The Sounds of Silence

Language and Culture

"The Sounds of Silence," article is about nonverbal communication. While reading this article I actually learned that many cultures use different body language for different things/meanings. An interesting quote that my teacher Mrs. Castelli mentioned caught my attention. "There is no such thing as culture without language," she said. Which if you think about it that is really true.
Nonverbal language includes posture, gestures, facial expressions, costume, the way you walk, even the treatment of time and space and material things.
In different cultures or societies people use different ways of communicating that means different things. For instance, in white middle-class American culture they show they are listening to other people by looking right into their eyes. Also, alot of people nod their heads to show their paying attention or make slight noises. But when someone is ready to end a conversation they do alot of body shifting. As in stretching of the legs, crossing and uncrossing them, bobbing the feet, or looking away from the person talking. Then to really give a sign they look at their watches to end the conversation.
Most people will quickly glance at others then look away, but people from other cultures might think that staring at one another for a length of time is ok. To Americans this is unfamiliar and disturbing and they tend to look away.Men in different countries look at women differently. They really look at them: their eyes, hair, nose, lips, breast, hips, legs, thighs ... ect. Then when your in America no men every take more than a second to look at you unless their interested.
The most obvious use of nonverbal communication is eye contact. Some people can actually tell what your thinking by looking at your eyes. One example in the article is when people were looking a jewelry. The merchant kept telling the purchaser to buy a certain bracelet, but this bracelet was not the one they had chosen. By the merchant watching the pupil of the eye he really knew which one the purchaser wanted.
Also, study shows that when someone is really interested into something their pupils tend to dilate. Psychologist also say that the dilated a woman's eyes are the more attractive they are to men.
When someone gives you direct eye contact they want something specific such as a pickup or handout or information of some kind. But in the West alot of people look and greet on another even as strangers.
Another thing is people like their space, more known as a bubble. When others get too close we tend to tense up or back away. Sometimes we put things between us and the person who is invading their space. Also, your attitude affects the size of your bubble. If your angry your bubble expands. There are four main distances: intimate, personal, social, and public.
Then touch comes into communicating. Touching others on their shoulders breaks a sort of barrier between two people. Strangers have a lot of different ways of communicating.

Personally, I know I use alot of eye/hand communication to express how I feel. Especially when I'm explaining something to someone. Also, when I'm talking I feel more comfortable when the the person in which I'm speaking to is looking at me. It makes me feel that their really engaged in what I'm saying, and I find it rude for someone to look away or gaze at someone else when I'm expressing my thoughts. Another thing, in the article it mentions the sparkle in people's eyes. Most everyone had seen it happen with experience to someone else. When I say a nice thing to someone as in, "you look nice today," their eyes light up and they have a sparkle to show you have made their day.
The "bubble" situation can really relate to me, because I despise someone being to close to me. It's upsetting and gets me a little moody. I don't like to be crude but it's how I feel. Especially when I'm in a elevator and it gets overcrowded with people, and your shoulder to shouler with everyone. I'm a very closterfobic person, and feel I can't breathe when in small places with a lot of people.
Futhermore, I tend to glance at people for a second and look away just like most do. Like while walking the halls of the school I will look then look forward, or on a crowded bus many people look then have a tendency to look down at their feet.
Also, I have met many people from different countries. One in particular from Italy. After I got to know her everytime we seen eachother she did the two sided face "kiss/peck." At first it was very ackward for me, but I love how they are very loving to people.
I really enjoyed this article, it made me really look at the difference of the way people act simply by body language.

My Opinion: