International Body Language: A Language with No Words

Something as simple as a smile can display friendliness in one culture, and embarrassment or impatience another. Even silence means different things in different places. Language learners will put a lot of time into mastering the vocabulary and structure of a foreign language without ever considering these non-verbal parts of communication. To help you learn these significant parts of communication – or simply avoid making an embarrassing *faux pas. Here are four nonverbal communication methods that vary from culture to culture.

1- Gestures. -- It’s natural to use gestures as a way of showing your point while communicating in a foreign language. We think it’s helpful. However, we should be careful especially while using our hands, as a wrong gesture can lead to confusion or offence. For example, tapping your finger to your temple is a gesture to show memory in North America but suggests madness in Russia. Even nodding to say yes or shaking one’s head to say no can be misunderstood abroad. To give an example, in Turkey, ‘no’ is shown by moving the head up and back.

2- Silence. -- Silence can be very meaningful in different cultural contexts. Western cultures, especially in North America and the UK, view silence as problematic. In our interactions at work, school or with friends, silence is uncomfortable. It is often perceived as a sign of negligence or disinterest. In other cultures, however, silence is not viewed as a negative circumstance. In China, silence can be used to show agreement.

3- Touching -- Britain, much of Northern Europe and the Far East are classed as ‘non-contact’ cultures, in which there’s very little physical contact in people’s daily interactions. If you even accidentally touch someone’s arm, you should apologise. By comparison, in the ‘high-contact’ cultures of the Middle East, Latin America and southern Europe, physical touch is a big part of socialising. What’s more, there are different standards for who touches whom and where. For instance, in Thailand and Laos, it is not acceptable to touch anyone’s head, even children. In South Korea, elders can touch younger people with force when trying to get through a crowd, but younger people can’t do the same.

4- Eye Contact -- In most western countries, frequent eye contact is a sign of confidence and attentiveness. Westerners think that if a conversation partner looks away, he or she is either not interested in the talk or lying. Of course, this is not the standard around the world. In many Asian, African, and Latin American countries, constant eye contact would be considered aggressive. In these cultures, avoiding eye contact is a sign of respect for bosses and elders. In these parts of the world, children don’t stare at an adult who is speaking to them, nor do employees at their bosses.

*faux pas: an embarrassing act or remark in a social situation