Verbal Communication and Non-verbal Communication Essay Example

communication in the cross-cultural context. These are: a.

Non-verbal behaviours which exist in your own culture and in the target culture which have the same meaning in both cultures. b. Non-verbal behaviours which exist in both cultures, but which are assigned different meanings in the two cultures. .

Non-verbal behaviours which have meaning in one culture but no meaning at all in the target language. In addition, just as verbal language differs from culture to culture, the non-verbal language may also differ. One gesture may be common in a certain country and have a clear interpretation, it may be meaningless in another culture or even have an opposite meaning. Take, for example, the cultural interpretations and implications of hand gestures, the ring gesture, the thumb-up and V sign (Pease, Allan:1990). r The question now is “Which communication is practiced more in our daily life? Is it verbal communication or non-verbal communication ? Albert Mehrabian as quoted also by Pease found that the total impact of a message is about 7 percent verbal (words only) and 38 percent vocal (including tone of voice, inflection, and other sounds) and 55 percent non-verbal.

One study also done in the United States showed that 93 percent of a message was transmitted by the speaker’s tone of voice and facial expressions. Only 7 percent of the person’s attitude was conveyed by words. Apparently, we express our emotions and attitudes more non-verbally than verbally (Adelman and Levine:1993). B.Non-Verbal Gestures The following are the examples of non-verbal gestures which have the same and different meaning in the United States and Indonesia (Pease:1990, and Adelman:1993) a. When we are happy, we usually smile.

In other words, smiling

is typically an expression of pleasure. It can also show affection, convey politeness or even disguise true feelings. But, it depends on the situations and relationships. A woman’s smile at a police officer does not carry the same meaning when she smiles to a young child. In Asian cultures including Indonesia, smiling is also used to cover emotional pain or embarrassment.

When the students are late to come to the class or they can’t answer the questions from the teacher, they are possible to smile to cover their embarrassment.  When we are sad or angry, we can frown, scowl, or even cry. In Arab and Iranian cultures, people express grief openly. They mourn out loud, while people from China, Japan, and Indonesia are more subdued.

When we indicate “no” or negation, we usually shake our head from side to side. Shaking head from side to side is also used to show disagreement or have negative attitude.If we have a friend who is arrested by the police officer for the third time because of his crime, we may shake our head from side to side to show the disagreement or negative attitude towards his crime.

When we do not know or understand what people are talking about, we usually shrug our shoulders.  The “Ring” or “OK” gesture has different meaning in different countries. In the USA and in English speaking countries, the ring or OK gesture means “Everything is OK”. In France it can also mean zero or nothing. In Japan it can mean ‘money, in some Mediterranean countries, it is used to infer that a man is homosexual.In Indonesia, the ring gesture means zero.

The thumb-up gesture has three

meanings in Britain, Australia, and New Zealand. It is commonly used by hitch-hikers who are thumbing a lift, it is an OK signal, it is probably an insult signal meaning “up yours” or “sit on this” when the thumb is jerked sharply upwards. In Greece, its main meaning is “get stuffed”. In Italy, when people count from one to five, they use the thumb to mean “one” and the index finger becomes “two”. In Australia, America, England and Indonesia, people count “one” on the index finger and two on the middle finger, hence, the thumb will be number five.In Indonesia, the thumb gesture means good job or response to someone who has completed an excellent job.

It also means “delicious” when we taste delicious food. In Indonesia, if we want to stop the public transportation to take us to a certain place, we use the index finger to stop it, not the thumb.

The V sign has an “up yours” interpretation in Australia, New Zealand, and Great Britain. The palm faces towards the speaker for the insult version. In USA, the V sign means victory but the two fingers and the palm face out.In Indonesia, whether the palm faces towards the speaker or the palm faces out, the V sign means number two.

Scratching the head can mean a number of things-dandruff, fleas, sweating, uncertainty, forgetfulness or lying. It depends on the other gestures or the situations that happen at the same time. If the student scratches his head when he answers the question given by the teacher, scratching the head can mean that he forgets or he is not sure about the answer.

Someone is sitting at a

bus terminal with arms and legs tightly crossed and chin down and it is raining, it may mean that he feels cold, not defensive.If the person uses the same gesture while we are sitting across a table from him trying to sell him an idea or product, it can mean that he is negative or defensive about the situation.

If a boy is introduced to a pretty and charming girl and he winks one of his eyes, it can be interpreted that the boy likes her or the boy is interested in further relationship with her.

If we feel disappointed, we usually put our fist under our chin. l. If we want to get the attention of a pretty or charming girl who passes in front of us (a group of boys), we can whistle. m.In USA, beckoning people to come with the palm up is common or acceptable, however, in the Philiphines, Korea, and parts of Latin America as well as other countries the same gesture is considered rude.

In some countries, only an animal which can be beckoned with the palm up. In Indonesia, when we want to beckon someone we extend one arm in front of us and, with the palm down, wave to the person to come. n. Eye contact is important because it shows intimacy, attention, and influence.