Language Communication Comparison in Different Countries

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Language Communication Comparison in Different Countries

Abstract
The current paper provides a careful consideration of different communication customs
including verbal and non-verbal ones. Non-verbal communication is considered to be more vital
in socializing among people, thus, hand, vocal, and facial gestures, personal space, and
emotions are supposed to be crucial for interaction among people. The goal of the paper is to
trace differences and similarities of the communication traditions and customs in the USA,
Japan, and Indonesia, which represent three different mentalities.
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Language Communication Comparison in Different Countries
Language is a rather specific topic for any kind of writing. This fact can be explained by
a number of reasons, and one cannot single out which one is of greater importance and which
one is less important. Language is of vital importance for the existence of the society because it
is the phenomenon that differentiates human beings from other animal species on our planet.
Language was the factor that united human beings in their striving to live in a society and
became the basis on which the society was created. Without language, it is impossible to
imagine the existence of people on the Earth because human beings are social beings and
communication is their vital need. Throughout the history of the humankind, people have
invented a lot more means of communication apart from the verbal one, meaning the
communication carried out by language means.
Communication in Different Countries
Different countries of the world have different communication customs and traditions.
Usually, these traditions are based on the history of this or that country. Sometimes, they can be
based on the religion of a certain country or on the traditions of social and family life that are
considered to be appropriate and polite in this or that area. For instance, in some Asian
countries, it is considered to be impolite to shake hand at meeting or touch your partner in a
conversation in some other way because it is thought to hurt the dignity of that very person. At
the same time, in Europe and America, shaking hands is a sign of good relationships between
people because in this way, they express their respect to each other (Pease & Chandler, 1997).
Another instance is Muslim countries, where men can easily go along the street keeping hands
of each other, and this will be interpreted as those men are close friends. While in the countries
of the Western civilization, this gesture will be seen exclusively as those men belonging to
sexual minorities. The world is full with the examples of the differences in cultures and
communication traditions of various nations, and the United States of America also has its own
traditions and customs in communication, verbal and non- verbal.
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The USA
General.
According to the works of different scientists in the field of language and
communication, people spent over 60% of their communication time communicating in a nonverbal way (Pease & Chandler, 1997). Thus, non-verbal communication seems to be even more
important than the verbal one. The main components of non-verbal communication are
gestures, touchesб and proxemics. With respect to the American people, they are considered to
be rather sociable, but such component as touches is not typical for Americans. It is traditional
for Americans to be well aware of their proxemics and pay attention to the distance at which
people can approach them and the distance that is considered the “private/comfort zone”. In
spite of the fact that the Americans are rather talkative and sociable, their comfort zone is
approximately 30 cm. Another important peculiarity of non-verbal communication that can be
noticed in American nation is that they are “forward people”. This means that Americans
choose to face the difficult situation, especially the crowd of people. If some other nations can
resort to going through the crowd of people putting one of their sides forward, Americans are
considered to do it with their faces directed into the crowd (Axtell, 1993).
Gestures.
Among the hand gestures that are typical of American people, the following ones can be
singled out. Americans typically shake hands when meeting a familiar person, and it is always
very solid grip of the hand of another person. Another component of non-verbal communication
for Americans while greeting each other is the eye contact. It is considered strange when a
person does not look at the eyes of another while talking. In this case, they are considered to be
either shy or weak as a personality and not ready for communication and social life. Some other
hand and fingers gestures typical of Americans are the circle made of a thumb and a forefinger
while other fingers are raised upward to express that everything is good. A thumb is upwards
and the fist is closed, which is used to indicate that person supports or