Essay: Basics of Body Language

The goal of communication is to encode, send the message through a medium, let the person decode it and get some feedback. When it comes to body language there is usually a lot of confusion when dealing with other cultures. Decoding the grin on an American teenagers face by the American parents might be easy but when it comes to interacting with people from other cultures a set of general guidelines must always be followed. As previously discussed, the meanings of body language differ around the world and these should be kept in mind.

Assumptions shouldn’t me made when a person feels like they are getting mixed signals or negative feedback instead of a straight answer. Just like marketing, to be successful you have to have insight. Insight into other people’s way of behaving can help us be less judgmental of others and help us be more understanding. While traveling, we must adapt to the ways of the country and enjoy the experience and gain knowledge. (Sheng) America is a melting pot of cultures from all over the world therefore the issue of understanding others is very important. Usually people learn English or grow up speaking English fluently because they must live in an English speaking country but their cultural identity stays intact. Cultural habits are deeply embedded in people and are harder to change than a spoken language. To be efficient managers, to understand employees better, to diversify successfully or to simply understand someone else their culture must be understood as well.

Paul Ekman is psychologist who is well known for his research on facial expressions. “He has found that seven basic emotions — anger, contempt, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness and surprise — have clear facial signals. He has coined the term “micro-expressions” to describe ultra-quick facial movements that signal underlying emotions.” (Jayson) These seven emotions are expressed all over the world through beautiful prose and haiku. Stories are often written about just one emotion but nonverbally they have a huge impact. If a person is bored, sad, happy, angry or surprised it can easily be read of off their face. The best part about body language is decoding women. They say one thing but mean another. People are always are finding ways to understand women and the key is body language. For example, when a woman says everything is okay and shrugs her shoulders while she says it, she might as well be everything but okay. When a woman says she is not mad, but her face looks terrifying she is probably angrier than mama bear whose cub was messed around with. If a woman is crying it might that she is happy and if she is laughing she might as well be faking it. To communicate we must use words but silence can be a very powerful too.