跨文化交际文作程志浩.docVIP

The Body Language in Intercultural Communication Abstract: As a communicative tool, language is very important in many situations. However, body language also takes a complementary role to help people transfer information to improve communication, which will be an indispensable power to break up language obstacles in intercultural communication. In the 21st century, as the economic and cultural exchanging, all countries become more and more closely, there appear more obstacles of language and culture. One of the most useful ways to deal with the obstacles is to master the meaning of body language. Even the same body language has great differences in different cultural backgrounds. Key words: body language; obstacles; intercultural communication; different cultures 1 Introduction When a Chinese meet an American friend, would kissing each other be offensive for the Chinese? Does nodding head means “yes” and shaking means “no” in all cultures? I’m afraid nobody can give a positive or negative answer about the above questions, because the same behavior in different cultures has different meanings. Language is an important tool in intercultural communication, but not the only communicating means, when people talk with each other, there always accompany with some gestures and poses, which called body language. It is composed of body distance, facial behavior, and eye contact etc. So the study of body language should not only be the complementary to the study of language, but also can help us go out of misunderstanding zone in intercultural communication. The traditional culture and national spirit of every nation come out from specific culture environment. We must understand the specific meaning under their background of culture firstly, and then we can understand the meaning of body language under different culture backgrounds. The Definition of Body Language When talking about body language, people often think about standing, sitting, and lying. In fact,