- Work with a partner and discuss these questions.
- Is it important to know and use body language? Why?
- Can we communicate without gestures? Why? Why not?
- Are the gestures and body language universal for all people?
- Now read the text and check youranswers.
Do we expect other cultures to adopt our customs or are we willing to adopt theirs? This might translate to how business or even foreign relations are to be conducted. Do we compromise or force others peoples to deal only on our terms?
We may not have time to hear a language, but talcing time to learn the signals is a powerful communicator. As the global village continues to shrink and cultures collide, it is essential for all of us to become more sensitive, more aware, and more observant to the myriad motions, gestures, and body language that surround us each day. And as many of us cross over cultural borders, it would be fitting for us to respect, learn, and understand more about the effective, yet powerful silent language of gestures. The world is a giddy montage of vivid gestures- traffic police, street vendors, expressway drivers, teachers, children on playground, athletes with their exuberant hugging, clenched fists and high fives. People all over the world use their hands, heads, and bodies to communicate expressively.
Without gestures, our world would be static and colorless. The social anthropologists Edward T. Hall claims 60 percent of all our communication is nonverbal. In that case, how can we possibly communicate with one another without gestures? Gestures and body language communicate as effectively as words- maybe even more effectively. We use gestures daily, almost instinctively, from beckoning to a waiter, or punctuating a business presentation with visual signals to airport ground attendants guiding an airline pilot into the jet way or a parent using a whole dictionary of gestures to teach (or preach to) a child. Gestures are woven inextricably in to our social lives, but also that the vocabulary of gestures, can be at once informative and entertaining... but alsodangerous. Gestures can be menacing (two drivers on a freeway), warm (an open- armed welcome), instructive (a police man giving road directions), or even sensuous (the liquid movement of a Hawaiian hula dancer).
Bear in mind that the following gestures are in general use, but there may always be exceptions. In recent years, Western and contemporary values and ideas have become more popular and has either influenced, altered, and even replaced, some of the more traditional gestures, understanding human behavior is tricky stuff. No two people behave in precisely the same way. Nor do people from the same culture all perform exactly the same gestures and body language uniformly. For almost any gestures there will probably be a minority within a given nationality who might say Well, some might attach that meaning to it, but to me it means... and then they will provide a different interpretation. In the world of gestures, the best single piece of advice is to remember the two As Ask and be aware. If you see a motion or gesture that is new or confusing, ask a local person what it signifies. Then, be aware of the many body signs and customs around you.
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: http://www.lengish.com
3. Read the text again aind complete the chart below:
| Many of us cross over cultural borders, it would be fitting for us... | to respect, learn, and understand more about the effective, yet powerful silent language of gestures. / |
| The world is a giddy montage of vivid gestures...and people all over the world use... | |
| The social anthropologists Edward T. Hall claims... | |
| We use gestures daily... | |
| The vocabulary of gestures can be... | |
| In recent years, Western and contemporary values and ideas have become... | |
| No two people behave... and nor do people from the same culture perform... | |
| In the world of gestures, the best single piece of advice is to remember the two As... |
Essential Vocabulary
| adopt [s'dDpt] | (-.); , |
| custom [ k,\stom] | , ( , ); , ( ) |
| Compromise [knmpre.maizj | 1) 2) , (, ) 3) , |
| shrink [frnjk] | , |
| collide [ laid] | , ; |
| myriad [mir.iad] | , , , |
| motion [' maojn] | , ; ; |
| gesture | d3es.tjbr] | ; |
| cultural borders | |
| montage [ irran.ta^] | ; ; ( , , ) |
| giddy [ gid.i] | ; , |
| vivid [ vivid] | |
| exuberant [ig'zjirbar.ant] | , , , |
| fist [fist] | , |
| hugging [.10] | |
| clenched [klentft] | |
| body language [ brtdi laMjgwid3] | |
| beckon [.] | 1) ; , (, ) 2) , |
| weave [wi:v] | , , |
| inextricably [in.ik'strik.a.bli] | ; , |
| entertaining [enta'teinit]] | , , , |
| menacing [ men.i.sig] | , , , ; ; |
| an open-anned welcome ['welkam] | |
| sensuous [ sen.sjuas] | , |
| precisely [pri'saisli] | , , |
| Interpretation [in t3:pri'teijh] | , , |
| confusing [ksn'fjuizii]] | , |
| signify [ sig.m.fai] | , , |
| sign [sain] | ; |
4.Use dictionaries to study the meaning of the following vocabulary items:
motion, gesture, sign, border. * i
1. Write out common collocations with them.
2. Find derivatives formed from motion, border.
5.Match the words with their definitions. There are two extra definitions:
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| 1. Adopt 2. shrink 3. menacing 4. custom 5. compromise 6. interpretation 7. vivid 8. signify 9. collide 10. myriad 11. beckon 12. hugging 13. clenched | a) intended to threaten or frighten someone b) an explanation of the meaning or importance of something c) having or producing very clear and detailed images in the mind d) to mean something e) to start using a particular way of speaking, thinking, or behaving that is not the one you usually use f) an extremely large number of people or things, especially one that is too large to count g) to signal to someone to come towards you h) to put your arms round someone to show your love or friendship i) closed tightly together j) something that people do that is traditional or usual k) a thing that forms an attractive combination with something else l) a person or company that buys goods or services m) to become smaller in size n) to find it impossible to agree about something o) a way of solving a problem or ending an argument in which both people or groups accept that they cannot have everything they want |
6. Fill in the blanks with words from the word-box. There are two extra vocabulary items:
| giddy | an open-armed welcome | body language |
| sensuous | fist | entertaining |
| hugging | montage | border |
1. The balled________broke brow like thunderbolt.
2. They drank the bottle of wine while the________heat of early afternoon made blinding freckles on the checkered luncheon cloth.
3. They decorated their walls with a________of personal objects.
4. She felt_________from the unaccustomed exercise.
5. ______and how-do-you-dos were pouring both at once on either side.
6. Develop confident and beautiful________.
7. Rushes greyv on the_______ of the lake.
7. Supply the necessary derivative/compound related to the italicized word the complete each sentence.
1. Entertaining Haughtiness is founded on the high dipinion we________of ourselves; disdain, on the low opinion we have of others.
2. Confusing I'm still a little_______about what happened.
3. exuberant Feeling that the______of her feelings had astonished Nicole, she hung her head.
4. inextricably Art and life are______.
5. weave Fresh or dried flowers can be_______into a garland.
6. precisely He is very________about dates and facts.
8.Paraphrase the following sentences using your active vocabulary:
- The process of defining alternative aims will highlight the choices and trade-offs that will need to be made.
- The speaker amused the crowd with some jokes tacked on to his speech.
- The speaker accompanied his angry words with forceful movements of the hands.
- We resort to adventurous hypotheses for explanation of this fact.
- He was fond of saying soft things which meant nothing.
- Our age is abundant with promise.
- I am sure you are quite pleased that you have managed to mix us up with your extraordinary affairs.
- In her mind, the two ideas are tightly linked.
- Will you be so obliging to show us the road to the nearest hotel?
- He changed the construction of the last phrase, though the thought remained exactly the same.
