4.2.2Different Ethnic Character Traits
The nation character is a comparatively jar less characteristic that is formed in the process of a long history of cultural development. This characteristic is like a bright brand. It makes each nation have their own characteristic and differentiation with each other. There is a huge contrast between Chinese and Western ethnic character traits, so their body language is also different. China is a proprieties country that has a long history, it is a country that the feudalism centralization of state power pattern and the tradition principal part culture are most fixedness and continue the longest. It make Chinese’s ethnic character traits careful, modest, follow crowd, continence, and think a lot of ceremony, ethic, and expression connotation and so on. In Western countries because of more up growth geographical traffic, different races in break and social status make the westerns abound in adventure, uphold autocephaly and peace, extroversion, assuredness, candor and voluntaries. Two different character traits bring on two different body languages. Western may be putting China’s modest, connotation as short of assuredness or self-contemptuous. Chinese may be putting western’s emotional exposure as arrogant attitude.
4.2.3 Different Social CustomsFolk-custom is a kind of special culture form, it is the sedimentation of traditional culture, it is a kind of cultural phenomenon that goes along from generation to generation. Body language and folk culture are closely correlation; it is a concrete expression of folk culture. Therefore, body language has special color of different folk-custom. Many of the early history of body language have been oblivion, but it doesn’t prevent new generation from using these body language. They accumulate in the folk custom and were retained, but many users were not aware of these body languages’ source. For example, the word “matzo”, this pose uses open palms extended to others face. This never means hostility to Chinese people, but this is an outrageous insult, ridiculed signal to Achaean. It originated in the Byzantine period; formerly it is an insulting action that people chuck feculence to prisoner’s face. Several hundred years ago, how modern Greeks do this action is to symbolically open empty hands, but the contumelious meanings is not changes.
V.The Use of Body Language in Communication
5.1The Differences of Exertion Between Chinese and Western5.1.1PosturePostures communicate just as language does. We have found that posture offers insight into a culture’s deep structure and reflects a person’s attitude toward people he is with. In many Asian cultures, the bow is much more than a greeting, and it signifies that culture’s concern with status and rank. For example, in Japan low posture is an indicator of respect. The manner of sitting, standing and moving can also communicate a message and reflect a certain culture’s lifestyle. As we know, in the United States, where being casual and friendly is valued, people often fall into chairs or slouch when they stand; and it is also common to see an American woman sit with her legs crossed even during public meetings. Whereas in many other countries, such as Germany and Sweden, where lifestyle tend to be more formal, such postures are offensive and are often considered signs of rudeness or poor manners.
5.1.2Eye LanguageThe eye, the window revealing what is deep in one’s mind, is full of rich expressions. Eye language (including sight direction and duration of eye contact), like other elements in body language, also has cultural differences. We have found that people in Western countries expect the person they are interacting with to look at them in the eye during a conversation; however, staring at people or holding a glance too long is considered to be improper in most English-speaking countries, even when the look may be one of appreciation, because it may make people uneasy and embarrassed. But Arabs, on the other hand, look directly into the eyes of their communication partner, and do so for a long period of time, as they believe such eye contact shows interest in the other person and helps them assess the truthfulness of the other person’s words.
5.1.3Touch
The manner of touch may serve as a reflection of that cultures attitudes and values. We find that cultures (e.g. German, English，Scandinavian) believing in emotional restraints and rigid status distinction will do very little touching as compared with cultures (e.g. Latin American, Middle Eastern, Jewish，Greek, Eastern European) that stress collectivism and outward sign of affection. And Kim observes, "Southeast Asians do not ordinarily touch during a conversation, especially one between opposite sexes, because many Asian cultures adhere to norms that forbid public displays of affection and intimacy".
Besides the variation in touch amount, types of touch preferred also vary among cultures different location of the touch (arm, leg, breast, face, and so on) may have different meanings, and each culture tells us precisely what it means when we touch certain parts of the body. Here are some examples. In Germany, women as well as men shake hands at the outset of every social encounter; in the United States, women seldom shake hands; in the Arab culture, men often greet each other by kissing and hugging. We have also found that some parts of the body are not allowed to touch in some cultures. For example, in Thailand and other places of Asia, the head is sacred and it is offensive to touch someone there. And in Korea, young people are socially forbidden from touching the shoulders of their elders.
5.1.4Distance
The proximal distance (Sometimes, we call it “personal space”) preferred by people of a culture dose not correspond to those preferred by people of other cultures. And people from different cultures have different ideas about the proper distance between people conversing. We have found that most English speaking people like the English, Americans and Australians do not like people to be too close unless there is areas on, such as showing affecting or encouraging intimacy. Germans, too, regard private space as sacred. The reason is that all these above cultures stress individualism. While in cultures such as the Greek, African, Italian and Arab, where privacy is less important, people demand less space. And in some Asian countries, it is quite common to see people shoving and crowing on buses and in most public places, which might startle the English speaking people greatil. Therefore, the lack of knowledge of cultural difference may lead to considerable misunderstanding.
5．2CountermeasuresCommunication needs both verbal communication and nonverbal communication. Body language is the important component part of nonverbal language, so the difference of body language between Chinese and Western will affect human’s common communication behavior, if people want to reduce or abstain the bad infection by these difference, it needs to advert these points here in after: First, conscious cognize the body language in your own folk culture. Second, comprehensively study the target culture and the nonverbal language in the target culture. Third, in the process of communication, people need adopt “empathy strategy”, spurn “the ism of national center”, “cultural bias” and “cultural patterns” and live up to “do in Rome as Rome does”.
VI. Conclusion
We can know from this article that body language is a really important part of cross culture communication. Those who have “learned” a language without including the nonverbal component are seriously handicapped if they intend to communicate with living members of other cultures instead of with paper and print. Insights in body behaviors as they affect communication not only increase sensitivity to other human beings but also deepen inevitably their understanding of their own body behavior systems. In order to really understand in cross-cultural communication, we must be able to “hear” the silent message and “read” the invisible action. Although there are some body languages shared by all men, every body language can enhance the force of verbal language communication, it can promote the integrity of the process of communication, and it also can fetch up yhe deficiency of verbal communication. Therefore, if people want to accurate and integrated express in formations, feelings, and communicate better, we must pay attention to the research and use of body language of cross culture communication.
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