Actions Speak Loud Than Words Analysis

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Actions Speak Louder Than Words The importance of verbal communication is a crucial part of life within your culture, but also across many other cultures. When interacting with someone from a different culture, it is important to understand the difference between how you view situations and how they view them. For example, silence or maybe just a simple thumbs up. Body language is grated meaning over a period of time within a society you live in. Cultures identify these gestures completely different across the world. The way we express our feelings through nonverbal communication leads to confusion and miscommunication across cultures. In the book, Language, Culture, and Communication: The Meaning of Messages, Nancy Bonvillain expresses that…show more content…
He states, “Silence can send communication signals. Silence in a particular situation may mean acceptance or agreement, and in certain others, indifference, apathy or even anger”, he explains (Patel, 2014, pp. 90-95). Silence is a strong use of communication. As an American, if I was speaking to someone and they didn’t say anything back instead just stood silent; I would feel very offended or uncomfortable. Bonvillanin explains, “Silence is an act of nonverbal communication that transmits many kinds of meaning depending on cultural norms of interpretation. Our tendency to describe silence as an absence of speech reveals a particular culture bias, implying that something is missing, but silence is a ‘something’ with purpose and significance” (Bonvillanin, 2014, pp. 35). Every culture has a different perspective on silence and behaves in a particular way according to their view on the situation. These differences and views on this situation, cause conflict across cultures because of the meaning we are affected by through our
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