China

China/Japan
Nonverbal communication includes facial expression, gestures and eye contact. This is important in China and Japan because the gestures we make in the United States is different than in China/ Japan. Gestures have been passed down generation to generation with slight changes, though the physical appearance may look different. Although gestures here have one meaning, it may be considered an insult to their country or vise versa. China is one of the largest countries in the world. In general, the Chinese have become more reserved with their gestures expressing their emotions.


 * Pro:** The language is difficult to understand or sometimes interpret, and it may take a long time to learn. By learning the gestures they use today, we can communicate the message. It may be easier to learn body movements to remember and use later on than to keep a mini dictionary in your pocket.
 * Con:** Gestures are changing throughout the word as fast as language changes. The meanings of the gestures are interpreted by how we speak, and how we want them interpreted. China especially is a hard country to know even the most common hand gestures and when to use them because it is such a large country. For example, showing the number four with hands. Those living in the Northern area of China use a different hand symbol than in the Southern part of China. Northern Chinese bend their pointer finger in half, while Southern Chinese hid their thumb. Japanese have many similar gestures as well.

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This graph shows the increase of China using speech to communicate vs. using gestures to communicate. There is a .4 difference.

Imagine that you are a visitor to China and you wish to talk to a friend who is not right near you. Imagine the volume of sounds that are all around you: others calling to each other, cell phones ringing, the chatter of friends and you want to speak to your friend across the road. What do you do? You use hand gestures to agree on who should go over to the other side of the streets. This can expand to signs of wanting to eat food and a long list of...[]
 * Article:**

[] [|www.l][|ing.gu.se/~biljana/gestures2.html#pos] []
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