“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.”(By Gary Imai)
Non verbal communication plays an important role in American communication just as much as it does for the entire world. Even though we all use gestures, they may mean something entirely different in another town or country. For example in the United States extending your thumb upwards would mean O.K. or your looking for a ride, but In Australia, if pumped up and down is an obscene gesture, and in Germany and Japan, the signal for “one.”
Another example of how one hand movement could mean one thing in one state in something else in another would be whistling, throughout Europe, whistling at public events is a signal of disapproval, even derision. Another gesture with different cultural meanings would be making direct eye contact, in places like Asia, Puerto Rico, and West India, it would be interpreted as being mean, disrespectful, or threatening. In America it would be a sign of curiosity, infatuation, or confusion.
Also Greeting are different between other cultures, for example in Korea “Among themselves, bowing is the traditional form for both greeting and departing.
Western and Korean male friends usually greet with both a slight bow and shaking hands. When shaking hands, both hands are sometimes used. Women usually do not shake hands, especially with men, but usually just nod slightly. The senior person offers to shake hands first, but the junior person bows first. However, shake hands with a light grip and perhaps with eyes averted.” (By Gary Imai)
There are many ways that people all around the world communicate without using words, like using their hands, head, legs, eyes, and posture
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