Body language

Body language

Abstract：

Body language is used by people for sending messages to one another. It is very useful because it can help you make yourself easily understood. When you are talking with others，you are not just using words， but also using expressions and gestures. For example， waving one's hand is to say ―Good-bye.‖ A smile and handshake show welcome， and clapping hands means congratulations. Nodding the head means agreement， but shaking the head means disagreement. The gestures are accepted both by

Chinese and foreigners as having the same meanings.(摘要中不必举例）

Key Words: Communicate,Use, Attention,How

摘要：

肢体语言是用来帮人们传递信息的肢体语言，非常有用，因为它可以使对方很容易地明白你自己的意思。我们同别人谈话时，并不仅限于用言语来表达，我们还用表情和身体的动作来向对方表达要传递的信息。例如：挥手表示―再见‖，微笑和握手表示欢迎，拍手表示祝贺，点头表示同意，摇头表示不同意。

这些手势对说汉语的人和说英语的人来说，都具有相同的

意思。

关键词:沟通，用，注意，怎样做

Introduction

In this essay, after borrowing and studying the experience of the forefathers, the author analyzes

the various usages and functions of body language in different culture background. There are four parts of this paper. The first part is introduction, which mainly introduces the

importance of body language. The second part is to talk about the term—body language briefly, including

its concept and classification, general characteristics and the importance of knowing how we communicate. The third part is the most vital one,which mainly talks about several sorts of body language with lots of cases which embody the conflict in cross-cultural communication in detail including gestures, eye contact, facial expressions and posture. The fourth part is to talk about how to apply body language correctly? And the end. Using body language in a correct way will help communicate with people and

make youeasy and comfortable with others

PART 1.Knowing Body Language

As a communicative tool, language is very important in many situations. However, body language also takes a complementary role to help people transfer information to improve communication, which will be an indispensable power to break up language obstacles in intercultural communication. In the 21st

century, as the economic and cultural exchanging of all countries becomes more and more frequent, there appear more obstacles caused by the differences of language and culture. In intercultural communication, one of the most useful ways to deal with the obstacles is to master the meaning of body language. However, even if we understand the meaning of some general body language, there are also some difficulties to master. Because even the same body language have great differences in different

couture background. Using body languages wrongly not only makes you fail in interpersonal communications, which would cause conflict in international communication. So what are the differences

of the same body language in different country? How to apply body language correctly? Many people know body language is very important in our daily life. But do you know what body language is? The dictionary gives this definition to 'body language': \

expressions by which a person manifests various physical, mental, or emotional states and

communicates nonverbally with others.\

I have been interested in body language for years, and after reading a few books, all you need to

know can be summarized in the following point:

Body language is a form of communication. Whether you realize it or not, your body sends

unmistakable signals to people around you. You do communicate volumes of information about yourself

with your posture, face expression and position of your arms and legs. You do it all the time. In other words, before you even open your mouth, the people around you have already made a

certain opinion about you - and as you know, first impressions last.

Usually body language occurs unconsciously. Yet the body language we use decides to a large

extent the quality of our communication. It follows that therefore it would be good to become conscious of our own and others' body language. We can learn to use our body language for a purpose. It is important to note that body language has different meanings in different cultures. How we can interpret body language depends on the situation, the culture, the relationship we have with the person as well as the gender of the other. This means that there is not one signal that has the same meaning all over the world. Body language is also interlinked with spoken language and a whole pattern of behaviour from a person. As well as that, various body language signs can complement each other to make a particular meaning

crystal clear or strengthen the meaning of what we communicate.

Nonverbal communication, composed of pictures, dresses, eye contact, spatial signals, gestures

and so on, is as important as verbal communication.

PART 2. Body Language Around us

An old saying goes: \

experts. Some studies show that up to 90 percent of communication is nonverbal. Though you might you say one thing, your body movements may indicate something entirely different. This nonverbal way of

communicating is called body language.

Although we may not realize it when we talk with others we make ourselves understood not only by words. We send messages to the people around us also by expressions and body movements. Body movements and expressions make it easy to understand each other, we call it \

a kind of communication, a kind of communication without words. A smile and handshake show

welcome ,Waving one's hand is to say\means disgreement .Putting up a hand means\one's arms show happiness.These gestures are accepted both by Chinese and Americans as having the

same meanings.

Different culture has different ways of communication. Because culture influences communication, different country has different culture. So the way people in different countries communicate is different too. For example, Arab man often greet by kissing on both cheeks.In Japan men greet by bowing .In the Unite States, people shake hands to show\

neck is different for Chinese and Americans. For Chinese,it is to say\Americans, it shows\move the fingers back and forth with palm down. But in the United States, you ask someone to come by holding the palm up and moving the fingers towards our body. And crossing one's legs in the United States is a sign of being relaxed. But in Korea , it's not allowed. In Chinese, people hand everything with both hands to show their respect, but for Muslims,they think the left hand is unclean and do not eat or

pass something with it.

Because of special culture influences some counties, some body languages should attract our

attention. In Turkey , putting one's hand in one's pockets is a sign of disrespect,In some Asican countries, you must not touch the head of another person. And in China, people don't kiss or hug each other ,except his\\her lover. For an Arab, it is a good manners to stand close to his friend when they are talking, but for English people, they don't like to be close to one another. And in parts of Asia, you must not sit with your

foot pointing at another person.

The universal language

While body language may differ from country to country, it is the universal language. We all use it

even when we don't realize it.

For example: Your friend comes to you with a problem, and you say you'd like to hear about it. But while she's talking, you look at your watch and around the room. Your body movements tell her that

you're bored, distracted, in a hurry or all three. Your body language has given you away.

The good news is we can all learn to use body language to our benefit. It just takes a little practice. Fom these exmples, we know the world is rich in body language, and the language is common in communication. All above show that it is important to know the meaning of gestures and movements in

foreign country, foreigners should follow these customs, should learn their culture. So we can communicate with them in a correct way, not only by words, but also by body language. I think that it is

important in our lives to show

II. On the Term ——Body Language

2.1 Concept and classification of body language

Body language is known as non-verbal behavior which transmits information through gestures,

actions and facial expressions. People communicate with each other by their body language in the ways

of nodding, waving, eye contacting, shrugging and so on. According to the research results of psychologists, these ways can express what the verbal language cannot directly. Body language can be divided into sight language, body touches language, posture and gesture, manner, facial expression,

flavor language, proxemics and clothes language.

2.2 General characteristics of body language

Some body languages are not only innate but also unconscious and subconscious. Take excited people for example, their pupil will dilate automatically; eyebrows move when greeting; frown when discontented; yawn when fatigued; bite teeth when anger and usually people smile when happy, cry

when sad and blush when shame.

However, other body languages are postnatal. Various peoples form unique body languages due to the language backgrounds of their living. The gesture of Britain and American man is totally different when they sit with their legs crossed. American likes shrugging, and they often do a forward body gesture when they speak in future tense. Cupped-hand salute is peculiar only in China, we use it in such cases: congratulate when happy get-together; extend one‘s heartfelt respects when spend festivals; express

heartfelt thanks and entrust in some special situations.

2.3 The importance of knowing how we communicate

How we come across to someone is decided only for a small part by the words we speak. To leave a good impression behind, say at a job interview, it is important that we know, and to a certain extent can control, our body language. The person on the receiving end of our body language will have a feeling or impression that is often difficult to describe, difficult to put into words or difficult to prove what actually was communicated. Haven‘t we all said at times: ?I have a feeling he\\she likes me‘, or something like: ?I doubt if what he\\she is saying is really the truth‘. This type of feeling is called intuition. Body language plays a big role in intuition as it gives us messages about the other person that we can interpret at an intuitive level. It is therefore necessary to get to know our own body language first. We should learn about it so that we can recognize it in others as well as in ourselves. For this purpose, we will describe all the different aspects of body language in the following parts. We can learn something from the different

aspects of body language.

III Several Sorts of Body Language

3.1 Gestures

Without gestures, our world would be static and colorless. The movements of our arms, hands,

eyes, and feet constitute another important way in which we broadcast, interpersonal data. So we will talk

about this subject more.

In a very general sense, we all use gestures to reinforce an idea or to help describe something.

When we say, ―That‘s an English book‖, at the same time we are pointing to the book. If someone asks