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Unit 6
Culture and Nonverbal
Communication
Reading I
An Overview of Nonverbal
Communication
Comprehension
questions
1.
Can
you
speak
each
of
the
following
sentences
in
different
ways
to
mean
differently
1) She is my
best friend.
2) Youve done really good
job.
3) Come here, please.
4) Thats all
right.
Speaking
the
same
sentence
with
the
stress
on
different
words
may
mean
different
things.
For
instance,
if
the
stress
falls
on
“
she
”
in
the
first
sentence,
it
means it is SHE, not you or somebody
else, that is my best friend. But if the stress
falls on
“
my
”
,
it implies that she is MY, not your or
somebody
’
s best
friend.
2.
Speakers
of
British
English
use
loudness
only
when
they
are
angry,
speakers
of
Indian English use it to
get the floor, a chance to speak. So when an
Indian speaker is
trying to get the
floor, what would the British speaker think of the
Indian and what
would the British
behave in response
The British speaker may think that the
Indian gets angry with him or behaves
rudely towards
him, so he
may complain about the Indian‘s rudeness or even
return
his rudeness as a
response.
3.
What differences in body language use have you
noticed between your Chinese
teachers
and foreign teachers
There
are
really
some
differences
between
Chinese
teachers
and
foreign
teachers in their
use of body language. For instance, Chinese
teachers in general do
not use gestures
as much as foreign teachers do, and their facial
expressions often
seem to be less
varied than those of many foreign
teachers.
4. Do
you know any gestures we often use that might be
misunderstood by people
from other
cultures
For
example,
the
way
we
Chinese
motion
to
others
to
come
over
might
be
misunderstood by people
from some Western countries to mean bye-
bye.
5. How do
we Chinese people use eye contact in
communication
During
a
conversation
between
two
Chinese,
it
seems
that
the
speaker
and
the
hearer would usually look at each other (not
necessarily in the eye) from time to
time. How much eye-contact there is may
depend on the relationship between the
speaker and hearer and the situation
they find themselves in.
6. How will you eye them when you are
communicating with people from the United
States or people from Japan
While
talking
with
Americans,
we
should
look
directly
into
the
eyes
of
the
person with whom we are talking.
However; while talking with Japanese, we are not
expected to look at them in the eye
but at a position around the Adam‘s
apple.
7. Do you
often smile at others Why or why not
It depends. For instance,
it seems that we Chinese, as well as people of
other
Eastern Asian countries, do not
usually smile at strangers as much as
Americans.
8.
What
function(s)
may
laughter
serve
in
our
culture
Does
it
sometimes
cause
intercultural
misunderstanding
Laughter
in
our
culture
may
serve
various functions.
Sometimes,
it
is
used
to
express
amusement
or
ridicule,
and
sometimes
it
is
simply
used
to
make
one
feel
less embarrassed.
9. Do you often touch
others while talking with them Whom do you touch
more than
others
We
Chinese
generally
do
not
often
touch
others
while
talking
with
them
unless they are our intimate friends or
younger children.
10. In small groups or in pairs,
demonstrate all the possible ways you can think of
to
greet another person. Is touching
always part of a greeting
No. Touching is not always part of a
greeting in our culture as in some other
cultures.
11. Will you apologize if you
accidentally touch other people in public places
Why or
why not
Many
people
will
apologize
if they
accidentally
touch other
people
in
public
places since in our culture people who
are strangers to each other should not touch.
However,
whether
people
will
apologize
or
not
depends
on
the
situations.
If
a
person accidentally touches a stranger
in a very crowded place, he or she may not
apologize for it.
Reading II
Gender and Nonverbal
Communication
Comprehension
questions
1. What may often
happen to those who do not conform to their
cultures accepted
gender
“script”
There
are
often
severe
social
penalties
for
those
who
act
in
violation
of
their
culture‘s
accepted
gender
―script.
2.
Does
touch
have
any
connotation
in
different
situations
Can
you
give
some
specific examples
Touch, like physical
closeness, may be considered an expression of
affection,
support, or sexual
attraction. For instance, in some cultures, it may
be all right for
women
friends
and
relatives
to
walk
arm-in-arm,
dance
together,
and
hug
one
another, but if men do
so, they may be frowned upon, for it would be
considered as
having the connotation of
being homosexual.
3. What will possibly happen to a woman
who is appreciably taller than the man