Principals

The book has some very interesting principals when it comes to nonverbal communication. One of the principals that I found interesting was “Cultural norms and expectations guide the group.” I think this is important with dealing with other cultures, as we may interpret situations differently. For example, in the United States women are seen as close to equal to their male counterpart as one would expect. We believe that we can learn valuable information from any women. But in some less off, or third world countries, women are not seen as equal. In visiting Thailand, I observed that men were the ones in charge, and women were more submissive. Men seemed to be the operators of the business, while women ran the back office.

Another equally important principal is “It impacts the quality of relationships.” This principal is important because if we do not understand different cultures, then we can do more harm than good. The book gives a good example of people sitting next to each other. This can be good or bad depending on the cultural background of the person. A good example is that I usually sit by the door in classrooms. I’m not sure why, but I seem to always sit there. There may be another person that chooses to sit in the seat next to me. My decision to sit next to the door does not symbolize my liking for the person sitting next to me. I also will rarely move if the person has a quality that I find annoying or unattractive like bad breath or dirty clothes. Again, it does not symbolize I like the person, I just happen to like the location.

Another example would be a person who constantly comes to class late. I’m going to assume that people from the western hemisphere believe that the person is lazy. We believe that the person thinks they’re better than us, and does not have to show up to class on time. The issue could be that the person has trouble with a babysitter for their son/daughter, or travels from far away and cannot make it on time. The simple action of arriving late to class can be prejudged negatively without saying a word.

Henry