Nonverbal Communication and Culture

so learning a language or learning about language even is is kind of a tall order at times there's a lot of going a lot going on there's a lot of rules and uh you know vocabulary and things that you have to do and it can be a lot to take on and then you find out there's a lot to learn about nonverbal and you're like what non-verbal this is all even more vague and ambiguous and and and hard to get a a handle on and you're like oh man this is this is really getting tough and then though when we talk about non-verbal and culture and find out that different cultures have different not only different language but also have different nonverbal uh communication cues and traits and it's just like it's just whoa mind blown right the number of variables that are possible in in all these different cultures have all different kind of nonverbal cues and things and the ambiguity there it's just incredible so we need to try and reverse this this you know whole blowing of the mind and talk a little bit about non-verbal communication and culture okay so let's do that let's talk about non-verbal communication and culture we're going to specifically talk about the different kinds of nonverbal channels or codes um that you can have just in general the the categories that we have for these things and and how um how these kind of fit into culture and how we can adapt and adjust for culture based on these things kind of okay so numberal codes we're starting with here so we're starting with body movement or what we call kinesis right the the technical name is kinesic so um if we talk about body movement this is a whole category of things and so we're going to talk about a few things within this but body movement has to do with anything that has to do with your body starting with perhaps the number one most expressive feature of your body communicatively which is your face your facial displays are incredibly important we express a lot we wear our emotions right here on our face a lot of times right whether we're happy or sad about something whether we're irritated or bored or people can usually tell just by looking at your face and the good news is some of these are sort of universal uh but then when you get into like how do people smile and how much do people smile that varies from culture to culture some cultures if you smile just at random strangers you know in the United States maybe you think that's polite if you're smiling at people depending on where you're from I guess may be polite but in other cultures they may see that as kind laughing at them in some way so I mean they may not just smile at random people uh and this is not part of their personality so facial displays are are important non-verbal expressors but they can be different um from culture to culture now again a smile is a smile is a smile but how do we use that smile when when is it appropriate to smile and uh those types of things could vary from culture to culture so even our fa starting starting right off the bat our facial displays could uh could be very different from culture to culture as to how we should use them what's the most appropriate way to use them and to employ them another part of kinesics that we could look at are eye behaviors this is another really important um distinguishing characteristic for different cultures as we look at cultures around the world um for example some cultures very much see eye eye contact as an important aspect of you know in the United States we look at somebody are they maintaining eye contact we we deter use that to determine truth like is somebody telling us the truth if they're not looking Us in the eye then they're not telling us the truth truth or at the very least they're not paying attention or whatever but in other cultures it's you know kind of rude to just stare at somebody and just to have direct eye contact to maintain that steady eye contact is considered sort of rude it's just not something that they do so it's a cultural thing to not maintain eye contct at all times which is different for us but it's something we need to recognize that eye behaviors of course can be very expressive they're very important nonverbal indicator but what they indicate can be strongly influenced Ed by uh culture and it can be very different from culture to culture also things like postures and other part of kinesics you know what again what's appropriate what's not appropriate in terms of posture and how we how we hold ourselves and then also gesturing is another one um and this is true for individuals some people are very expressive with their hands and their gestures and things other people are not uh and the same thing is true for for cultures or are some cultures you know we think about Italian cultures often times are labeled um people who are Italian are often times um labeled with being very gesture heavy right or um classically um people who are um from a Jewish background tend to be portrayed as having uh uh more gesture gestures using that more um but you know but not always just depends on the individual too and then there are lots of people who are neither of those things that are also a very gesture heavy so but but culturally and then what do those gestures mean right when we when we hold up our hands in this way what does that mean you know if we were to give the okay symbol for example here in the United States I talked about this in another video this is this is the United States it means okay right I'm okay uh in another culture if you did that to somebody they would think you were calling them a very bad name or indicating something about them you know you're basically referring to them as as a part of your anatomy and it's not very nice at all um so it can it can vary from culture to culture what the gestures mean okay so we need be very aware of that um that gestures do have an impact not only on how people understand us but but culturally how they relate to us and uh and what those gestures mean what those different movements mean what the facial displays mean incredibly dependent on the culture and so we need to be very aware of those things another big one culturally in particular for non-verbal is touch how do we use touch as part of that culture and uh and how much touch is appropriate of course just in general there are different types of touch of course there's um there's a touch that you use for people um who are your loved ones when you touch them on the arm or you give them a hug or you know things like that and then there's the touch that you have when you go to your doctor and they're they're you know probing and checking things and you know that's a very clinical touch right uh so there's there's touch that's appropriate there's touch that's not you know we deem is appropriate or inappropriate and that all depends on context even here within our own culture whatever your cult culture is would depend uh there's there's appropriate and inappropriate touch but then if we expand that globally and look a little more at different cultures um we we know that there are are cultures that are just more touch heavy just in general not in an affectionate way necessarily in a or not in a not in a sexual way right but just as As a matter of of course of touching people uh T typically um cultures that um stand a little closer where their personal space is a little um smaller you know then than they tend to be more touch heavy it was a study one that that um researchers did just studying people at a cafe at cafes or coffee shops I found that in Puerto Rico the average number of touches in in that conversation per hour was somewhere in the range it was over 100 it's like 108 I think um but in England the average hourly is zero for example right so um it just depends on the culture the cultures us touch differently and so we need to be very aware of that as well okay that the touch is is very culture dependent and uh so um yeah it just has a large impact on on how we view touch and how we use touch and and all along those lines uh another cultural uh indicators par as par language or how we use our voice so again here we're not talking about verbal communication that would be like um the words that we use we're talking about how we use our voice then to express those words how loudly do we speak how what what rate do we speak um what kind of tone do we adopt um and that depends culturally as well I mean again culturally around the world but culturally uh from one neighborhood to the next you know um we find that the people who live in for example there's been research on on poverty and so people who live in generational poverty meaning extended long-term poverty that is extended through generations is not a temporary thing uh but tend to speak louder because everything tends to be louder they have their TV turned up louder and different for different reasons they tend to talk louder um and I grew up Ina was pretty quiet you was pretty remote so we didn't talk l so anybody who came through the area that talked loudly I could never understand that um but and often times it may have had to do with a poverty thing and that's a cultural thing as well so how we use our voice though will depend on on culture and so we need to understand that a lot of times these things aren't it's not a matter of good or bad or right or wrong it's just a matter of different and what's the norm for you and in your culture and and are there things we need to adapt to in order to be effective Intercultural communicators the way that we use our voice uh space or proxemics is a significant one right how close are we to other people physically what's the amount of physical space and then how do we use the territory around us in general um you know in the United States and and a lot of similar westernized cultures we kind of this idea of intimate space which is people like are are really close loved ones so parents children spouse people like that are in our intimate space which extends up to about a foot and a half anybody who's within that kind of bubble ought to be somebody with whom we we're fairly intimate um then we have a personal space that extends out to about 4 feet so between a 1 and 1 12T to 4 feet that's our personal space that's close friends uh and close acquaintances people that we're really comfortable with can kind of be in our personal space um without any issue but if it's a stranger in they in our personal space then it's a little different it's a little uh you know it's some more sketchy a little more concerned about that and then out beyond that we have then a social space and a public space for people that fall in different just a matter of how well we know these people and and how comfortable are we are and how far that bubble extends for this is again in the United States this just kind of a general it depends on from person to person but these are kind of our general limitations but if you go to some place like Mediterranean cultures so Spain Italy Greece those types of places you're going to see a much smaller personal space they're going to be closer to you when they're speaking right um so your personal space is going to shrink I'll just warn you as a Westerner if you go to some of these you know Mediterranean cultures or places like that that have um less personal space they're just going to be closer to you they're going to be probably within our wrist length in the United States we say Okay arms length that's personal space kind of or you know intimate space and comfortable personal space ought to extend from arms length and and then out in you know these types of places going to be kind of more of a wrist length right so almost like basically they could have their hand they could have their hand resting on your shoulder while they're talking to you you're going to be that close that's just the norm right uh and I will tell you somebody who's lived in that area and did live had an opportunity to live in that area it is amazing how quickly you adapt to that and it just becomes the norm and I I think I've said these videos before when I came back I'm from living in Spain specifically when I came back my friends were constantly like dude you have got to take a step back why are you standing so close to me it's just that's what I got used to the personal space was much smaller so that that proxemic say that personal space was just different for that person it can be different for individuals here in the United States too the classic Seinfeld episode about the close talker that you can check out but uh so personal space here in the United States can vary from person to person but then there are also of course cultures where the personal space is larger you think about a lot of East Asian cultures Japan um South Korea China those are places that have typically have more personal space between you know their personal bubble tends to be a little bit larger just as a norm so it really just depends on where you're at and establishing the norm and understanding what that is for that particular culture chronemics is another um nonverbal code that is very important again one we've touched on before in another video but we so you have Mon monochronic and polychronic cultures and this is a spectrum it's not an either or thing for for cultures or for an individual um but so monochronic though tends to view time as a a commodity and so for example here in the United States you hear the expression time is money and so very strict um view of and relationship with time so meetings start on time they end on time when somebody says this event starts at 8 you show up at 8 not 9 or somewhere around then or you know it starts at 8 it starts at 8 so you ought to be a few minutes early really that's a very monochronic view of time very rigid view of time polychronic cultures tend to have a little more relaxed view of time time is not a linear thing specifically it's more of a ribbon that kind of es and flows and and so they take a you know when you you know in your for example a lot of places again around the med training some of starts at 8 and it that means somewhere 8:30 Nish you know show up around then if you showed up at 8 you would be extremely early uh for something starting there so for anything in a polychronic um culture that would be the case so just understanding that that different cultures and different people view time differently as odd as that sounds to somebody especially from a monochronic society people view time differently and it's just something to understand um our physical appearance is something that we're going to um to look at as well we look at people and say you know I can really relate to people with this and we use physical appearance to express ourselves um with what we're wearing you look you know you walk along the street and you see people dressed in all kinds of different ways some more formal some less formal um some with you know may have colleges on their shirt or sports teams that they're supporting or bands that they want to you know advertise or whatever or or support with what they're wearing and and so our physical appearance though will be important to and then you think about things like okay well people dress differently in different cultures right around the world people just dressed differently and so how does that make you stand out I was just having a conversation with somebody the other day that said when I lived in Spain one of the things that was a dead giveaway that I was an American and people had no problem spotting me as an American because I wore a baseball cap everywhere which was not the norm there people didn't s wear baseball caps at all that style of of hat and so was a dead giveaway for me as a Westerner as as somebody from North America really so um physical appearance is another one though that's a way that we express ourselves and that we communicate non-verbally and culturally it's a way that we identify um both with cultures and a way that we stand out from other cultures artifacts are another non-verbal code artifacts basically is just stuff it's just things that we have and that we wear and that we that we use as again as a way to express ourselves it could be clothes it could be but it could be you know tattoos it could be um uh any things that we're carrying with us so for example if you're wearing a a shirt with the university on it that you're supporting that you're you know ostensibly saying that you're a supporter of that that's an artifact that you're a fan r or that you're carrying a basketball or carrying whatever that's an artifact these are things that we use to express ourselves to um non-verbally don't have to say anything um that I'm going to assume that this person is a Michigan fan who likes to play basketball and so because of the artifacts that they're using you know um we see this professionally we see doctors that that wear certain clothes right they wear scrubs and they have they have ID badges and they wear the the funny hats right or like I said people with you know tattoos and nose rings things those those types of things are artifacts that allow people to express themselves and sometimes it's both because believe it or not these two pictures are of the same person this is Dr Sarah Dr Sarah Gray from Australia and uh and she is self-proclaimed the most tattooed doctor in at least the country I think but I'm not sure about the world but uh but so um artifacts go along with this that so she has things that identify her both as a doctor but then identify her in other ways as well allow her to express herself in in other ways as well so um so artifacts are ways that we communicate non-verbally and express ourselves and identify things about other people environment is another non-verbal code uh we use the environment around us to express ourselves and uh to to express to identify what a situation is so even if you just think about like a workplace the comparison between like an open workspace as opposed to a cubicle farm right what does that tell you about that workplace and about the expect ation of those employees and and how they are to communicate and work together and and what the situation is um those are two very different workspaces and they communicate to very different things right so our environment and the environment that we establish as an organization for example but even as individuals then what's our work environment like that says something about us when we communicate non-verbally in that way uh and then things like our car if I were to take a ride in your car what would that tell me about you uh does it need a wash and does it you know would I have to sweep things off the seat in order to be able to sit down there or is it like pick and span is it like a museum in there right so our environment is another nonverbal code um and then the last one I'm going to really talk about here is is smell is another non-verbal code that we use it's the way that we again express ourselves in our in our expressive uh non-verbally it's called olfactics right so we use our sense of smell to identify things about people but also just to kind of um you know culturally but you know we identify what we like as a smell for example um different different cultures will use different smells and cleaning prod in United States you see lots of cleaning products with lemons because we identify that with cleanliness right for whatever reason lemons are clean for us so cleaning products aren't naturally lemon scented necessarily they add that because it's it's it's a signal it's a cultural thing that you know lemon is a good smell it's a clean smell it's for whatever reason tow it here in the United States that's why cleaning products are lemon scented often times right so uh but our smell we use this to express the ourselves non-verbally and and it's a nonverbal but that can be different from culture to culture what smells good here is not the same as what smells good in other places and so uh so that smell may be different the cleaning products in other cultures may be different uh it may have a different scent to the for that reason okay okay so I think the first thing we need to do after uh going kind of going all through all this is is just take a deep breath first of all I know this is a lot to take in not only is non-verbal a lot and these ch can be a lot and just thinking about all this can be a little overwhelming but then thinking about how again it's all magnified even more when you think about different cultures having all of this could be different in different cultures I mean it's hard enough to kind of get an idea of what the non-verbal signals are in your own culture let alone think about it being different for every other culture so take a deep breath it's not that bad it's a matter of studying it's a matter of uh of being conscien just these things and it really comes down to you know Malcolm gladwell's famous for talking about the 10,000 hour rule right 10,000 hour rule says that if you look at any kind of cognitively complex field from playing chess to being a neurosurgeon we see this incredibly consistent pattern that you cannot be good at it un at that unless you practice for 10,000 hours which is roughly 10 years if we think about four hours a day okay now I'm not saying it's going to take you 10 hours to really because we're not really trying to necessarily Master this in a way that we hope our neurosurgeon has mastered this but but we ought to be conscientious of these things we ought to work at it I mean it is tough it's rough it's it's but it's something we ought to work at because it's worth it uh if we're going to be competent Intercultural communicators we have to be cognizant of the fact that the that non-verbal communication is an important aspect of communication no matter where you're at uh and that nonble signals can be um varied from culture to culture and can be ambiguous and that can make things complicated but despite all of that it is worth it and it is important an important aspect of inter cultural communication to put in the time and the effort to be effective at and be willing to um to to grow in this uh this aspect of our communication skills if you have questions about nonble skills about um anything related to nonverbal communication really but specifically as it relates to uh in particular Intercultural communication please feel free to email me I'd love to hear from you there uh in the meantime I hope that this has helped you understand the importance uh of non-verbal Communication in culture specifically and why it's worth our time and effort to uh enhance our skills in this really really important area of communication