Verbal and Non-Verbal Messages

If culture is a lens through which we see the world, language is the means to communicate that world to others. Even so, language isn’t simply a tool for communication. Language, and all its variations—accents, dialects, argot, slang, etc—is also an expression of one's Identity. It presents information, at least in part, about who you are. It unites people but it can also divide or be used as a means of exclusion. 

When I was three or four years old my grandfather died. My aunts, who were going to school in the United states at the time, invited my grandmother to spend some time with them. They wanted her “to get away from it all.” My grandmother took me with her to the United States and we spent almost a year here. I gained new friends. I met family. I even went to school. It was a new experience. 

When I returned home, that too was a new experience. I had to adjust, especially in regards to the way I spoke. I remember  friends and classmates and even me own family making fun of the way I spoke. According to them, I’d lost my Statian accent, and I sounded like an “American.” Needless to say, I felt like an outsider, well, until I got my accent back that is. Obviously, the way we speak can influence how we’re perceived by others.

 Language can also be used to categorize people into groups according to age and/or gender. Take for example my mother. It’s hard to explain how freaked out my brothers and I get whenever our mom texts us using popular abbreviations or speaks to us using slang terms. Just thinking about it now freaks me out. Yeah, let’s not talk about that. I’ll just say it can get very awkward. Language and the way it is used emphasizes what is considered important in a culture. It reflects a culture’s values and beliefs.

“Although much of nonverbal communication is universal, many nonverbal actions are shaped by culture” (Samovar, Porter, McDaniel, Edwin, Roy, 2016). That is, culture teaches us how to interpret and make use of these nonverbal actions or messages. 

Nonverbal messages are more often than not done without a conscious awareness that they may mean something to other people. And sometimes the message(s) you had hoped to convey takes on a whole other meaning for someone else. Consider Zendaya, an American Disney star, who was visiting the UK. Pictures of her posing with fans surfaced on social media. In the pictures, she can be seen holding up the ‘peace’ sign, or what she hoped was the peace sign. Turns out she was actually flipping off her fans. As a  twitter user pointed out, in the UK, making a “V” with your index finger and middle finger with the palm facing towards you is an “up yours” gesture or the equivalent of a middle finger.  If she wanted to show the peace sign she should have done it with her palm facing outward. Here in the U.S., the peace sign means “peace” no matter which way your hand is facing.

The ambiguity of nonverbal messages (especially with the added variable of culture) may hinder people from accurately reading the nonverbal messages of other people. Imagine how Zendaya’s fans may have interpreted her “peace” sign had they not known what her true intentions were. Understanding the nonverbal language of a culture is useful because people use nonverbal communication as a substitute for words or actions, for expressing how they feel and what they’re thinking, and for communicating their identity. And just think, the more understanding you have of cultures nonverbal languages the least likely you are the flip someone off when you don’t intend to. 

I think It would be hard not to notice the many conflicting and controversial verbal and nonverbal messages found during the most recent US presidential election campaign. Just turn on the news, go on social media, youtube, you’ll probably find lots of videos. Right now, one thing that fascinates me though is the fact that we don’t know as much as we should about president-elect Donald Trumps. Who is he really? How will he lead? And that, to me, is one of the many conflicting messages to emerge from this US presidential election campaign. Trump’s entire campaign was run off of demagogic propositions. Some have said that the behavior of "Campaign" Trump isn't a sign of who president-elect Trump really is and that he will be more "presidential" once in office. But which Trump is the real one? Is he the demagogue that appealed to the uneducated "white" America, the “scam artist” or the compassionate and understanding "victory speech giver.” I hope it’s the latter.