Non-verbal communication

The significance of non-verbal communications is really high; certain researchers estimate the meaning of a message transmitted non-verbally up to 90%. However, there is no need to be a scientist to make the same conclusion, especially, when it comes to intercultural communications where we deal with different behavioral patterns.

All the three videos are full of non-verbal patterns that can be divided into the following categories (in fact, there are more than that but just to name a few): touch, eye contact, volume, posture, gestures, paralanguage, proximity. Some of them, like closing the lips with the index finger to call for silence or moisture in eyes, are universal and common for people regardless of nationality, gender, and age. The others are very peculiar and, I believe, specific to particular cultures, like raising the little finger with back of hand.

Two Greek men stay very close to each other: one, amused, with his hands in his pockets, constantly looking at his friend’s eyes; the other obviously persuading his friend with expressive gestures, speaking very fast, a bit rocking and finally even sticking out his tongue!

In the Brazilian adventure we see a timid lad who clears his throat just to be brave in face of a celebrity. But he was not so reserved in the car before, when the laughing girl touched his head: he spoke with raising inflection, surprised and amused. Later, in the room, they shook hands twice in an interesting manner. He lowered his tone when he started speaking Portuguese to the girl next to him, evidently, to clarify the situation with his inadequate English. Another interesting moment was then that girl pointed him with her index finger. I think this gest is not appropriated in other cultures, but I understood very easily what she wanted to say when she ‘touched’ her heart with the hand – to excuse her.

In the Arab movie, on the contrary, we see a much bigger distance between people and more formal way of communication. What I can highlight is that the M.C.’ behavior, in particular, his respectful posture with the angled torso inclined towards the singer and his manner of reading a poem – he did it like a mullah singing his prayers. From my point of view, the guests seem being treated more than just with respect, but as it should be in a high society.

All in all, I reckon that this theme is interesting enough to be learned more because language itself is not sufficient to communicate efficiently in international environments. I understood the context and the main ideas of all these three videos, even though I neither speak Greek, Arab, nor Portuguese.