Transcript Monochronic Time

Session 4
Intercultural
Non-verbal Communication
What will happen?

Source: http://nonverbal.ucsc.edu/
When a woman's
personal space is
invaded by three
other people,
what will happen?
Flight isQUESTION:
the most common
response to
What?
spatial
invasions,
and
only
2%
of
the
 Every culture has rules about the
"invaded"
people
in proxemics
CORRECT use
of space.
The proxemic
(relating to the
study
space) rules
experiments
ever
sayofanything
to are
unwritten
nevertheir
taught-but they
are
those
whoand
invade
personal
space.
very powerful
The invasion is stressful for the
 a. She will ask them to sit somewhere else.
invaded, making an early departure is
 b. She will stare at the space "invaders"
almost
certain.
defiantly,
but she will not move .

c. She will leave, saying nothing to the
three people who invaded her personal
space.
What does this Japanese
gesture mean?
I’m
angry!
a. I'm scared like a bunny
b. I've been hearing things about you
c. I'm angry
No gesture has the same meaning!!
 there
is no 'international language'
of gestures. Instead, cultures have
developed systems of unique
gestures, and it is almost never
possible for us to understand
intuitively the gestures from
another culture.
1. Nonverbal Communication
Nonverbal codes refer to
communicative
messages which are not
in word form.
More than 55% messages
are communicated
nonverbally!
People turn to believe nonverbal codes when
they contradict the verbal ones!
Definition: (1)
 Non-verbal
communication refers
to “Metacommunication (beyond
the usual commmunication),
paralinguistics, second-order
messages, the silent language,
and the hidden dimension of
communication.” (Hall, 1959)
Definition: (2)
 Nonverbal
communication involves all
nonverbal stimuli in a communication
setting that is generated by both the
source and his or her use of the
environment and that has potential
message value for the source or
receiver. (Samovar and Porter, 2004)
Definition in Chinese
非言语交际包括在交际中认
为的和环境产生的对于传播
者或受传者含有潜在信息的
所有的刺激，简单地说就是
“不用语言的交际”，被称作”
无声的语言“。
Definition in Chinese
 非语言交际在人类交际中非常重要。
因为它最能反映一个人的情感或情绪
状态。
 一个人（或多个人）不利用言语形式
或只利用副语言形式所传达的信息被
另一个人（或多个人）接收的交际行
为。
Overview of Nonverbal Communication
1. Body Language
2. Paralanguage
• General
appearance
and dress
• Silence
• Gestures
• Volume
• Eye contact
• Facial
expression
• Posture
• Touching
• Pitch
3. Environment
Language
• Space
• Time
1.1 Body Language

Body language refers to all nonverbal codes
which are associated with body movements.

Body language includes gestures, head
movements, facial expressions, eye behaviors,
postures and other displays that can be used
to communicate.
(1) General Appearance and Dress
Concern with how one
appears is universal.
We make inferences (often
faulty) about another’s
“intelligence, gender, age,
approachability, financial
well-being, class, tastes,
values, and cultural
background” from
attractiveness, dress, and
personal artifacts.
狂野、不羁、个性、非主流、…
(1) General Appearance and Dress

Muslin girls usually wear scarves to cover their
heads, and in most instance, “girls are not
allowed to participate in swimming classes
because of the prohibitions against exposing
their bodies.” Modesty is highly valued among
Arabs.

Perhaps nowhere in the world is the merger
between attire and a culture’s value system
more evident than in Japan. “The proclivity(倾
向,癖性 ) for conservative dress styles and colors
emphasizes the nation’s collectivism and,
concomitantly(同时地）, lessens the potential
for social disharmony arising from
nonconformist attire.”
(2) Gestures

Do you know what the following gestures mean?
Number 1 is used together with the
verbal message “Let’s keep our
fingers crossed” in the United States,
England, and Sweden to mean that
the person is hoping for good luck.
But in Greece and turkey it means
the breaking of a friendship, and in
parts of Italy it means “O.K.”.
Number 2 is normally used
when talking privately about
a third person, meaning that
person is crazy, often in a
joking way.
Number 3 indicates “I have
no idea.” / “I don’t know.”
The gesture in Picture 4 means that
“I can’t / didn’t hear you.”
Number 5 means “That’s
enough. It’s all over for
me.”
In Picture 6 the
“thumbs down” sign
indicates “rejection” or
“refusal”, “defeat” or
“no good” or “bad news”
to Americans.
“Something is a bit
suspicious / odd here.”
“Come
here.”
Number 9 is widely used in
the US to mean “Great,
perfect, acceptable, O. K.” But
in Belgium and France, it
means “zero”; in Turkey, Brazil,
Greece, and Malta, it has an
obscene meaning; and in
Tunisia, it is used as a threat.
Number 10 is used in Italy to
say “Hello.” For Indonesians,
Malaysians, and some speakers
of Arabic, it signals “Come here.”
Number 11 means “Oh, I forgot.”
or an expression of surprise.
The gesture in Number 12 means
“Slow down, relax or wait a
second.”
Number 13 is used to show
that someone is a champion or
a winner, usually in sports. This
gesture caused a serious
international misunderstanding
in 1959. Nikita Khrushchev, the
Soviet leader, was visiting the
US and used this gesture,
which means friendship in
Russia. American newspapers
printed it on page one. And the
American people understood it
to mean the opposite: that the
Soviet Union would defeat the
US.
Picture 14 is one of the
few gestures which seems
to be used only in the US,
and many people feel it is
not as common as it once
was. This gesture is made
by moving one index
finger against the other. It
is usually used with
children. Or adults do it as
a joke. It means “You did
something bad; shame on
you.”
Fingers
Finger
In the United States, the index finger is
used to point at objects and even at
people.
 Germans point with the little finger
 Japanese point with the entire hand,
palms up
 In much of Asia, pointing with the index
finger is considered rude

Giving the Finger
Before the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, the French,
anticipating victory over the English, proposed to cut off
the middle finger of all captured English soldiers. Without
the middle finger it would be impossible to draw the
renowned English longbow and therefore be incapable of
fighting in the future. This famous weapon was made of
the native English Yew tree, and the act of drawing the
longbow was known as “plucking the yew” (or “pluck
yew”). Much to the bewilderment of the French, the
English won a major upset and began mocking the
French by waving their middle fingers at the defeated.
French, saying, “See, we can still pluck yew! ”PLUCK
YEW!“ Since ‘pluck yew’ is rather difficult to say, the
difficult consonant cluster at the beginning has gradually
changed to a labiodental fricative ‘F’, and thus the words
often used in conjunction with the one-finger-salute are
mistakenly thought to have something to do with …
(3) Eye contact

Thou tell’st me there is murder in mine eye.
---- Shakespeare

Your lips tell me no, no, but there’s yes, yes in
your eyes.
---- Musical ballad
How to read her heart from her eyes if
she says to you “disgusting”?
General guidelines

The eye contact in an elevator could be very
brief.

In a crowded bus, a subway or train, the proper
eye contact time could be some 10 seconds.

Only a lecturer or a politician addressing an
audience can hold eye contact as long as he
wishes.

Generally speaking, if you look at your
partner’s eyes from time to time while
speaking, you’ll be regarded as sociable,
friendly, confident and frank.

If you avoid eye contact, you’ll be regarded
as cold, distant, unconfident and not
involved in the conversation.
Direct eye-to-eye contact is not
universal
A teenage Puerto Rican girl in a New York
high school was taken with a number of
other girls to the principal for suspected
smoking. Although there was no proof of
any wrongdoing and although she had a
good record, the principal decided she
was guilty and suspected her. “There was
something sly and suspicious about her.”
he said in his report. “she just wouldn’t
meet my eyes. She wouldn’t look at me.”
Cross-cultural differences

USA vs. France & Italy
Many American women visiting France or Italy are
acutely embarrassed because, for the first time in their
lives, men really look at them ---- their eyes, hair, nose,
lips, breasts, hips, legs, thighs, knees, ankles, feet,
clothes, hairdo, even their walk. These same women,
once having become used to being looked at, often
return to the United Sates and are overcome with the
feeling that “No one ever really looks at me anymore.”
How about people in China and Japan?
(4) Facial expression
Look at the following pictures, try to tell who is…
1.
The most kind-hearted?
2.
The most
artistic?
3.
The most
smart?
1
2
3
Nodding is culture-specific
Case Study

通常我们说点头称是，摇头自然是表示否定。然而并不是
所有民族都如此。有一次，一位中国工程师给一群斯里兰
卡青年讲抽水机的用法，讲完之后问他们懂了没有？他们
都微微摇了摇头。工程师见他们摇头就又重复了一次，并
亲手示范表演。再问他们，得到的仍是微微摇头。工程师
刚要重复第三遍，正好在中国留过学的当地翻译来了，一
经过翻译一解释，工程师才明白原来在斯里兰卡微微摇头
是表示已经明白的意思。
－－（《当你踏上异国的土地……》,1986）
斯里兰卡人的习惯是：表示肯定答复或同意时微微摇头，表示
否定答复或不同意时使劲儿摇头，但在表示非常赞同、十分明
白时则还是要点头。
(5) Posture

A man and a woman met on the train platform.
Will the woman accept the man’s greeting friendly?
She won’t!
Man:
 “half smile” expression
 a relaxed position
 “snap” gesture
 body orientation
Invading
Woman:
 “frowning” expression
 “chin up” facial position
 “backing” posture
 Legs together
 Feet pointing inwards
protecting
You don’t just “ read ” others’
body language;
You observe, analyze and
interpret before you decide
the possible meaning!
Match the following descriptions with the
behaviors:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
The person is very relaxed, but he/she is
ready to move at any time.
The person is in deep thinking. He/she
thinks that may be a good idea and is
ready to move after the thinking.
The person is very glad to see the other.
Actually he/she thinks that person is
important.
The person is very confident. He/she
thinks he/she is more important than the
other.
The person has made up his/her mind.
He/she is very angry, but tries to control
him-/her-self.
The person determines to control his/her
feelings, trying to calm down.
The person presents him-/her-self as an
important man. But he/she tries to be
friendly to others.
D
E
A
F
C
G
B
Sitting or Standing?

In western countries, people who stand are
more important than those who sit (unless
there is a table between them), because the
former could control the latter.
Bowing in Japan

In Japan, mutual bowing is
largely determined by rank.

“bowing contest”

Bend slightly to one’s right

Becoming automatic
movement, e.g. bow when
making phone call
(6) Touching
•Jourard sat in coffee shops
in four different cities.
Whenever he saw people
touch, he recorded the
touch. His records are as
followed:
@ Sainthorn (Porto Rico): 180
@ Paris: 102
@ Gynswere (Florida): 2
@ London: 0
• Each culture has a well-defined system of meanings for
different forms of touching.
• Some generalizations can be made with regards to hightouch versus low-touch cultures.
• Americans, the English, Germans and Northern
Europeans are said to belong to low-touch cultures,
exhibiting very limited tactile contact in public.
• Hispanics (西班牙人), people of Eastern European
descents, Italians, the French, Arabs, and Jews are all
said to belong to high-touch cultures.
What’s wrong here?

Case study
One of the very common manners of touching
---- handshaking ---- may result in conflict when
performed with no consideration of cultural
differences. Among middle-class North American
men, it is customary to shake hands as a gesture
of friendship. When wanting to communicate
extra friendliness, a male in the U.S. may, while
shaking hands, grasp with his left hand his
friend’s right arm.
Once, a North American businessman visiting
Middle Eastern countries attempted to
emphasize the sincerity of his friendship in
this manner to his Saudi Arabian business
partner. However, the Saudi Arabian business
man was greatly displeased.
Why?
In the Muslin world, the left hand is
profane (亵渎的) and touching some one
with it is highly offensive.
1.2 Paralanguage (伴随语言)
• It refers to voice characteristics and vocal
qualities.
• Paralinguistics is the study of such nonsemantic aspects of speech as tone, volume,
pitch and tempo, pause and the like which are
together with verbal information.
• Our voice may be one of the most informative
elements in building up our images.
(1) Pitch
•
Pitch decides hesitation or emphasis.
• When one is excited, his/her voice
would be high in pitch, quick in rate, and
there will be no pauses between sentences;
• When one is sad or depressed, his/her
voice traits would surely be the opposite.
(2) Volume Control
•
The English always speak in lower voice than
Chinese when they make speech or a lecture, or
talking with each other, or phoning. But Chinese
often speak in loud voice in the aforesaid
occasions.
• American are more skilled in regulating their
voice volume and use very many different volume
levels depending on the size of the audience and
the physical environment.
(3) Silence
•
Silence can be longer between friends or intimates
than the strangers who have to converse.
• Chinese pay more attention to the function of silence
in the talking, and think that the pauses and silence have
rich meanings. -- Pregnant pauses
• Silence may have many possible meanings:
agreement--disagreement, thoughtful--ignorance,
consideration--inconsideration, secrecy, coldness,
submission, boredom and so on.
1.3 Environment Language
(1) Space
Marking your own space or territory:
@ towel at the beach?
@ coat or handbag on the seat next to you?
@ book in the library?
@ your own corner or chair in a shared
apartment?
@ curtain to separate your desk and bed in your
dorm?
•
Space includes the personal space and territoriality.
• Animals and human beings both keep watching
out to defend their territories.
• The territorial invasion of a country may lead to the
declaration of war. But people as individuals may not
be so pugnacious (好斗的).
• A more tangible form of communication between
people is the use and control of space.
a. Territoriality（领域性）
•
People erect flags, fences, and walls to
claim their territory. E.g. the Great Wall
• People may have public territories that are
open to all, such as a table in a library, a seat
in such public places as banks, post offices,
parks, or a parking lot.
• People usually use a marker to signal
his/her temporary ownership in a public
setting. (Markers may be a book, a school bag,
a suitcase that can represent personal
existence. The marker as a temporary
occupancy is valid as long as others respect it,
otherwise invasion may happen. )
• Researchers show that people may react in
several different ways. Withdrawal is the first
alternative in front of a violation.
b. Personal Space
•
The personal space is the portable territory
with invisible boundaries that expand or contract,
depending on the situation.
• In other word, we carry body bubbles
with us which are like invisible walls that defined
our personal space.
• What might be the factors that will affect
personal space of people?
•decisive factors : their gender, age, cultural
setting and relationship to their talking partners.
North Americans’ distance habit
 0~50cm:




intimate lovers and family members
>50~120cm: friends (personal distance)
>120~270cm: acquaintances (social distance)
>270cm: public space, not belong to oneself
Behind: strangers speaking from behind are
allowed to stand much more nearer.
• Some cultures simply do not think of
private, personal body space.
e.g. Sometimes, fifty Africans can crowd into
the same amount of space that holds only twenty
North Americans.
(2) Time

Time is a conception, a culture, and ways of
life.

Different cultures have different interpretation
and conception of time.

Americans say that he who hesitates is lost,
while we Chinese often say that think three
times before you act. (Think twice before you
leap.)
Time systems (Hall, 1976):

1)
2)
Do you still remember time orientation?
Monochronic Time (M-Time)
Polychronic Time (P-Time)
美国人类学家霍尔（Edward Hall）在《超越
文化》（Beyond Culture）一书中首次区分了
两种不同的时间观念,即“单向计时制”
（monochronic time）和“多向计时制”
（polychronic time)
Monochronic Time (M-Time)
It schedules one event at a time. In these
cultures time is perceived as a linear
structure just like a ribbon stretching from
the past into the future.
e.g. American People
“单向计时制重视日程安排、阶段时间和准时”,
认为“时间是线性的、可分割的，就象一条道路或
带子向前伸展到未来，向后延伸到过去”。
Monochronic Time (M-Time)

在我们看来，同时做两件事几乎有点不道德。”

持有这种时间取向的英美人士把时间看成具体实在
（tangible）的东西, 可以节省（save）、花费
（spend）、赚得（earn）、浪费（waste）、失去
（lose）、弥补（make up）、计量(measure）、 甚至
当成商品一样买卖（buy, sell）和拥有（have）。 美国
人特别强调把时间分割成不同的时段来安排活动,强调
守时, 严格按照日程一次做一件事情（do one thing at a
time）
Polychronic Time (P-Time)
P-time schedules several activities at the same
time. It is more flexible and more humanistic.
People from P-time system emphasize the
involvement of people more than schedules. They
do not see appointments as ironclad commitments
and often break them.
e.g. Chinese, Latin American, Arab and most
Asian cultures
Polychronic Time (P-Time)

霍尔还认为,“多向计时制的特征是同时进行
好几件事情”, 强调人们参与并做完事情,不
僵守预先安排的日程表。“多向计时制往
往被看成一个时点而不是一条带子或道
路”。多数亚洲民族持有这种非线性的时
间取向,做事不太严守时间日程,安排比较灵
活, 而且不把时间看得那么具体、实在。
2. Functions of
Nonverbal Communication
 Repeating
 Complementing
 Substituting
 Regulating
 Contradicting
Thank you for your listening!