Basically, body language refers to any little movement of any part of our body which also conveys information during our communication with others. Different body movements may bear different meanings in different cultures. Some say that your body speaks much more loudly than your words speak. Bao Qingtian and SherlockHolmes, both are well known for their abilities to solve criminal cases, and their secrets lie partly in the sensitivity to the suspects’ body language. Now let’s deal with this topic from the following 5 aspects: posture, gestures, facial expressions, eye contact and smell.

1. Posture

Posture refers to the position in which you hold your body when standing or sitting. One’s distinctive posture can reveal his cultural background. Have you heard of the Asian squat? It’s when the squatter keeps their heels firmly planted on the ground instead of rising up on their toes. Most Asians can hold this position for hours while fewer than 5% of the population of the USA can execute this sitting position. In his book The Silent Language, Edward T. Hall gives us an example of some American prisoners of war during World War II. These Americans refused to bow to their Japanese captors because they felt it was a violation of their dignity. The Japanese thought this showed extreme disrespect and threatened the very foundations of life, thus these Americans received some needless torture because of their different understanding of this posture. 

2. Gesture

Gesture refers to a movement that you make with your hands, your head or your face to show a particular meaning. Gestures also vary from culture to culture. For instance, when we talk about peace or victory in English, we use the forefinger and middle finger to form a “V” with the palm facing outwards. But if you do it with the palm facing inwards, in England, Australia, and New Zealand, it becomes a very offensive gesture. There are also cultural differences regarding the amount and size of gestures employed during the communication. Generally speaking, Jews, Greeks, Italians, Middle Easterners, and South Americans are more animated than Asians, because most Asians assume vigorous action in conversations as a lack of manners and restraint. As we know, in many countries, nodding the head means yes or agreement, but do you know that in the Middle East, nodding the head down means “I agree” , while nodding the head up means “I disagree”. And in Japan, nodding the head can just mean the person is listening. 

3. Facial expressions

Human expressions of anger, disgust, fear, surprise, happiness and sadness are innate, intercultural and universal. But cultural norms often decide how, when, and to whom facial expressions are displayed. In many Mediterranean cultures, people exaggerate signs of grief or sadness. So it’s quite common to see men crying in public. While in the U.S, males often suppress these emotions. Japanese men even go so far as to hide such expressions by laughing or smiling. The Chinese are also not used to showing these negative emotions in public because of the Chinese concept of “saving face”. 

The whole world smiles, however, the amount of smiling and what the smile is communicating vary from culture to culture. In many countries such as the U.S, a smile can be a sign of happiness or friendliness. In the Japanese culture, a smile can mask emotions like anger, grief and disappointment or be used to avoid answering a question. In Korea, too much smiling is often seen as a sign of a shallow person, but in Thailand, people smile much of the time. 

4. Eye contact

The number of messages we can send with our eyes is almost limitless. Most studies, as well as our personal observations, tell us that culture determines the amount of eye contact. Westerners expect the person with whom they are communicating to look them in the eyes. If one fails to do so, he might be seen as dishonest, disrespectful or even suspicious of a crime. However, people from Latin American and Caribbean cultures avoid eye contact as a sign of respect. A story is told of a teenage Puerto Rican girl in a New York high school who was taken to the principal for suspected smoking. When the girl was questioned by the principal, she kept staring at the floor and refused to meet his eyes,which made the principal believe that she was guilty despite of her good record. As we know now, according to Caribbean culture, a good girl does not meet the eyes of an adult to show her respect and obedience. 

5.Smell

Is it amazing to you that smell also communicates a lot? In Feng Xiaogang’s movie “Youth”, the girl named He Xiaoping joined the military arts troupe with great expectations of being respected, but she didn’t realize that she had become a joke since the first day due to the bad smell from her body. Victor Hugo said, “Nothing awakens a reminiscence like an odor.” It’s very common for young Filipino lovers to trade small pieces of clothing on parting, so that the smell of the other person could arouse their affection for each other. Today, Americans spend billions of dollars to make sure that they smell good because they tend to feel uncomfortable with their natural smells while many other cultures regard natural odor as normal. 

This is a world what we say is all important, we hang on every word, but are we getting all the message? As a matter of fact, beyond the words lies a fascinating world of non-verbal communication --- time language, space language, paralanguage, and most importantly, body language. We pay so much attention to the words people speak, but remember, 93% of human communication is delivered through non-verbal means. Understanding non-verbal communication accurately, and you’ll look at the world through new eyes.