Ulyanovsk State University, Ulyanovsk, Russia
Essay in English with translation. Nomination People and society.
Secrets of Gestures and Body Language
People socialize all the time when they are not alone even if they are keeping silence. This non-verbal communication is possible because we use body language, unconsciously accept it and respond to it.
Body language is an important part of any interaction, so every person should develop an ability to read other people signals and interpret them so as to be aware of their unconscious feelings and emotions.
Body language isn`t always just one movement. Very often it is more than one, but you can be assured that if your non-verbal signals are out of kilter with your spoken message, the people listening to you will feel uncomfortable, or may not believe, or may not be interested, etc .
Here is a list of some body-language habits and their interpretations:
- running fingers through the hair - a person is unsure, frustrated or angry;
- sitting back with both hands behind the head - he knows it all;
- tight-lipped with both hands on hips - aggressive;
- rubbing the earlobe - a person is nervous or doubtful;
- legs crossed, arms tightly folded - your counterpart is annoyed or defensive;
- hair-twisting - nervous;
- stroking the chin - he is deep in thoughts;
- foot tapping, fist clenched - your opposite number is dominant and aggressive.
Surely, this is not the whole list of habits which can be observed in day-to-day life. Moreover, I do believe that some of these interpretations are generalized and only partly try as every person is unique and his gestures and body language should be interpreted in a particular situation. I`m personally keen on twisting my hair, thus I can`t say that I`m always nervous. On the contrary, I`m an extremely self-confident person.
However, we shouldn`t underestimate the importance of our body language as it can tell us more than words can do.
People communicate constantly, even when they are silent. This nonverbal communication is possible because we use body language, perceive it unconsciously, and respond.
Body language is an important part of any interaction between people, so they should develop the ability to “read and recognize” other people's signals in order to know what subconscious feelings and emotions they are experiencing.
Body language is not just one movement. Most often this is a series of some actions. But you should be aware that if your nonverbal cues do not match your verbal cues, those listening to you may feel uncomfortable, stop believing you, or stop listening to you altogether.
Here is a list of basic gestures and their interpretation:
- strokes his hair - a person is unsure, scared or angry;
- sits back in his chair, both hands behind his head - he knows everything you say;
- lips pursed, both hands on his belt - he is aggressive;
- tugging at the earlobe - a person is nervous or confused;
- legs crossed, arms folded on the chest - your interlocutor is annoyed or defending himself;
- twirls a strand of hair - nervous;
- rests his chin - thinks;
- taps his foot, clenches his fist - your partner wants to dominate or he is aggressive.
Of course, this is not a complete list of body language gestures that can be observed in everyday life. In addition, I believe that the interpretation of some gestures is generalized and only partially correct, since each person is unique and their body language should be interpreted depending on the specific situation. Personally, I love playing with strands of my hair, but I can't say I get nervous all the time. On the contrary, I am a very confident person.
However, we should not underestimate the importance of body language, as it can show us much more than just words can tell us.
Do we expect other cultures to adopt our customs or are we willing to adopt theirs? This might translate to how business or even foreign relations are to be conducted. Do we compromise or force other peoples to deal only on our terms? We may not have time to hear a language, but taking time to learn the “signals” is a powerful communicator.
As the global village continues to shrink and cultures collide, it is essential for all of us to become more sensitive, aware more, and more observant to the myriad motions, gestures, and body language that surrounds us each day. And as many of us cross over cultural borders, it would be fitting for us to respect, learn, and understand more about the effective, yet powerful “silent language” of gestures.
The world is a giddy montage of vivid gestures- traffic police, street vendors, expressway drivers, teachers, children on the playground, athletes with their exuberant hugging, clenched fists and “high fives”. People all over the world use their hands, heads, and bodies to communicate expressively.
Without gestures, our world would be static and colorless. The social anthropologists Edward T. Hall claims 60 percent of all our communication is nonverbal. In that case, how can we possibly communicate with one another without gestures?
Gestures and body language communicate as effectively as words- maybe even more effectively. We use gestures daily, almost instinctively, from beckoning to a waiter, or punctuating a business presentation with visual signals to airport ground attendants guiding an airline pilot into the jet way or a parent using a whole dictionary of gestures to teach (or preach to) a child.
Gestures are woven inextricably in to our social lives, but also that the “vocabulary” of gestures, can be at once informative and entertaining... but also dangerous. Gestures can be menacing (two drivers on a freeway), warm (an open-armed welcome), instructive (a police man giving road directions0, or even sensuous (the liquid movement of a Hawaiian hula dancer).
Bear in mind that the following gestures are in general use, but there may always be exceptions. In recent years, Western and contemporary values and ideas have become more popular and has either influenced, altered, and even replaced, some of the more traditional gestures, understanding human behavior is tricky stuff. No two people behave in precisely the same way. Nor do people from the same culture all perform exactly the same gestures and body language uniformly. For almost any gestures there will probably be a minority within a given nationality who might say “Well, some might attach that meaning to it, but to me it means...” and then they will provide a different interpretation.
In the world of gestures, the best single piece of advice is to remember the two A’s – “Ask” and be “aware.” If you see a motion or gesture that is new or confusing, ask a local person what it signifies. Then, be aware of the many body signs and customs around you.
This time it will be dedicated to our everyday (or already a thing of the past) gestures of greeting. There are quite a lot of different greetings, but few people think about how to say at least one of them. For example, a handshake is translated as handshake; this word seems to be well-known, and many people will remember it if necessary. But what about other gestures?
Perhaps this topic will not be so interesting to someone, but I will still consider it. I agree that not all types of greetings that we will consider today are found in everyday life. But we need to expand our vocabulary, right? Nobody knows what words will be useful to us in the future.
Greetings Greetings
| Bow | This is a formal style of greeting for a man to a superior, such as a king, queen, lord or lady. Simply move your body forwards and down as a sign of respect. | This is the formal style of a man greeting a person of higher rank or social status. For example, king, queen, lord or lady. Simply move your body forward and downward as a sign of respect. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Curtsey (Curtsy) | This is the female version of the bow (see previous entry). Lower your body, bend your knees and hold your skirt with both hands. | This is the female version of the bow (see previous). Lower yourself, bend your knees and hold your skirt with both hands. |  |
| Hat raising or tipping | This is a formal and old-fashioned way of greeting that was popular when people wore hats. It’s often performed as a mark of respect to a superior, such as a country gentleman. Simply raise the hat a few inches off your head, bow your head gently and say something such as “morning.” | This is a formal and old-fashioned way of saying hello that was popular when people wore hats. This was often presented as a sign of respect for a person of higher status, such as a gentleman from the provinces. Simply lift your hat a few inches from your head, bow your head politely, and say something like, “Good morning.” |  |
| Hand kiss | Take the other person’s hand (usually a woman’s) and gently kiss it. Often performed by a man to a superior, such as a queen, princess or lady. | Take someone's hand (usually a woman's) and kiss it gently. Usually this is a gesture made by a man towards a superior person (queen, princess, lady). |  |
| Hand clasp/ a homie handshake (Brotherly handshake) | The hand clasp, or “homie handshake”, is a cool way of greeting one another. Hold your hand at about shoulder height with your elbow bent, and lock thumbs with your colleague. | The handshake or brotherly handshake is a cool (youthful) way to greet someone. Hold your hand somewhere at shoulder height, bend your elbow and lock your thumbs. |  |
| Head inclination | On seeing someone you know, simply raise your head slightly and say “all right?”. This is usually done among friends or casual acquaintances. | When you see someone you know, just raise your head slightly and say “all right?” This is usually done by friends or frequent acquaintances. |  |
That's enough new English words for today. I hope you have read everything written in the original language. Reading is very useful for practicing English. If you understand everything, even despite the translation, then this is another plus for your piggy bank. Keep up the good work, learn vocabulary.
Of course, there are quite a lot of gestures with which it is customary to greet each other. If you didn't find what you were looking for, it will definitely be in the following articles. Happy learning!
Body Language Essay, Research Paper
In most areas around the world, English and Latin are known as the universal languages. There is one language that most people forget, body language. Most body gestures are understandable to people all over the world. For example, people most realize that when a person has their arms crossed they are not very open to what another person has to say. Body language itself is great to analyze as a correspondent of written/spoken language because the roots of a gesture are often much more apparent than the roots for a word. Because body language involves physicality, interaction and communication can occur on a much more basic and primitive level as a means of communication.
All of us are trained in the use of speech, to communicate what we mean in a way that other people will understand. As we are trained to use speech to communicate we also are taught how to position our bodies to express what we are feeling. As children learn from their parents how to speak, they also observe the gestures that their parents use when saying certain words. Communication through body language is in this way somewhat of an unconscious learned behavior. A person’s external body language speaks amplitudes. Your subconscious mind records everything it sees and experiences, including body language and the words it hears, then analyzes their consistency and spits out true gut feelings. That is why you can usually rely on your gut feelings.By observing somebody’s posture, eye movements, and breathing you can gain information about what she/he is doing in her/his mind. You can get the same information by listening to the qualities of her/his tone of voice.
The style you use when speaking is as important as the words you choose to use. When someone has a very sarcastic tone of voice the speaker is often unpleasant about the topic that they are talking about. When a person's tone of voice is sarcastic, their body language is often sarcastic. For example, when they are saying the sarcastic statement the speaker may roll their eyes. Most people are unconscious of their body language, but it speaks volumes about what they’re really thinking. Everyone uses body language to communicate, whether they are aware of it or not.
Body language is either positive or negative. Some examples of positive body language are relaxed posture, good eye contact, nodding agreement, smiling or adding humor, and gesturing warmly. Negative body language includes a tense body, having you arms folded in front of you, having a hand on your face, fidgeting, placing your arms behind head, leaning back, yawning, exhibiting impatience or distraction, leaning away, and displaying negative facial expressions . When a person is analyzing their body language they should try to appear open and warm, confident, trustworthy, and relaxed. When two people in a conversation exhibit these characteristics, a conversation is sure to go smooth and be successful.
Through life experience we have learned that people often lie with words. White lies are told numerous times in one day by a person. However, facial expressions and other body language tend to be more honest. When a person’s words and body movements are consistent, we feel more comfortable and confident that what that person is saying to us is true. When a person’s facial expression differs from their words, your experience tells you to believe the person’s body language, not the words. Everyone is aware that your body doesn’t know how to tell a lie. Body language, unlike spoken language is indefinite; so you have to be careful about how you interpret it. A certain movement or facial expression may be quite meaningful, or it may mean nothing at all. Therefore, it would not be wise to accuse someone of lying to you just because one of their gestures suggested that they were uncomfortable and lying.
It is impossible for a person to not communicate. No matter what you do, or don’t do, you still declare your emotional state. Each of us reveals our emotional state with non-verbal signals. During courting, and later in a romantic relationship, knowing what the other person is feeling helps you behave appropriately. But, to know what that person is experiencing, you must attack the environment with your eyes, ears, and yes, your intuition. In relations miscommunication is often the cause of most of the arguments, that includes misunderstanding someone’s body language. For example, a person may get upset with their significant other simply for the look they have on their face when they say something, if something was said sarcastically, or if one person yawned in the middle of a conversation.
If you think about it everything that you think of as communication is actually body language: tone of voice, clearing our throats, rolling our eyes, touching our nose - everything except the words we say. Your eye contact, or lack of eye contact, communicates. Your pauses communicate. Your facial expressions communicate. Your crossed legs communicate. Your posture communicates. Your open hands communicate. Your aroma communicates. In particular, your appearance communicates; hair style, type of eye glasses, accessories, tattoos, and your overall choice of attire. Once again, everything about you is part of your personal communication.
Our bodies can be just as expressive as our tongues. In fact, they’re usually a good deal, clearer, as a physical gesture or reaction will inevitably expose precisely what our spoken words seek to evade. It is essential, then, for people whose work involves frequent interfacing with others, to become fluent in the communication source of body language. Body language reflects accurately one’s emotional and mental state. Non verbal signs are very effective. They have a critical influence on the communicational processes, on the impression one creates, the manner in which she/he is treated by others and her/his performance. Understanding the messages conveyed through the body is of significant importance in order to improve communication skills, to improve one’s personal and professional targets and to increase personal effectiveness in inter-personal contacts.
As we know, nonverbal communication is the way that you use interchangeable sets of
visual, vocal, and invisible communication systems to convey and interpret meaning. There are
many categories that are included in nonverbal communication: “paralanguage, or vocalics;
posture, movement; objects, or artifacts; space, or proxemics; time; and the five senses
(Zeuschner 80).” Vocalicsis when you use volume, tone, rate, pitch, and quality of your voice to
give magnitude and meaning to our words. Proxemics means using space to communicate.
Artifacts are those objects – clothing, jewelry, etc.- taht relay a message about you. Movement
includes your posture, walking style, gestures, eye contact, and facial expressions. Time, also known as chronemics, can communicate attitudes or status. Lastly, there are the five senses
feeling, touching, smelling, seeing, and hearing, all of which express information to you from
Lastly, there are the five senses feeling, touching, smelling, seeing, and hearing, all of which express information to you from others (Zeuschner 80). These components combine together to make up the basic parts of nonverbal communication. When you use these components together they make your communication skills clearer and you relay better messages to others. There have been estimates made about the impact of nonverbal communication on the total communication process. It is said that body language ranges from 65 to 93 percent of communication (Zeuschner 81). Actions that you use to illustrate non-verbal communication are displayed in these six functions of nonverbal communication behaviors:
(1) Substituting
(4) contradicting
(5) Managing impressions
(6) Establishing relationships.
The influence of body language is at least as important as verbal communication. It is always present among conversations and other methods of communicating. One of the many examples of body language would be if a male and a female were at a party together. If both people were at opposite sides of the room but they both wanted to talk, they would find other ways to communicate with each other. The girl may notice the guy looking at her. After she has made eye contact with the guy, she might smile at him to let him know that she wants to talk to him. He would then smile back and the two people would walk towards each other and begin to talk.
Realizing the weaknesses in your nonverbal communication can be the key to becoming a successful communicator. “Self-awareness can be developed simply by getting into the habit of noitoring your behavior and taking note of our posture, movements, and objects (Zeuschner 93).” It is a good idea for someone to get outside opinions from peers and authoritative people on what aspects of your communication could use some improvement. Videotaping yourself in real situations will also expose you to your flaws. Once you have made the steps of improvement to your own nonverbal communication, you may begin to realize and analyze the body language of others whom you are in contact with. If you are more understanding of how you portray your own body movements and the body movements of others, your communication with others will result in happier, calmer, and more successful conversations with others. This can be beneficial to you not only in your personal relationships, but also in your business relationships.
One more example of how non-verbal communication can be crucial to your life is in the area of a business interview. If there are two people being interviewed for a job, both containing the same crudential
Body Language and Communication without Words.
Body language is a form of communication that requires no writing or sound to get across things that you think and feel. Body language is prevalent in all humans whether it is conscious or unconscious. People may be totally unaware of the fact that they are communicating a feeling or idea without actually saying it. Body language though is different depending on culture and location, as all languages spoken are, yet gestures and body language are a silent language that helps to understand one another.
Gestures and body language communicate as effectively as words- maybe even more effectively. For example, a big smile on babies face can say more than a thousand words. It is unnecessary and unimaginable for a baby to say "I"m so happy!" when they are obviously grinning ear to ear. Gestures are, for the most part, learned before any type of language is acquired. .
Anthropologists divide our actions and gestures into three broad categories. The categories include instinctive, coded, and acquired. Instinctive gestures are the actions we make unconsciously, such as smiling when you are happy. Coded gestures are gestures that have been assigned to certain events, such as a referee putting both arms up when a touchdown is scored in football. Acquired gestures are gestures that society has put into place, such as waving with your arm to say good bye.
Coded Gestures are probably the easiest for us Americans to interpret. We have devised certain hand signals to represent "stop," "come here," and insults (such as the middle finger). Sporting events also rely on hand gestures to run more efficiently. Imagine having to yell calls across the field or court. What a mess that would be! Hand gestures and signals can simplify things and make understanding a police man or referee easy.
Instinctive gestures such as smiling or frowning come naturally and are easy to pick up on.
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