Why Body Language Is Important?

When you learn a foreign language,you must learn more than the vocabulary and the grammar. To communicatesuccessfully, you must also learn the non-verbal language, or “body language”of that culture. “Body language” is a term used to describe facial expression,gestures, and other movements of the body that send messages. This means ofcommunication is so important that we may actually say more with our movementsthan with words.

當你學習一門外語的時候，你必須學習詞匯和語法以外的東西。為了能夠順利溝通，你必須學會那一文化的肢體語言。“肢體語言”是用來描述面部表情，姿勢以及其他傳遞信息的身體動作的術語。這種溝通方式很重要，因而我們實際上可能用動作比用話語表達的更多。
        For some messages, words are not enough. Speaking a foreign language issometimes difficult because we may not understand the non-verbal signals ofanother culture. For example, nodding the head up and down is a gesture thatmay communicate different messages in different parts of the world. In NorthAmerica, it means “I agree”. In the Middle East, nodding the head down means “Iagree” and up means “I disagree”. In a conversation among Japanese it oftensimply means “I’m listening”.

對于有些信息，言語是不夠的。有時候說一門外語很難，因為我們可能不理解另一文化的非語言信號。比如，上下點頭這一姿勢在世界不同的地方表達的信息也是不一樣的。在北美，這一姿勢意味著“我同意“。在中東，點頭表示”我同意“，而抬頭表示”我不同意“。在日本人的對話當中，它通常只是表示”我在聽“。
        Eye contact is also very meaningful, but it can also mean different things indifferent countries. In some Spanish-speaking countries, children show respectto an old person by not looking directly into the person’s eye during aconversation. In other cultures, looking into a person’s eye is expected. Forexample, if you don’t do it in the United States, people may think that you areafraid, embarrassed, or angry. In the Middle East, direct eye contact in aconversation is more continuous than in many other parts of the world. Peoplewho are not used to this may feel uncomfortable.

眼神接觸也很有意義，但是它在不同的國家也可以表示不同的意思。在一些說西班牙語的國家，孩子們在與老人的對話中通過不直視對方的眼睛來對對方表示尊敬。在其他文化中，人們期待別人直視眼睛。比如，在美國，如果你不這樣做，人們可能會認為你害怕，尷尬或者生氣。在中東，對話中直接的眼神接觸比世界上很多其他地方更持久。不習慣的人可能會覺得不舒服。