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Abstract: The globalization endows the intercultural communication with extreme importance. Effective intercultural communication has become an indispensable part of success in international business activities. This article is intended to go into some essential nonverbal factors in different cultures.

Key Words: nonverbal, culture, intercultural communication

With the development of globalization, the amount of international business activities are increasing at an unprecedented speed. Effective intercultural communication has become one of the key factors to guarantee success in business arena. Therefore, it is essential to have a good command of intercultural communication skills, among which nonverbal factors take priority over verbal ones. Researches show that the majority of the meaning or impact of a message comes through nonverbal means, with only about 40 percent or less conveyed by words or sounds. Most of the time we are no more conscious of interpreting nonverbal signals than we are conscious of breathing. When presented with both verbal and nonverbal messages, we consistently find the nonverbal messages more powerful; when conflicts appear between verbal and nonverbal messages, we usually believe nonverbal messages because most of our nonverbal actions are not easily controlled consciously. This means that they reflect a person’s real internal states.

Verbal communication is very much culture-bound, as we know, and the same is true of nonverbal communication. Different cultures present different systems of nonverbal signs, and often endow the same sign with different meanings. Accordingly nonverbal communication can be easily misinterpreted. And the misunderstandings can lead to communication breakdowns and become obstacles to success in international business activities. Thus particular attention should be paid to nonverbal behaviors (hereinafter referred to as NVBs) in different cultures. In the following paragraphs will be discussed the most applicable types of NVBs.

Body Language

I. Eye Contact

In communication, eyes talk as much as do lips. Eye contact is universal, however, the ways of communicating with eyes shift from culture to culture.

The Arabs stare at each other for long periods when communicating. Prolonged stare is a sign of interest and truthfulness. It’s impolite not to face the communication partner directly. They hate talking to someone wearing dark glasses or while walking side by side. North American whites, the English people and the Swedish people expect the person with whom they’re interacting to look them in the eye. Such eye contact, they believe, shows honesty and confidence. In America, one who is reluctant to maintain eye contact is called shifty-eyed and can arouse suspicion. Hence, white Americans are prone to distrust Latin Americans, who usually avoid eye contact in communication as a sign of respect. However, in the U.S.A., some differences should be noted. For instance, two males who stare at each other like Arabs, in most cases, are homosexuals. The Navajos and the Hopi strongly dislike eye contact. The former consider it evil, sexual and aggressive; the latter, offensive. Similarly, in Mediterranean countries, people are accustomed to glancing at communication partners, instead of staring, which is perceived as a bad om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。