Emblems are the kinesics that stand out as different from culture to culture. The book defines emblems as "kinesic behaviors whose direct verbal translations are known to all members of a social group." I haven't had any experience outside of American mainstream culture so I can use examples from the book. The hardest one to get used to for me would be the example used in the book with the head nodding. In Greece, Italy and surrounding areas nodding the head forward and backwards means no while shaking it from side to side means yes. That is just so natural to me now to do it the opposite way that it would be hard to grasp in traveling to these areas of the world.
When traveling to Hawaii there was a hand signal that was introduced along with language that is unfamiliar. The term "hang loose" means to chill out and go with the flow. The hand signal that went with it was folding the middle three fingers and outstretching the thumb and pinky. This was probably the most foreign thing I've come in contact with having never traveled out of the country.
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I too have never traveled outside of the country, so it is a bit difficult to imagine different ways of nonverbally communicating when I have never known any other way than what I have grown up with. As you said, though, if we were to travel to a place that has opposite signals as we do for yes and no, it would be difficult to communicate if we simply relied on nonverbal cues. However, I believe that once we begin to incorporate other culture's nonverbal cues into our nonverbal vocabularies, in a sense, they would flow much more easily. However, I still agree that something that is the opposite of what we have known all of our lives will take much more time to get the hang of.
ReplyDeleteThe interpretation of non verbal messages is very hard to do sometimes. I can not count the number of times I have misinterpreted nonverbal communication and it has led to a problem. I was reading this and I was going to write about how we need a universal nonverbal language to be set up. Then I realized that there already is with sign language! So much for that genius idea. I do believe that nonverbal actions are a great way to communicate with friends. It gets tricky when you try and communicate nonverbally with a person that you are unfamiliar with. I am simple messages could be conveyed nonverbally but nonverbal messages that are not universal is where it can get tricky. I wish I knew about other cultures nonverbal communication. I wonder if flipping someone off is something positive in another country or a wave means something different then hello or goodbye.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your reference to the “hang loose” emblem of Hawaiian culture. I almost used this example, but I couldn’t separate Hawaiian from American. I think this is a valid concept to bring up. I think the closest comparison to the emblem of “hang loose” is the handshake in American culture. I understand these two different nonverbal messages mean completely different things. However, they are both accepted in their own cultures as a greeting and a farewell, in a respectful manor. It’s interesting when you compare these two nonverbal messages. I think it’s great you brought up this topic to share.
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