Nonverbal Communication A Universal Language English Language Essay

Nonverbal Communication A Universal Language English Language Essay Nonverbal communication is the way we talk, without talking, and whether it is realized or not, every human being in the world speaks this language. Non-verbal communication is an accent to the verbal part of language, and can be done in various ways. Although every person in the world expresses him/herself with nonverbal communication, it does not mean every person in the world speaks the same language. This paper will focus on several aspects of nonverbal communication that can be found throughout the world, and comparing those looks, gestures, body positioning and appearances with those typically found in North American. Appearance As previously mentioned, nonverbal communication is typically thought of as how an individual may look at others or gesture with their body, but generally speaking, the first form of non-verbal communication being projected, and subsequently translated, is that of an individuals overall appearance. Deciphering an individuals wardrobe is typically based upon previous experiences with individuals who have been dressed in a similar fashion. For example, while walking through a mall, one encounters a tall, lanky, high school teenage boy. His hair is black and brushed across his eyes. His complexion is pale, he is wearing very dark, baggy clothes in addition to dark eyeliner and heavy, metal face jewelry. Based upon someones previous experiences with this type of individual, they may immediately translate his appearance to mean, keep away from me; I dont want to talk with anyone and I am not your friend. However, another individual may have had different experiences with individuals dressed in this manner, and may be deciphering the non-verbal communication as, Im confused à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ I dont know where I am going à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ I need help. A persons previous experiences, may either cause an individual to avoid the teenager by either ducking into a random store or walk past quickly, while directing their to the floor, or contrariwise, look at the boy and smile, offering silent encouragement. It is unknown at this point whether or not this is an individual to be avoided or someone to be helped. Therefore, past experiences can have an impact on how one may perceive others, simply based upon how they are dressed. Understanding the different opinions that can arise from such a simple example as the boy in the mall, one might ask, Should we judge a book by its cover? The young man may actually have modified his appearance because he felt it made him look more attractive. He may have watched the Twilight movie series and felt this to be the way he should dress in order to attract the opposite sex. If this is the case, then we can expect to find similar appearance-altering practices in other cultures. Appearance-Altering Cultures As with the young man in the mall, there are many examples of appearance-altering behaviors in other cultures that may seem unusual or even bizarre to those in the United States (U.S.). Like the U.S., the appearance alterations performed within other cultures may be perceived as beautiful and possibly an indication of social status. A good example is that of foot binding in China, also known as Lotus Feet. Foot binding has been done for thousands of years in China, thought to be a means of keeping women from abandoning husbands and family. Binding begins with a baby girl, conforming her foot muscles and bones to be able to fit in very tiny shoes. Though the feet may appear small and delicate, the womans ability to walk is greatly inhibited and leads to medical complications later in life. This practice is still done in some parts of China today, and is thought to depict wealth and a delicate demeanor. Other examples of beauty include the Mangbettu women of Africa who have their heads very tightly wrapped during childhood, thereby elongating the skull; the Mayans who would strap boards on each side of childrens heads so that their skulls would be flattened; and finally, the Burmese women, whom put one-inch thick rings around their necks to make them longer. Based upon preconceived notions, cultural norms and possibly ignorance, it can be easy for individuals to misunderstand the non-verbal communication of appearance. It may not always be easy for people to remember that what may be foreign to those in the U.S. is another cultures normal. Gestures Almost everyone knows the story of President George H. W. Bush in Australia, in which he intended to make what is known as the peace sign in the U.S., toward people gathered to protest his visit. Unfortunately, he made the gesture the wrong way causing great furor in the Australian tabloids. Now this case was a simple mistake, but none-the-less a mistake. Gestures are not something to be taken lightly; the wrong signal at the wrong time, directed toward individuals of a different culture, could get you into some big trouble in a handful of countries. Gestures are the accent to verbal communication. Due to the fact that one wrong gesture could hurt you, I will give various examples of gestures from different cultures. I will describe their action and then their meaning compared to North American translation. In Ethiopia there are two gestures for silence. A woman will put one finger to her mouth when directing silence to a child, but will put four fingers to her mouth when directing silence to an adult. Four fingers are used towards adults because one finger is disrespectful. Another one-finger act is that of tapping the forefinger to the side of the nose. In some cultures, it signals secrecy or confidentiality. But in the United Kingdom, Holland, and Austria, if the tap is on the front of the nose it quite frankly means, Mind your own business. The OK gesture, it means okay right? In America and England, yes, but, in Japan it means money. In Latin American and France it is an insult, most commonly known as flipping the bird. In Australia it means Zero, and in Germany it may mean either a job well done or, an offensive insult, depending on which region you visit. In Turkey, if someone directs the OK sign at you, they are referring to you as a homosexual! The next gesture is one that is relatively familiar, the V for victory sign. In the U.S., the victory symbol was expressed by raising the index and middle finger in the form of V and bending the third and fourth finger to touch the tip of the thumb. This symbol was popularized by Richard Nixon in America. The V sign is considered rude in Italy and if you are showing the outside of your hand, then it is a form insult, which is established in Great Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand (Sengupta 2010). To beckon someone, is to signal them to come towards you. In America the beckoning signal is the palm up with all of the fingers together except the index finger. You then begin to make a curling motion with your index finger towards you. In China, Korea, Taiwan, Japan, and in the Philippines, that particular motion is used only for animals. In these countries, the beckoning signal is placing your palm downward and curls the fingers in a scratching motion towards your body. The crossed-finger gesture, (good luck in America) has several other meanings. In Turkey when the crossed fingers are directed to an individual it is the breaking of a friendship. In other cultures it is used to seal/swear an oath to someone. Each of these gestures we recognize and fully understand the gain, and consequences of their actions. But what we have learned is that little, to none of our gestures meant the same in any other cultures. Conclusion Nonverbal communication can be a tricky language to decipher. It is expressed in the way a person appears (dresses) and various body gestures. How this nonverbal communication is interpreted is generally based upon an individuals past experiences and cultural norms. Therefore, it is good advice for anyone seeking to make their livelihood as a communicator in a global marketplace, that they not only understand the nonverbal communication nuances of their own culture, but to educate themselves in the nonverbal forms of communication of other cultures.

Annotated King Lear Essay

In this article Neville’s key ideas are focused on the aspect of fathering. He makes connections between the fathering patterns of Lear, Gloucester and Cornwall. He starts with describing Regan’s reasoning for Edgars ‘recent behavior’. She states that his behavior is at the fault of King Lear’s 100 knights. â€Å"Was he not companion with the riotous knights that tend upon my father?†(2.1.94-95), which quickly becomes clear to everyone else that she does have a point, yet she is really just trying to rid Lear of his knights by placing the blame on them. Newman then shifts the focus to Cornwall who then realizes Edmund’s ‘loyalty’ to his father and almost immediately accepts him into their family, showing Cornwall’s foolishness by just accepting Edmund’s story without checking the verity of it. Newman suggests that â€Å"it is, perhaps his own lack of a son that blinds him to Edmund’s duplicity and leads him to, in effect, acclaim Edmund as his stepson.† (Newman, 191). Newman then brings up the irony in Cornwall adopting Edmund into his family. Edmund wanted to change the way society views bastards, that is why he came up with the plan to frame Edgar in the first place, and by having been accepted into a family by a member of this exact society, Edmund has achieved his goal. He then starts to make connections between the characters. Newman brings up the fact that Cornwall’s relationship with Edmund â€Å"†¦causes us to contrast his willingness to assume the told of father with the overall ineptitude of Lear and Gloucester as father figures.†(Newman, 192). He then brings up another connection between Lear’s concerns to recognize his daughter’s rights to his kingdom and Gloucester’s non-concern with his illegitimate son Edmund. He points out that Edmund was away for nine years therefor not being in contact with Gloucester nor Edgar for such a long period of time and yet Gloucester fully believes his story about Edgar. Newman says that this little knowledge of his family makes him a bad father and this â€Å"paternal failure parallels Lear’s† (Newman, 193). His closing paragraph states that the fact that both Cornwall’s and Gloucester’s eventual willingness to accept Edmund supports their parental ineptitude, which is a feature both men share with Lear. Adams, Robert P. â€Å"King Lear’s Revenges.† Modern Language Quarterly 21.3 (1960): 223. Literary Reference Center. Web. 14 Mar. 2013. Robert P. Adams â€Å"King Lear’s Revenges.† In Adams article he discusses King Lear’s revenges, focusing mostly on Lear’s revenge speech right before he heads out into a storm: I will have such revenges on you both That all the world shall—I will do such things— What they are yet I know not, but they shall be The terrors of the earth. (II.iv.281-84) He includes different personal views of King Lear from many different editors and authors; ranging in centuries from 1880 to 1950’s giving the reader a fascinating variety of different outlooks on Lear. He includes good and bad varieties as well, so it is not bias, such as the â€Å"Lear so confident in the ‘justice of his cause’ that he ‘need hardly formulate his plea’† (Adams, 223) view given from Chambers, a â€Å"Lear at the play’s outset ‘moved by injured self-esteem to anger which demands revenge’†(Adams, 223) reasoning giving by Campbell and Knights very different view of Lear, a more ridiculous Lear to which he wondered â€Å"’What could be more painfully incongruous, spoken†¦by an old man, a King, to his daughter? It is not far from the ridiculous.’† (Adams 223). Many other editors/authors that Adams refers to can relate to Knights view of Lear such as Leech, Hielman and Danby. Adams also includes Goneril’s view of her father as â€Å"Old fools are babes again†(I,iii.19). Adams states that â€Å"The view of Lear as impotent, absurd, even comic is most readily arrived at by those to tend (as do perhaps a majority of contemporary critics) to accept some version of Goneril’s Lear† (Adams, 224). Adams concludes that he does not agree with Knights statement that â€Å"Lear’s revenges provide us with a purgatory†(Adams 227) and sees Lear as a â€Å"great and heroic figure† (Adams,227). He also says that though Lear’s suffering he is â€Å"enabled in the end once again to accept and return the love he had earlier† (Adams, 227). Adams concludes that Lear’s revenges are to suffer and gain insight, â€Å"most of all into the nature of love as opposed to self-love.†(Adams 227). Reflection These two articles helped me understand and interpret many things about the play. In Newman’s article he made connections between the parenting patterns of three characters Cornwall, King Lear and Gloucester. I related to the connection Newman made between Lear’s concern with his daughters’ rights to the kingdom and how Gloucester spent his life denying and being embarrassed of his illegitimate son Edmund. Yet, the most enjoyable point in the article to me was when Newman pointed out the irony in the fact that both Cornwall and Gloucester finally accept Edmund. Cornwall didn’t accept him because he was a bastard and was frowned upon by society and Gloucester was embarrassed of his son. This showed me that this was not just a nice gesture by either man, which I had previously thought, yet really it was just an example of their gullibility and their lack of parenting skills. It showed me how both men were actually very stupid in making this decision because neither of them checked in his accusations about Edgar so see if they were even true. Newman also brings Lear into this, saying that the actions of Cornwall and Gloucester are parallel to those of Lear in the topic of fathering. These connections really made me see how each man failed in their own way to be good parents, and also how their parenting techniques were similar as well. Newman also wrote about the â€Å"satisfaction then, in seeing Cornwall, a representative of that section of society that has been concerned to exclude Edmund, willingly adsorb him and simultaneous hasten his own destruction.† (Newman, 192). This was one of my favourite lines in the article because I appreciate irony in literature, and I never fully saw the fact that Cornwall was a member of the same society that wanted bastards,like Edmund,to be gone. Yet he adopted him as a step son in only a few minutes. In Adams article I very much enjoyed all the different views of King Lear and his revenges; he added views of different people, and it was not just a long article about just his view of King Lear. This gave me many different insights of King Lear as a character. I affiliated with Campbell’s reasoning for King Lear’s revenge, that it was his injured self-esteem that caused him to seek revenge. I already had an idea like this because of how self-obsessed Lear is, yet I thought it was just out of pure anger for the way his daughters’ were acting, not because of an injured ego. I also never considered Danby’s reasoning/view of King Lear. He says that Lear returns to the first-scene mood where he â€Å"took himself to be God the rewarder of merits. Now he will be God the avenger of iniquities.† (Adams, 224). I genuinely like this reasoning and relish the way he said it because it almost makes you feel the same way Lear is feeling when he vows to take revenge on his daughters’. It is a very powerful and reasonable retaliation against his daughters’ that makes me think of him as a God in a way: I have given, and I will shall take away! In conclusion these two articles have helped me see three main characters in many different aspects and have helped me define and develop each character in my own personal way.

Similarities in Avalanches and the Government - 1088 Words

It is hard to walk down the side of a street without either seeing a newspaper hearing a radio commentator talking about the most recent national disaster or the newest countries now at war or assisting the war efforts of others. Governments around the world are working 24/7 to protect their ideals at any expense. If foreign governments threaten each other, they go to war. If any aspect of society threatens a government, a regulation or law is soon passed to correct the problem. As communication all over the world increases, and more important choices are made per day than any other time in history, governments all over the world have grown in power in an attempt to monitor these interactions and keep their ideals and power intact. This†¦show more content†¦Like today’s politics also, the snowflake isn’t going to come out of the avalanche and take responsibility for the destruction it started. The obvious difference between American politics and an avalanche is that governments are made of people capable of intelligent thought, instead of a mindless mass of snow. In some ways this makes modern governments even more dangerous. A mass of snow only has a single purpose, toppling trees and leaving a trail of destruction in its wake. Modern politics, however, can adapt. The human element of politics allows for ingenuity in overcoming obstacles as well as brute force. Ingenuity and problem solving have solved, or aided in the resolution of, harms such as sickness, military invasion, and natural disasters. Human thinking has allowed for developments in science, medicine, and education. It has also helped create nuclear weapons, guns, and corporations that eat up Earth’s resources at an astounding rate. The human element of politics makes it more powerful and resourceful, but it makes it that much more dangerous. 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Redefining Leadership Values Deficit Free Essay Example, 1000 words

It is quite important to note that the article to be considered is entitled Leadership Shortcomings: A Values Deficit and it has been written by Ritch, Eich. According to this article, there exists a wide leadership gap in today s workplace and many workers are discontented with their jobs (Ritch 36). Top-level leadership is devoid of standards of morality and concomitant personal conduct, ethical ideals, employee appraisal mechanisms, trust and commitment; this is an imminent danger to sustainable future economic growth. The article defines a real leader as one who occupies a decision-making position, whether formal or informal; real leaders and their followers jointly achieve the organizational goals and promote institutional performance (Ritch 37). In doing all these, real leaders are fair, honest and compassionate; this way, real leadership goes beyond the basic textbook definition. Real leaders follow eight basic essentials of effective leadership: they do not micromanage, the y have a central compass, they communicate effectively and they have a unique composition. In addition, they offer value and support, they know when to step aside, but are approachable and incisive. From this article, several lessons can be drawn to provide a template for the next generation leaders. We will write a custom essay sample on Redefining Leadership: Values Deficit or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/page On top of that, real leaders must embrace the selfless qualities of values-based leadership , be accessible, foster trust and demonstrate an endless commitment to helping others.