Body Language

Cities in Japan are crowded places. You may need to push through the

throngs, as the Japanese do. This is done by holding your hand in front of

your face, with bent elbow, rather like a child pretending to be a shark, or like

a Karate chop, while bowing and saying ‘excuse me’.

When presenting your business card to a Japanese person hold it with both

your hands and present it with your details facing toward the other person.

A word about waving farewell .........................................................

The simple act of waving someone goodbye isn’t so simple after all. What you

think of as a simple wave may be interpreted as an offensive gesture.

Most Europeans face their palms front and wag their fingers up and down

with their arm stretched forward and held stationary. Americans hold their

palms forward with their arms outstretched and wave their hand back and

forth from side to side. Throughout most of Europe this gesture would be

interpreted as ‘no’ except in Greece, where the gesture is highly insulting and

you can easily find yourself pleading innocence to the local authorities.

Higher and Lower Status Behaviour ..........................................................

Across cultures and continents, people of lower status demonstrate defer-

ence to the person holding the higher status.

Status behaviour is about showing respect. Around the world people, in vary-

ing degrees, demonstrate deference to people who are older, wiser, and in

positions of authority. Usually, to show respect you put yourself in a lower

position to the other person. At other times you stand to attention to show

respect.

Within royal households, staff bow or curtsey when the monarch passes. In

the military the enlisted soldiers stand to attention when the commanding

officer enters a barracks. School students are taught to rise when an adult

enters the classroom and when the boss struts through the office the staff

straighten up. In Japan and other Asian countries subordinates don’t look

their superiors in the eye, whereas in Western cultures eye contact is the

norm.

Bowing, kneeling, and curtseying.....................................................

Bowing, kneeling, curtseying, and lowering the head are low status behav-

iours. By curling up the body and lowering it, you make yourself look small in

248 Part IV: Putting the Body into Social and Business Context