Nonverbal Communication: A Notion to Motion

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Recommended: Problems with intercultural communication

A simple smile, a gazing stare, a firm hand shake or just an unpretentious hello are all forms of communication. While it is essential to the coexistence of the human race, communication is the one thing that is common amongst people of all cultures. Crapo (2013) explained that communication is transference of a philosophies and information from one person to another by ones actions, gestures, and words (Human communication, para.1). Although people use different avenues to express their thoughts and ideas, intercultural communication can be misconstrued when learning to understand different customs. For example, in America, it is not unusual to be convinced that a smile represents happiness. On the other hand, in the Japanese culture, a smile is a mask to conceal their emotions from others. According to the Association for Psychological Science in a press release (2010), researcher Akihiro Tanaka quoted, “… Japanese people tend to hide their negative emotions by smiling, but it’s more difficult to hide negative emotions in the voice” (para.4). Nonetheless, one can interconnect with another person by the use of nonverbal or verbal communication. However, in a comparison of Japanese and Arabian cultures, one can comprehend the dynamics of body language and proxemics and how nonverbal communication is portrayed in modern society and business world by exploring the etiquettes of each culture.

Understanding Body Language

Body language, also known as kinesics, is a form of nonverbal communication that can be expressed by gestures, movements and signals. In the 1950’s, Albert Mehrabian conducted experiments based on body language; where he originated a calculation that would govern the general proficiency of communication (Sange...

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... ( 1974, January). Japanese Kinesics. The Journal of the Association of Teachers of Japanese, Vol. 9, No. 1, pp. 65-75. Retrieved from. http://www.jstor.org/stable/489012

A great source that illustrated many examples of the Japanese gestures in nonverbal communication. The author outlined many of the gestures that are commonly used in the Japanese culture. This article will be very useful when trying to compare cultural similarities and differences when as it relates to gestures.

U.S. Army. (January, 2006). Arab Culture Awareness: 58 Factsheet. Retrieved from http://www.fas.org/irp/agency/army/arabculture.pdf

This United States Army handbook illustrates a number of facts on how to communicate within the Arab culture. This book is a great source as it will help me to gather supporting evidence that will be used in the body of my paper.

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