Part Three: The Basics

NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION -  A GLANCE

The "businessdictionary.com" defines communication as a two way process of reaching mutual understanding, in which participants not only exchange information, news, ideas and feelings but also create and share meaning. There are many different ways of communication but here we are going to focus only upon the major one. 

a) Verbal Communication: It involves the use of words in providing any messages. Words could be of any language and this kind of communication is classified into 2 parts, written communication and oral Communication.

b) Non-Verbal Communication: It is a process of communication through sending and receiving wordless messages. These Cues usually reinforce verbal communication, but they can also convey thoughts and feelings.

It is important to know that verbal communication  only plays a very small role in the process of sending and receiving messages. As you can see in the pie chart that only 7%(blue) of the total communication is verbally done. The major portion (yellow) is covered by Non-Verbal Communication. One more thing we should understand clearly that Non-Verbal communication and Body language are not the same thing. People often confuse it with body language but  non-verbal communication is a broader term. Body language or Kinesics includes facial expression, eye contact, body posture, gesture, overall body movements, tone of voice and others. But in non-verbal communication we look over  all the cues which can send a message like touch (haptics), distance(proxemics), appearance, action of looking while talking and listening, pupil dilation, blink rate, patterns of fixation, paralanguage etc,. One other major difference is that culture can affect body language but it cannot affect non-verbal communication.


In the next post we will put our first step in understanding body language. Along with that we will also know how body language of an Indian could be different. In future we shall also focus on how to improve your own body language so that you can present yourself in front of anybody with confidence.

Part Two: Perception

REALITY OF PERCEPTION

In my previous post, I discussed about Indian culture and languages and how it affects the personality of a being. In this post I am going to discuss one more significant aspect which can influence behavior and body language. This aspect is quite difficult for others to understand but if one could predict in what ways one uses this aspect then reading his non-verbal cues will become quite easier. This significant aspect is Perception. The general definition of perception is that, its a process through which humans translate sensory impressions into a logical and unified view of the world they are surrounded with. It is based on incomplete and unverified information. In general words, we can say it is the ability to see, hear, or became aware of things going around with the use of senses. 

Perception has the power not only to control one's thinking but it can influence others as well. Let me tell you a story related to perception. You must have heard about Aristotle, a Greek Philosopher who used to teach in the University of Pisa. He gave a theory about Gravity saying if we drop two objects of different sizes but of equal mass form equal height, the object of bigger shape will hit the ground first. Later Galileo proved that the theory of Aristotle is quite wrong. Objects of different shapes but having the same masses, if dropped from an equal height both object will hit the ground at the same time. But even after proving the same, University of Pisa didn't started following Galileo's but continued with the Aristotle's theory . The reason was Galileo was only able to prove his hypothesis but he was not able to perceive others. To read successfully someone's body language we first must understand how that person perceives others and objects around him.

As this blog is only about knowing the body language of Indians so here are some quick ways to understand perception of Indians. Well understanding one's perception totally is quite impossible, but you can definitely narrow down the lane if you know few things about that person. These points are as under:

1) Religion

2) Place the person lives

3) Religious Beliefs 

4) Any addiction 

Religion plays a key factor in one's perception. Every religion in this world is based on certain key foundations and these foundations are known as beliefs. For example, in Hinduism, Hindus believe in Karma, the law of cause and effect by which each individual creates his own destiny. In simple terms, what goes around comes around. Most people in India believes the same and this belief also affects people's actions.

People where lives also affects the perception. If a person is living in a well developed city surrounded with highly educated people then it will influence the way that person thinks. If the same person lives in a rural area then his thinking will also change. 

Religion and Religious Beliefs are different things. It is possible that a person being in a different religion can also posses religious beliefs of another religion or a person might not have any religious beliefs. So question is how religious beliefs can affects one's decision and thinking. Lets understand it with a very simple example. In Hinduism, people are not allowed to enter a temple wearing a footwear. It is compulsory to leave the footwear and enter the temple barefooted. Now, if a person doesn't have any religious belief then also he will enter the temple barefooted. This may happen because that person respects others beliefs or he is afraid of breaking the religious value or deep inside he also posses some religious beliefs which he deny all the time. 

The last factor which affect perception in Addiction. If a person is totally addicted to drinking alcohol then no matter what work he is doing he will always find a time gap to drink alcohol. And the same way it will affect his decision making skills and slowly those people who will oppose his drinking will get separated from his life.

Till now we discussed culture and perception. In my next post we will know what non-verbal communication is.

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Part One: Culture

CULTURE AFFECTS NON-VERBAL CUES

Namastey:  A customary greeting
 when people meet or depart

India is a country with a total population over 1 Billion and that results as making it an enormous valley of culture and diversity. Having a population over 1 Billion means having people with different views for the modern world. Some may believe wearing the western form of dressing is too taboo for the society and some people can also have various superstitious belief like if a black cat cross the street in then you should not cross the road first or else tides misfortune of and bad luck will shower upon you. This country has the power to baffle what a person believe and if you never visited India but planning to visit for the first time then you should know that you will learn lots of new beliefs and rituals one never could have imagined. 

"Angrezi mein kahte hai I love you, Gujaraati maa bole tane prem karuun chhuun, Bangaali mein kahte hain aami tomake bhaalo baashi, aur punjaabi mein kahte hain, teri to, haa, tere bin mar jaavaan, main tenu pyar karaan", this was the part of a famous Indian song explaining different ways of saying I Love You in different languages. I am grateful to the lyricist that he stopped after explaining I love you in four languages because if he had wanted he could have said it in several hundred languages as well. Yes, India is the home to several hundred languages. Hindi and English are the official language of India. Most Indians speaks Hindi. Other languages spoken in India are Punjabi, Bangla, Marathi, Gujarati, Konkani, Assamese, Manipuri, Telugu, Tamil, Dogri, Urdu and so on. One should know that the actual definition of Hindi is not just one language but a broad variety of Hindi Languages. The Hindi language is also known as the Madhya Language and it is a direct continumm spoken around Northern India. Every language has its own value and also contributes in the way a person could think as well behave. Many non-verbal cues can easily be understood if one knows the language very well. Body Language of an Indian is quite different as compared to the body language of an American. So, if a person tries to understand the body language of an Indian keeping in mind of an American or British then he could misread all the non-verbal cues.Indian culture is diametrically opposite to any other culture in the world. Like in other culture bride wears white dress during her wedding but in India a women wears white dress if she is a widow. Red color in western culture means energy, excitement, danger, anger, Valentine's Day or even Christmas (if combined with green) but in Indian culture it means wealth, love, beauty, a sign of a married woman, power, symbolizes fear and fire as well.

So, it is very important to know the culture and what language does the person speak to understand the non-verbal cues correctly. 

If you enjoyed reading the post then follow this link to know detailed info on Indian culture. " Culture India "

If there is one place on the face of earth where all the dreams of living men have found a home from the very earliest days when man began the dream of existence, it is India.

-Romain Rolland