Body Language

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Have you ever felt misunderstood, or not taken seriously although your words made perfect sense? I’ve seen this happen to many people and most recently to a friend of mine. She had a perfect CV, she was very accomplished and all those who knew her swore she’d have a great career. She had several job interviews but strangely was never accepted. We all did not know why until one day she asked her mother to interview her as practice for her coming job interview. Her mother told her that she looked nervous. My friend was shocked because she was feeling very comfortable at that time, so she began to wonder why did her mother get that wrong signal, and she realized that on some level her actions were the complete opposite of her feelings. She made some research and found an article that helped her a lot. It was written by Greg Hartley, a body language expert who was an interrogator in the Army for 20 years. He stated that 85% of what you communicate is not with words. It’s through the tone of your voice, the way you sit and many other messages that the body involuntarily sends. My friend’s problem was that she was unaware of the fact that body language can contradict spoken language. Her excess enthusiasm made her energy dissipate into fidgeting, a sign of nervousness or unease. Her crossed legs created a wall between her and the interviewer. And steepling her fingers made her look arrogant.

This proves that body language is a crucial mean of communication. And in order to take advantage of it, we need to learn how to use it correctly. Today, Menna is going to show you how to make your body language and spoken language speak of the same thing and give you an exercise that will help you accomplish that. To help you even more, Noha will introduce you to the importance of mastering the use of body movements and gestures, in order to get your message through and be properly understood.

Gestures permit a degree of expressiveness and subtlety that is not possible with other aspects of non-verbal communication. They can be used in expressing amongst many other things openness, defensiveness, readiness, etc. A study conducted by Gerard Nierenberg and Henry Calero shows that gestures are even used in situations where the other person cannot see you like when making a phone call or recording a tape.

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