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Culture-specific Body Language That May Cause Misunderstanding or Displeasure

Culture-specific Body Language That May Cause Misunderstanding or Displeasure. Alvien Xia & Amy Yang. Outline. Part one: Introduction Part two: Examples of some common body languages that may be culturally misunderstood Part three: Theoretical explanations for the misunderstanding

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Culture-specific Body Language That May Cause Misunderstanding or Displeasure

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  1. Culture-specific Body Language That May Cause Misunderstanding or Displeasure Alvien Xia & Amy Yang

  2. Outline • Part one: Introduction • Part two: Examples of some common body languages that may be culturally misunderstood • Part three: Theoretical explanations for the misunderstanding • Part four: Some suggestions to avoid misunderstandingand Pedagogical Implications

  3. Part One: Introduction In daily communication, 30% of the information transmitted through verbal communication, 70% of the information transmitted through non-verbal communication.

  4. Part One: Introduction • Body-language • One of the most important means of non-verbal communication • Caused by ethnocentrism

  5. Part Two: • Culturally Different Body Language

  6. China: “very good, well-done” America: “call for a taxi or ask for free ride” Japan: “the number 5” Germany: “the number 1” Thumb-up

  7. America: “Okay” Japan: “money” Brazil & Germany: “vulgar or obscene”

  8. Nodding Head or Shaking Head ? • Travelling in Turkey, if you want to show your agreement with local people, which one will you choose? • What about in China?

  9. America, Germany & Brazil: “I’m crazy now.” China: “I’m thinking.” A Finger against One’s Temple

  10. V-sign

  11. What do you feel about this?

  12. What about this?

  13. What about this?

  14. Meanings of V-sign • Usually victory • Also for telling someone like waiters, the number of two people or things.

  15. Misinterpretations of V-sign • When palm faces toward the speaker, it is an obscene insult version. • It is understood as ‘up yours’ or ‘fxxk you’ by the European, American, British, Australian and New Zealander. • But palm-face-in V-sign is not a rude sign to bartenders(男侍應）. They interpret the sign as the number of mugs of beer.

  16. America: A football team logo Vertical Horns

  17. Italy: Cuckold One’s wife deceives her husband by having sex with other. In 1985, five Americans were arrested in Rome for using this gesture outside the Vatican Vertical Horns

  18. Brainstorming • Why these different body languages will cause misunderstanding? • Histories, living habits, geographical environment, national characteristics, thought pattern, etc. • All in all, culture divergence.

  19. Part Three: Theoretical Basis

  20. Ethnocentrism（民族中心主義） • The Germans live in Germany, • The Romans live in Rome, • The Turks live in Turkey, • But the English live at home. 1909 nursery rhyme, J. H. Goring

  21. Ethnocentrism • What is ethnocentrsim? • the tendency to believe that one's own race or ethnic group is centrally important • judging other groups from our own cultural point of view. • a form of superiority in which you believe your way of doing things is the right and preferable way. • making false assumptions about others' ways based on our own limited experience.

  22. Ethnocentrism • Why ethnocentrsim? • Our limited experiences we have already had are the basis for interpreting new experiences.

  23. Ethnocentrism • It is natural to be ethnocentric, but is it OK? • No.

  24. Ethnocentrism • Perhaps no one can ever have complete understanding of another people, without fully experiencing everything they experience. However, this does not mean we cannot develop a functional understanding, to interact successfully with others.

  25. Part Four：Suggestions for Misunderstanding Avoidance and Pedagogical Implications • Be conscious of reactions of all interlocutors • Compensatethrough verbal language • Never overemphasize communicative competence in second language teaching

  26. Part Four：Suggestions for Misunderstanding Avoidance and Pedagogical Implications • Other things to remember: • Not all groups in a culture have the same characteristics; • Also be aware of individual personality.

  27. Review of the Outline • Part one: Introduction • Part two: Examples of some common body languages that may be culturally misunderstood • Part three: Theoretical explanations for the misunderstanding • Part four: Some suggestions to avoid misunderstandingand Pedagogical Implications

  28. Thank you for your attention

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