “untouchable” and be more tense in subordinates’ body movement, tend to smile more for subordinates to appease superiors or to be polite, and tend to be more aware that vocal loudness may be offensive to others. 
• High and low context: in high context cultures people tend to be more implicit in verbal codes, perceive highly verbal persons less attractive, tend to be more reliant on and tuned into non-verbal communication, and expect to have more non-verbal codes in communication.  

 In this order of ideas, lets see some examples described by De-hua & Hu in their publication "Nonverbal language in cross-cultural communication"

Non verbal communication. Retrieved on May 14 from:
http://www.timmersgems.com/ztnoh.php?bjqt=Chinese-Nonverbal-Communication 

• Body language: Researchers found wide variations in this aspect, even with such universal rituals as nodding agreement and greeting friends. Example: In Italy, Colombia, and China, people may wave good-bye by moving the palm and fingers back and forth, a gesture that more likely means “come here” in the United States. But in Malaysia, beckoning someone by moving the forefingers back and forth would be taken as an insult.
• Body space and body touch: Various cultures have their own customs of different distance that make their people feel comfortable in personal conversation situations. The way human beings space themselves is determined by their culture and the particular relationships involved. Example: Chinese do many more touches than Americans. It is quite usual for the Chinese to walk hand in hand between the same sex. But in America, friends with the same sex never keep such a close distance. Such kind of behavior is considered homosexual in the west and is strongly disgusted.
• Paralanguage: The vocal cues that accompany spoken language like the pitch, speed, volume, pause and silence. People use the basic elements to transfer the emotional and intellectual meanings of their messages. Example: Different traditions view silence much differently. Chinese people value silence more than the use of words, many of them believe that inner peace and wisdom come only through silence, just as the old sayings “Silence is gold”; “Silence speaks louder than sound”, etc. But in American culture, Americans tend to think there is no communication in silence. For instance, in response to the question “Will you marry me”, silence in America would be interpreted as uncertainty; while in China it would be interpreted as acceptance. 

Many nonverbal expressions vary from culture to culture, and what is accepted in one culture may be completely unacceptable in another making in some cases the nonverbal communication as a source of misunderstanding. 

REFERENCES: 

• Kirch, M. 1979. Non-Verbal Communication across Cultures. The Modern Language Journal Vol. 63, No. 8 (Dec., 1979), pp. 416-423. Retrieved on May 11, 2011 from: http://www.jstor.org/stable/326027
• Culture and non verbal communication.  [WWW page]. Retrieved on May 13, 2011 from: http://www.cba.uni.edu/buscomm/nonverbal/culture.htm
• De-hua, W. & Hui, L. 2007. Nonverbal language in cross-cultural communication. Sino-US English Teaching, Volume 4, No.10 (Serial No.46). Retrieved on May 15, 2011 from: http://www.linguist.org.cn/doc/su200710/su20071016.pdf