Friday, March 19, 2010
Speechless :)
Nonverbal ques are used by everybody around us. Most are done whether they are aware of it or not. There are many examples of nonverbal ques. These ques have many faces; they can be anything from a simple little gesture like a smile to something bigger like a shift with a limb or with your entire body. I have always taken notice to the different kinds of gestures that go with the different emotions and emphasis of words. Depending on the person and what they want to say with their body, eyes, facial expression, hands, stance or posture. There are even insignificant ones like something as little as a smile can represent a lot of things. It can be like a hello greeting, or used with one, a happy gesture or even a way to hide how unhappy you are. It can be used to hide your feelings either way this action shows a feeling without having to say anything at all. They are very good ways to help with talking to people. Other people use a lot of different gestures but there are a few that I know I use all the time. And they all have an emotion that goes with them, whether I do it purposely or not. Depending on the topic or issue my body alignment can and will always change. It will fit with my seriousness of the conversation. The more intense, or the more serious I need to be, the taller or more proper I stand, well I have better posture. I call it my “serious” or my “business” stance. Also I tend to “speak with my hands” as in gestures with size or different directions. I use them to show the severity or how strongly I feel about them. I also speak with my eyes or facial expressions. If I think your full of it I tend to have big eyes, or wide eyes. If I am confused I have a questionable look on my face, by questionable I mean like my eyes are squinted and even my posture reflects it. I tend to lean forward and turn one of my feet kind of outward. And to make it really easy I, most of the time, have my arms out sort of in the air with my palms up. Most people do this when they say what or something like that. Then I have a tendency to smile no matter how I am feeling. I am the kind of person that can hide behind a smile. I tend to send people the message that, no matter how bad my day was, I am happy and having a terrific time. My mom always told me to smile no matter how bad you hurt inside because you never want to show people that you can be hurt. So I am a tough kid because of that. There is on that I know I do but I am not very happy about it. I tend to play with my hair when I get nervous or anxious. I never knew why I did this but I used to think it was just cause I tend to fidget but I was wrong. But verbal ques are everywhere around us. I am very confident when I say that even you have at least one nonverbal way of speaking.
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Great blog! I like how you mentioned that nonverbal ques are also presented unintentionally along with being done on purpose. At times, we forget that there are human beings in front of us who also have emotional feelings and so we give off our expressions unaware of the consequence it brings. I like how you brought up the issue of hidden feelings because that does often occur. We use different forms of body language to show individuals different emotions however; I think it’s difficult to hide misery with a smile. I know that I wouldn’t be able to put on a happy face if I was depressed because it would just make me feel worse than my condition. I also find your stance (posture) interesting because I hadn’t thought about they type of emotion that would bring. After reading what you had to say, it does make sense to stand taller in a “business” stance when the information being presented is important. Your questionable look description made me laugh, not to be mean, because I do the same thing when I get confused. I get squinted eyes also and I hadn’t noticed that until you mentioned it. I would have to applaud your ability to hide behind a smile when times are tough because I am not capable of doing such a thing. It is very difficult for me to tell people I am feel good when I’m actually hurting inside. Well, all in all, I really liked your blog and it was enjoyable to read.
ReplyDeleteThis blog had awesome insight on the topic of Nonverbal Ques. I like how you gave specific examples of nonverbal ques that you use on a day-to-day basis. Many of the nonverbal gesture you mentioned I also use myself, like speaking with my hands or squinting of the eyes I also tend to stand a little taller and with more posture when I am serious mode. These gestures are important to everyday life because they are universal and it does not take a degree or a field study to understand these types of gestures in communication context. I especially like how you incorporated your moms teaching into this blog. My mom has always told me put a smile on my face for similar reasons. Weakness should not be shown, at any given moment to strangers or friends alike. I agree with you also, many of these non-verbal gestures are emotionally charged, and can change without a moment’s notice. I love nonverbal gestures and all the different emotions that can be expressed with them. Overall, I loved the blog, it was very insightful and on point. I got a real sense of how you react to certain situation just by the way gesture yourself.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting! I am surprised that you have similar characteristic as mine. You said, “I have a tendency to smile no matter how I am feeling. I am the kind of person that can hide behind a smile.” This is how I am tending to be usually. I am afraid of people think about I am in negative mode, and I do not want my people to get worry about me. So I usually tend to smile to cover this feeling. But, as you explain, there is some part I cannot hide the feeling because of other nonverbal cues play role to express my feeling. For instance, my face tends to smile but it does not really show natural smile, it is more likely awkward one. Therefore usually somebody who knows me catch that. I believe my tendency of hiding my feeling came from Japan where I grew up. There, many people believe that hiding their emotion is considerable thought based on the principal to making others feel comfortable. For instance, being sad is believed to offend others to make them feel uncomfortable. Or showing too much happiness bothers others if they are not in happy atmosphere. However, after living in Ecuador, I learned that showing emotion can be a good thing. Latin culture can be extremely opposite of Japanese culture when it comes to expressing emotion. Many Ecuadorian people are more honest to their emotion. After being in the culture for four years, I found right balance of expressing emotion in my opinion; when I am happy, I honestly should submit the fact, and when I am sad or mad, I do not have to make my face smile, just be natural, but with good manner. I realize that since everyone has emotion if he/she is human being. Thus I now think showing emotion is not necessarily bad; and showing emotion sometimes opens the door to others to be natural as well. Now I feel much more comfortable by being more natural to my emotion. But I still tend to hide my anger, this may be seen by my nonverbal cues.
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