Culture-specific Body Culture-specific Body Language That May Cause Language That May Cause

Misunderstanding or Misunderstanding or DispleasureDispleasure

Culture-specific Body Culture-specific Body Language That May Cause Language That May Cause

Misunderstanding or Misunderstanding or DispleasureDispleasure

Alvien Xia & Amy YangAlvien 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• Part four: Some suggestions to avoid

misunderstanding and Pedagogical Implications•

Part One: IntroductionIn daily communication, 30% of the information transmitted

through verbal communication, 70% of the information transmitted

through non-verbal communication.

Part One: Introduction• Body-language • One of the most important means

of non-verbal communication• Caused by ethnocentrism

•Part Two:•Culturally Different Body Language

Thumb-up

• China: “very good, well-done”• America: “call for a taxi or ask

for free ride”• Japan: “the number 5”• Germany: “the number 1”

• America: “Okay”• Japan: “money”• Brazil & Germany:

“vulgar or obscene”

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?

A Finger against One’s Temple

• America, Germany & Brazil: “I’m crazy now.”

• China: “I’m thinking.”

V-sign

• What do you feel about this?

What about this?

What about this?

Meanings of V-sign

• Usually victory • Also for telling someone like

waiters, the number of two people or

things.

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.

Vertical Horns

• America: A football team logo

Vertical Horns

• 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

Brainstorming • Why these different body languages

will cause misunderstanding?• Histories, living habits, geographical

environment, national characteristics, thought pattern, etc.

• All in all, culture divergence.

•Part Three: Theoretical Basis

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

Ethnocentrism• What is ethnocentrsim?• the tendency to believe that one's own race or eth

nic 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.

Ethnocentrism• Why ethnocentrsim?• Our limited experiences we have

already had are the basis for interpreting new experiences.

Ethnocentrism• It is natural to be ethnocentric, but

is it OK? • No.

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.

Part Four ： Suggestions for Misunderstanding Avoidance and

Pedagogical Implications

• Be conscious of reactions of all interlocutors

• Compensate through verbal language• Never overemphasize communicative

competence in second language teaching

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.

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

misunderstanding and Pedagogical Implications•

•Thank you for your attention