The Importance of Nonverbal Communication by Christel Faith Pacsi

Christel Faith Pacsi

The Importance of Nonverbal Communication

            The world is becoming more globalized and people have more chances to another country by TV, magazine and the Internet. Because of these useful things, we can learn about famous places, food and the general details about another culture. As a result,many people will travel to a different country to see what they saw in TV, magazines and the Internet. On the other hand, these things don`t teach us about the nonverbal communication that causes misunderstandings between people, like tourists and the local residents, but we forgot the importance of nonverbal communication. Why we forgot the importance of nonverbal communication? Why misunderstanding will happen? To find the answers to these questions, the difference of the nonverbal communication between Japan and Kuwait will be explored.

            Eye contact is a type of nonverbal communication that cause misunderstanding. In Japan, we look into the eyes of the person when we are having a conversation. However, some people can`t look long straight at the person who talks to them. This happens because they are shy and feel confused. Moreover, the situation become worse if they meet somebody for the first time. In Kuwait having eye contact during the conversation are fine to them in contrast to the Japanese. The meaning of changes when they are arguing. During an argument, people from Kuwait can`t have an eye contact with their parents or older persons. If they made an eye contact with the elder person in the argument, it would make them angry. This is rude and you are showing that you have no respect to them. When the people of these both country meets and have an conversation, probably the people from Kuwait will be disappointed. They doesn`t know why the Japanese are being rude to them. Also, when they see the Japanese having an argument with their parents, they will be shocked and be more disappointed. They think that Japanese don`t show respect to their parents. Japanese don`t have the same way to respect their parents during the argument. A big misunderstanding would happen because of the people in Kuwait don`t know that Japanese shows their respect in a different way. In addition, most people show their respect and love by greetings.

            People all over the world have their own nonverbal communication for greeting to show your respect and love. Americans like to shake hands or hug the person as a greeting. Even in Kuwait they shake hands or hug each other except for the person of a different gender. Even if you meet your friend of a different gender, you can`t greet them this way. These greetings have no problem if it is their family. They can shake hands or hug each other. When it comes to Japan, they don`t greet with shacking hands or hug each other. They greet with a bow to show their respect and love. In addition, they don`t hug their family like the people in Kuwait. Because they are shy, hugging isn`t the way they show their respect to their family. If people in Kuwait and Japanese meet and greet with their own ways, they would be surprised. Because of the difference they might think the person in front them doesn`t care for them or they are mean. The scary thing is misunderstandings will happen the first time they meet. If you don`t know the meaning of the movements, they might judge you as a mean person.

            Each country has a nonverbal communication when they eat food or drink. Every country has very important drinks in their daily life and they love it very much. Japan and Kuwait have these kinds of drinks. In Japan, they like drinking green tea and they like serving it to the people who visit their house. The Japanese don`t have nonverbal communication for drinking tea but in Kuwait they do. Arabic coffee is an important drink to people in Kuwait. They also like serving it to their guests. There is important meaning and rules to drink it. The first rule is when they carry the coffee, they have to carry the cup with their right hand. Why can`t it be the left hand? The big reason is the left hand has bad meaning and it is a tradition. According to this rule, it means that you can`t shake hands with the left hand if you meet people from Kuwait. The second rule is when the guest shakes the cup, it means "thank you" and there is another meaning that they don`t want another cup of coffee. If you don`t know this rule and you visit their house, you will be rude and you will also drink coffee  the whole time on your visit. The fun time will be awkward with this misunderstanding.

          Unlikely misunderstanding can cause negative thinking of people. When people become interested in another country they only focus on learning the language and culture. However, they think that all people have the same nonverbal communication as they do. That is why understandings will happen and make them disappointed. In contrast, misunderstanding can be positive when we accept the difference. Because of the difference of the nonverbal communication is the part if the culture.