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en. The Japanese are taught to look at the neck because it is rude to stare at others’ faces. They consider prolonged eye contact extremely impolite, threatening and disrespectful. In Indonesia and Caribbean cultures, people avoid eye contact to show respect. In Korea, extended stare is rude, the lower-ranking person is supposed to look down first. In Muslim countries, eye contact between women and men is against conventions.

II. Smile

Physiologically, the action of smiling makes oneself happy; psychologically, smiling pleases others besides oneself. These explain why the whole world smiles. However, the stimulus, the amount, the occasion and even the implication of smiling are culturally bound. Without relevant cultural knowledge, on some occasions, one is likely not to please but to irritate others by smiling. In the U.S.A., smiling represents happiness or friendliness, which the Americans readily show. Greeting others without smiling is unreasonable and unacceptable; smiling at strangers is not unusual, which often disconcert people from other countries. S. Koreans regard too much smiling as a sign of shallowness. Hence, they usually look serious and don’t readily smile. It’s just the opposite in Thailand--“Land of Smiles”. The nickname is a clear indication that the Thais smile a lot. In Germany, smiles are reserved for friends. The Japanese, according to the anthropologist Edward T. Hall, are taught to control their emotions. In situations of strong emotion, it is considered acceptable to smile or laugh, but not to frown or cry. Accordingly, they smile not only when they are pleased or amused, but also to say “that’s none of your business” to hide expression of embarrassment, sadness and even anger. For them, smiling helps maintain harmony, which is of paramount value in Japanese culture. Smiling to alleviate tension in negotiation is advocated in Japan as well as in China, but it is not the case in America. Such behavior will better nothing but to irritate Americans more and even convey to them that you admit defeat, because the Americans believe that no one can maintain a mellow mood in argument or conflict so the smile is pretended and they hate pretence.

III. Gestures

Gestures are quite powerful communicating “tools”. Many people take it for granted that they can depend on gestures to communicate if language fails. But after decades of research involving eighty different cultures, experts conclude that “no gesture has the same meaning in all societies. The meaning even shifts from region to region within one culture”.[①]

For instance, the sign－ a circle formed with the thumb and index finger while the others extending－represents “OK” in the U.S.A, “money” in Japan and S. Korea, “I will kill you” in Tunisia, and “you are worth nothing” in France and Belgium. In Mexico, Germany and Southern Italy, it is obscene. The sign of “thumb up” is equally popular and culture–based. If you thumb up to a Greek, he will fly into a fury because Greeks regard “thump up” as a vulgar insult; to an American or a Western European, he/she will feel encouraged because in the U.S.A and Western European it means “good work” or “go ahead”. Another common gesture is that for beckoning .To find out the differences in some countries, I made a questionnaire among my overseas students. All the students are well educated and have full knowledge of their cultur本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。