What are culture-specific ways of communication and why? - Space: the silent language

5 important questions on What are culture-specific ways of communication and why? - Space: the silent language

What did The Silent Language, Hall (1959/1973) highlight?

The relevance of non-verbal communication to interaction. It brought well-deserved attention to non-verbal stimuli such as space, time, touch, gesture, facial expressions, paralanguages and so on.

What is intimate distance?

The distance for close or maximum contact among close family members or in intimate relationships such as parents and children or lovers. This is the distance where vocalisations are delivered in a soft voice or whisper. 0-46 cm.

What is personal distance?

The distance for informal conversation between family members or relatives, friends or colleagues. Compared with intimate distance, the speakers are further apart and body touch is limited. Speech is louder, but remains casual. 46-121 cm.
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What is public distance?

The distance for the most formal occasions such as giving a speech to a group. Speech is loud in order to get attention and to be heard. The conversation style is formal with a careful choice of words and phrasing of sentences. 366 cm. and above.

Which aspect of non-verbal communication (NVC) may have potential cross-cultural variations?

Emotion recognition: each culture may have different expectations of when, how, where and to whom facial expressions are displayed.

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