Activities
- Go to YouTube and view videos of services of
three different religions: Catholic, Buddhist, and
Jewish. Observe the nonverbal elements, noting
particularly the differences in how members of
each group use paralanguage, space, and touch. - Locate pictures from magazines, newspapers, and
the Internet that you believe are showing the
following emotions through facial expressions:
(a) anger, (b) joy, (c) sadness, (d) fear, and
(e) revulsion. Show these pictures to people
from various cultures and see what interpretations
they give to the facial expressions.- Go to YouTube and type in“culture and body
language.”View some of the videos for examples of
how cultures differ in their use of body language. - Watch a foreign film and look for examples of
proxemics, touch, and facial expressions. Compare
these to those of the dominant culture of the
United States.
Concepts and Questions
- Why is it useful to understand the nonverbal lan-
guage of a culture? - What are some potential obstacles to accurately
reading the nonverbal messages of other people? - What is meant by the following:“Most nonverbal
communication is learned on the subconscious
level”? - Give your culture’s interpretation of the following
nonverbal actions:
- Two people are speaking loudly, waving their
arms, andusing many gestures. - A customer in a restaurant waves his hand over
his headand snaps his fingers loudly. - An elderly woman dresses entirely in black.
- A young man dresses entirely in black.
- An adult pats a child’s head.
- Twomen kiss in public.
- How can studying the intercultural aspects of
nonverbal behavior assist you in discovering your
own ethnocentrism? Give personal examples. - How late can you be for the following: (a) a class,
(b) work, (c) a job interview, (d) a dinner party,
or (e) a date with a friend? Ask this same question
of members of two or three cultures other than
your own. - What is meant by“Nonverbal communication is
rule governed”? - Do you believe that in the United States a person
who knows how to effectively employ nonverbal
communication has an advantage over other peo-
ple? How would the use of these same skills be
received in Japan, China, Mexico, and India?
338 CHAPTER9•Nonverbal Communication: The Messages of Action, Space, Time, and Silence
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