Confusing Concept...

The most interesting section of the book was the section covering Object Language. This section initially caught my attention because it was more abstract, in my opinion, than the other sections leading up to it. The idea that the objects that we display, own, or reference in our communication have some reflection back upon us is interesting, and yet disturbing at the same time. I find it difficult enough to keep track of the flow of my message, the audience, engaging the audience, keeping from miscommunicating verbally, nonverbal communication, but now I also need to keep track of how the objects I interact with will also be interpreted? This seems a bit farfetched to my untrained eye. However, I’ll give the book the benefit of the doubt in that there is some relation. After some consideration and reading the section, I felt comfortable that only those who are educated in these object languages, will ever take them into consideration to begin with. Perhaps I should re-read this section at a later date and see if it makes more sense to me then.

Communicating with my Russian Friend.

An experience relating to nonverbal communication and hand gestures led to some interesting conversation one evening. I was invited over to a friend’s house for some evening entertainment, drinks, movies, hanging out chatting. The host of the party was a relatively new addition to my circle of friends, but I was told by one of my best friends that she was super friendly. Unbeknownst to me, the host of the party grew up in Russia until she was a teenager, and then she and her family moved to the United States. So when my best friend and I arrived, we were offered some drinks to which I gave the “thumbs-up” hand gesture. As I was involved in a side conversation I didn’t really notice that the host gave me a quite mean look at the time. The host was uncharacteristically rude and distant towards me for the remainder of the evening so much so that our mutual friend even asked what I might have did. It was at that time that she explained her interpretation of the hand gesture at the beginning of the evening which led much hilarity amongst our friends. We ended the evening talking about the different hand gestures that our two different cultures used to prevent any further miscommunications. I haven’t moved around a lot in this country, but I have travelled on occasion. In my experience, I haven’t had any hand gestures be misinterpreted as differently as the experience with my Russian friend. I think in a country as big as ours, we are often exposed to enough diversity that we tolerate different nonverbal signals.

Non-verbal Messages

Non-verbal messages can be very confusing, especially to those who have never attempted some level of understanding relating to how the conscious or subconscious body language presents itself. If someone who is speaking is aware of their body language, they can be attentive to their own body language to reduce the potential for miscommunication. I personally have been very wrong about the message that someone’s body language is conveying. The person I was communicating with was acting withdrawn, and it was very difficult to get any kind of response from the individual. Their body language was such that I felt that they just needed some personal space, and wanted to be left alone. Unfortunately, the person was suffering from a medium case of anaphylactic shock. The person was unable to respond due to their body swelling and their throat constricting. The person got my attention when I stated that I would give them their personal space, so no harm was done. The situation could have gone much worse. People can increase the accuracy that they interpret the nonverbal messages by studying and understanding certain body signals. Does the person have a nervous twitch? Do they just like talking with their hands? Additionally understanding some of the signals, and how they can be different from person to person is also helpful.