跨文化交际学期论文--中美肢体语言异同的对比

The Comparison of Different Body Languages between American and China
Written by Weng Pei Ji
(2010212747)
From College of Law,
Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications
June 2012
Outline
1. Introduction
2. Classifications of body language
2.1 facial expression and eye language
2.2 gestures
2.3 Postures
3. Similarities of body language in Chinese and American culture
3.1 facial expressions
3.2 Sign language
3.3 Postures
4. Differences of body language in Chinese and American culture
4.1 Eye language and facial expressions
4. 2 gestures
4. 3 Postures
5. Conclusion
Reference
摘要：交流不是只有口语，还可以通过肢体语言。

肢体语言也可以表达情感，交流思想和交换信息。

然而，在过去很久时间里，人们只注重口语的重要性而忽略了肢体语言和它的独一性。

本文致力于中美肢体语言的对比，来减少交流中的麻烦，进行更有效的交际。

Abstract : The communication between people can not only through the spoken language, but also through the body language. As spoken language, body language can express feelings, exchange ideas and communicate informations. However, in a long past time, people only pay attention to the importance of the spoken language, and ignore body language and it’s unique cultural connotation. This paper focus on the comparison of different and similar body language between China and American so that people can reduce the communication obstacles and promote efficient communication.
Keywords :body language , cultural difference , China , American, communications
1. Introduction
Body language is a means to use the body movements or actions to replace or assist the sound, oral language, or other means of communication to communicate with others. A nd through people’s body language we can get some information about their own culture. Psychologists believed that the information delivered by a person’s appearance and actions is much more than t hat of a person’s words.Albert Mebrabian, after a long-time study, concluded that body language can help verbal-express achieve more effective communication. Body language can reveal people’s hidden mind and emotion, Bird Whistell who is the leader in study of body language in the west. He believes that among all means of expressing emotion and attitude, more than sixty percent is finished by facial expression, gestures, postures.
2. Classifications of body language
Psychologists believe that body language includes the following aspects:
2.1 facial expression and eye language
The face has been called an ”organ of emotion”. Compare with words, facial expression is a natural way to reveal person’s emotion. The face is the most simple and important broadcaster of emotion. For example , Eye behavior is an important part of facial expression. People often say that eyes are the window of soul, because eyes can give us a lot of real information. We can know whether people like us or not from the way they look at us .And through one’s eyes we can know whether the pay attention to our topics or not.
2.2 gestures
Everybody uses their hands to communicate with other people .People can convey ideas, information and message by using the movement and style of hands and fingers. What’s most directly, we use our thumb to praise other and use our middle finger to despise someone. When expressing doubt or helplessness, westerners like to shrug their shoulders and spread out hands, but Chinese people only wave their hands simply.
2.3 Postures
Posture can give others many messages. which is a matter of how people sit, stand, walk and move. From people’s posture, we can conclude something.For instance, when we see a person doesn’t stand up and tall, we say the person is not energetic, competent and unconfident. On the other hand, we can conclude that a person is not concentrated in what they are discussing if he standing lazily, and so on.
3. Similarities of body language in Chinese and American culture
First ,we discuss the similarities of body language in china and
America .For instance:
3.1 facial expressions
(1) Knit one's brows said he is unhappy ,you shouldn’t talk to him too long.
(2) Shrugged his nose means he don't like what he see or what you do. Gnash his teeth means he is angry or make up his mind.
3.2 Sign language
(1) The signal “V” means “victory” .When someone succeed or overcome
some difficulties , someone usually do this gesture.
(2) “OK” means “consent”. we often use it to show our positive ideas. And when someone don’t like your idea ,he just shaking his head and say “No”.
3.3 Postures
(1) When a man meet another man ,they generally shake hands to express their friendly.
(2) Waved hands means goodbye,Shrug one’s shoulders means negative, uninteresting. we use it to show that we don’t know when asked by others in our daily life.
4. Differences of body language in Chinese and American culture
Don’t understand body languages from different culture will bring about a lot of misunderstanding and conflicts. Therefore, it is of great importance for us to understand the body language in intercultural communication. For instance:
4.1 Eye language and facial expressions
American people have an old proverb: Never trust a person who can't look you in the eyes. While the Chinese people in conversation, the two sides are not necessarily time to time to look at each other, some people have also deliberately avoided continued eye contact to show humility, obedience or respect. This may be one of the reasons that the American people in China think Chinese are not warm and friendly; but also explain why the American people like to talk face to face, and the Chinese people tend to have a heart-to-heart talk. It is a habit of American people that the two sides look at
each other while they are talking, but they hate staring, because in their view this is a very rude behavior. American people find that they are as statues of rare animal camel being looked up and down, and the stare at them makes them feel very angry. However, to gaze at people in China, sometimes means only a curiosity and surprise, not rude.
4. 2 gestures
The implication of gestures is diversity, especially in cultural differences. Here we will take some gestures for example.
(1) American people with the thumb and index finger to form a circle, means “OK”, but in China the “O”gesture is often used to represent the “zero”.
(2) Indicate the number “3”, the Chinese people have thumb and index finger form a circle fingertips phase, the other three fingers stretched open; the American people straight index finger, middle finger and ring finger, little finger to thumb catch.
(3) The “V” gesture, In America, it means victory but not the number. In China, sometimes, people think that this gesture means the number “2”.
(4) American require a lift, the gesture is thumb-up when facing a coming traffic; in China, facing a vehicle, riders stretch one arm to the side, palm forward, make a “stop” gesture, or holding the right hand or both hands, say hello to the driver.
4. 3 Postures
(1) In intercultural communication, the presentation of posture also reflects the differences between Chinese and American, such as, according to
the Chinese tradition, the seated person is the dominator, so the young generations always give up their seat to the old. However, in America, it is quite opposite. Western culture emphasizes the “Ladies first”, so it is a courtesy that Ms. seated before the men pulled out a chair obligation to help them, and this is also a cultured, civilized performance.
(2) Moreover, in the classroom, the Chinese teacher questions, students usually stand up and answer the questions; in the U.S., students generally sit to answer the United States teachers.
(3) American people stood stamping their feet, means impatient; Chinese stomping, shows angry, angry, frustrated, and regret.
(4) American people are standing and walking with the posture of athletes and military, standing up tall, swaggering, big strides forward; in the eyes of Americans, Chinese with standard posture of scholars and civilians.
5. Conclusion
From the above, we have studied the differences and similarities of body language used by Chinese and American. We can see that body language cannot be separated from culture. In intercultural communication, we not only pay attention to the verbal language study, but also emphasize the study of body language. Body language is the signal and tool of human communication and human being has the same ancestors, so In order to make a successful intercultural communication, we should know the body language of different cultures.
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