Language and Culture: Hidden Aspects of Communication

The most obvious form of paralanguage is body language or kinesics . This is the language of gestures, expressions, and postures. In North America, for instance, we commonly use our arms and hands to say good-bye, point, count, express excitement, beckon, warn away, threaten, insult etc. In fact, we learn many subtle variations of each of these gestures and use them situationally. We use our head to say yes or no, to smile, frown, and wink acknowledgement or flirtation. Our head and shoulder in combination may shrug to indicate that we do not know something.

Test your knowledge of North American
body language. Look at the couple walking
together. What does it mean to be so close
with their arms around each other this way?
Could they be strangers?

Click the button to see
if you are correct.

While the meaning of some gestures, such as a smile, may be the same throughout the world, the meaning of others may be completely different. For example, spitting on another person is a sign of utmost contempt in Europe and North America but can be an affectionate blessing if done in a certain way among the Masai of Kenya.

The meaning of speech can also be altered significantly by tone and character of voice. In English, the simple sentence "I'm here." can have very different connotations depending on whether it is spoken with a voice that is high, low, quick, slow, rising, falling, whispering, whining, yelling, or sighing. Similarly, the sentence "Are you here?" has a different meaning if it spoken in an rising tone in contrast to a descending one. Give it a try...

When we speak to another individual or group, the distance our bodies are physically apart also communicates a message. Proxemics is the study of such interaction distances and other culturally defined uses of space. Most of us are unaware of the importance of space in communication until we are confronted with someone who uses it differently. For instance, we all have a sense of what is a comfortable interaction distance to a person with whom we are speaking. If that person gets closer than the distance at which we are comfortable, we usually automatically back up to reestablish our comfort zone. Similarly, if we feel that we are too far away from the person we are talking to, we are likely to close the distance between us. If two speakers have different comfortable interaction distances, a ballet of shifting positions usually occurs until one of the individuals is backed into a corner and feels threatened by what may be perceived as hostile or sexual overtures. As a result, the verbal message may not be listened to or understood as it was intended.

In Latin America, the comfortable (ideal) interaction distance for talking about personal topics is often significantly closer than among non-Hispanics in the U.S. and Canada.

Comfort in interaction distance mostly has to do with the distance between faces that are looking directly at each other. Most people do not have the same feeling about physical closeness if they do not have eye contact. In a crowd or an elevator, people usually choose not to look at anyone in order to avoid feeling uncomfortably close.

photo of Japanese adults avoiding eye contact in a crowd

Japanese avoiding eye contact in a crowd

The nature of the message communicated also affects interaction distances. Average comfortable distances Among North Americans are shown in the following table:

Distance Between Faces	Tone of Voice	Type of Message
very close (3-6")	soft whisper	top secret or sensual
close (8-12")	audible whisper	very confidential
neutral (20-36")	soft voice, low volume	personal subject matter
neutral (4.5-5')	full voice	non-personal information
across the room (8-20')	loud voice	talking to a group
stretching the limits (20-24' indoors and up to 100' outdoors)	loud hailing voice	departures and arrivals

Whispering and shouting generally get your attention more than speaking with a normal voice. Children learn this important fact at a very early age.

In addition to specifying comfortable interaction distances, culture tells us when and how it is acceptable to touch other individuals. In North America, culture generally discourages touching by adults except in moments of intimacy or formal greeting (hand shaking or hugging). This informal rule is most rigidly applied to men. If they hold hands or kiss in public, they run the risk of being labeled homosexual and subsequently marginalized socially. Similar culturally defined patterns of physical contact avoidance are found in most of the cultures of Asia and Northern Europe. In Southern Europe, the Middle East, and Latin America, much more physical contact usually is expected and desired.

Culture also tells us how to organize space in such a way as to control the nature of interaction. In North American corporate offices, for instance, the boss is usually physically isolated in a very separate private room. This tends to minimize his or her personal contact with ordinary workers. In contrast, Japanese offices commonly are set up with the boss's desk at the end of a row of pushed together desks used by subordinate employees. This maximizes his interaction with them.

A court room similarly alters behavior. In the United States, the judge usually wears a black robe and sits behind an elevated desk. The other desks and chairs in court are positioned so that all attention is focused on the judge. This intentional setting makes those present feel respectful and subservient to the judge, thereby making it easier for him or her to control the proceedings.

Culture also guides our perception of space by defining units of it. In the industrial world, space is divided into standardized segments with sides and position. Acres and city lots with uniform dimensions are examples of this in the United States. Our property boundaries are referenced to such segments of space. As the density of population increases, the importance of defined spatial boundaries grows. Land owners in densely occupied neighborhoods have been known to get angry enough to kill each other over disputed fence lines between their properties. In less dense rural areas of the American West, where people own ranches of hundreds and even thousands of acres, the movement of a fence three feet one way or another is rarely of consequence.

Culture tells us how to manipulate time in order to communicate different messages. When people appear for an appointment varies with the custom, social situation, and their relative status. In North America, if you have a business meeting scheduled, the time you should arrive largely depends on the power relationship between you and the person who you are meeting. People who are lower in status are expected to arrive on time, if not early. Higher status individuals can expect that others will wait for them if they are late. For instance, most people who have medical appointments are expected to arrive early and to wait patiently for their doctor to see them rather than the other way around. An invitation to a party is an entirely different matter. It is often expected that most guests will arrive "fashionably late." It generally takes a North American child at least 12 years to master these subtle cultural aspects of time. By 5-6 years old, they usually only know the days of the week, the difference between day and night, morning and afternoon, meal and nap time. By 7-8 years old, most can consistently use the clock to tell time. However, it is not until about 12 years or older that they begin to know the situational aspects of time, such as when to arrive at a party.

When people come together with very different cultural expectations about time, there is a potential for misunderstanding, frustration, and hurt feelings. This could occur, for instance, if a Brazilian businessman does not arrive "on time" for a meeting with a potential North American customer in New York and fails to give an apology when he arrives. For the Brazilian, time may be relatively "elastic" and the pace-of-life a bit slower. He believes that he was sufficiently prompt for the scheduled business meeting, having arrived within a half hour of the appointment. It is not surprising that he is astonished and offended when he is treated coldly by the North American who also feels slighted by what he perceives as rudeness. Compounding the situation is likely to be differences in their comfortable physical interaction distances. This dismal scenario can be avoided, of course, by foreknowledge about the other culture and a willingness to adopt a cultural relativity approach. The old saying "when in Rome do as the Romans do" is still good advice.

Throughout the world, clothing has multiple functions. It is used to provide protection from the elements. It also is worn for modesty, usually to prevent others from seeing specific parts of one's body. However, the parts of the body that must be covered vary widely throughout the world. For instance, the man from New Guinea shown in the picture would feel undressed in public if he did not have the narrow gourd sheath over his penis tied in an erect position. Throughout most of the rest of the world, this would be viewed as a highly inappropriate style of dress to say the least. Some clothing is worn to provide supernatural protection. Wearing a Christian cross or a St. Christopher medal often are thought to have just this effect. Wearing a lucky shirt to take an exam is also relying on supernatural assistance.

People in all cultures use clothing and other forms of bodily adornment to communicate status, intentions, and other messages. In North America, we dress differently for business and various recreational activities. Likewise there are styles of clothes that are worn to sexually attract others. There can be great subtlety, especially in women's clothing. It can communicate that a woman wants to be considered sexually neutral. On the other hand, it may be meant to be seductive, innocent but alluring, etc. Women in the Western World usually are much more knowledgeable of and concerned with subtle nuances in messages communicated by clothes than are men. At times, this leads to awkward errors of interpretation of female intentions on the part of men. Of course, clothing styles also are intended to communicate messages to members of the same gender.

Long before we are physically near enough to talk to people, their appearance announces their gender, age, economic class, and often even intentions. We begin to recognize the important cultural clues for this at an early age. The vocabulary of dress that we learn includes not only items of clothing but also hair styles, jewelry, makeup, and other body decoration such as tattoos. In most cultures, however, the same style of dress communicates different messages depending on the age, gender, and physical appearance of the individual wearing it.

What do the clothing, hair style, makeup,
and body language of the young woman
in the photo communicate to you?

Now think of a middle-aged businessman
with the same clothing, hair style, makeup,
and body language...

Do you have a different reaction?

Putting on certain types of clothing can change your behavior and the behavior of others towards you. This can be the case with a military uniform, doctor's white lab coat, or a clown's costume. For instance, it is likely that the Spanish policemen in the photo are more assertive and aggressive when they wear their uniforms. Likewise, others are more likely to follow their directions.

Most uniforms are consciously symbolic so that they can rapidly and conclusively communicate status. For instance, the ribbon, crown, and scepter leave little doubt that the young woman in the photo on the left below is a beauty queen. The ribbons and other insignias on the U.S. sailor's uniform can tell even a stranger about his status, authority, and military experience. Similarly, the unconventional hair styles and clothing of the English "punkers" are essential aspects of their uniforms. In all three cases, it is necessary to know what these culturally defined symbols mean in the context that they are used in order to understand what is being communicated.

There are many forms of body decoration other than clothes that are used around the world to send messages. These include body and hair paint, tattoos, decorative scaring and branding, perfumes, and even body deformation.

When children are very young, their bodies are still physically moldable to a degree. Some cultures have taken advantage of this fact to bind their head or feet. The result can be elongated heads and tiny stunted feet. When orthodontists put braces on teeth, they are essentially doing the same thing--deforming or reforming a part of the body to make it more attractive. Soft tissue can be altered as well. Holes in ears for decorative rings can be progressively enlarged over years with thicker and thicker posts so that ultimately huge spools, plugs, or heavy rings can be inserted (as in the case of the Dyak woman from Borneo shown in the photograph). This has been a sign of beauty among some indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica, South America, and Southeast Asia. The same thing was done to the lip in a few cultures of Africa and the Amazon Basin of South America.

When traveling to other societies, it is important to understand that there are likely to be significant gender differences in paralanguage in addition to distinctions in clothes and adornment. In North America, for instance, men generally prefer face to face conversations and maintain direct eye contact longer. In contrast, women often converse standing side by side but closer together than is typical of men. Male hand shakes tend to be firmer. North American women usually are more restrained in their use of bold gestures but use more facial expressions (especially smiles) and are more skilled in interpreting them.

In Japan, women most often speak with an artificially high pitch, especially when conversing with men in a business or official setting. This is part of the general deference traditionally shown to men. However, recent research indicates that the pitch of female voices has begun to lower. It has been suggested that this change is connected with the increased economic and political clout of Japanese women.

The human communication process is more complex than it initially seems. Much, if not most, of our messages in face to face contact are transmitted through paralanguage. These auxiliary communication techniques are highly culture bound. Communication with people from other societies or ethnic groups is fraught with the danger of misunderstanding if their culture and paralanguage is unknown to you or ignored.

To further explore these hidden dimensions of communication around the world, check out the selected bibliography.


Beauty queen		U.S. military insignia		English "punkers" in their "uniforms"


Typical North American Office		Typical Japanese Office