非言语交际中的body distance.doc

Intercultural communication, G0902What is a Proper Distance in Communication?I. IntroductionAs an English learner, its very necessary for us to grasp practical skills in communication. Among these skills, proper distance plays a very important role, and its also complementary to the study of intercultural communication. If we are not familiar with the knowledge of proper distance, we may make a lot of ridiculous mistakes, and even make ourselves awkward. Then we will give some basic and essential information about proper distance in everyday communication.II. Proper Distance2.1. Sense of SpaceIn terms of the sense of space, we can distinguish it in four distances kept by people in social situation: intimate, personal, social, and public. Intimate distance (0 to 18 inches): This is the distance of wrestling and lovemaking, comforting and protecting. Ones main ways of judging the intervening space are through body heat, smell and touch. And this is for peoples most private relations.Personal distance (18 inches to 4 feet): Personal distance is most common when friends, acquaintances and relatives converse. Here we lose the sense of body heat and could focus eyesight. The other person is about an arms length. People stand in this range are usually friends or aloes in relationship. Social distance (4 to 12 feet): Social distance often has been shown in people who work together, people doing business, and the phases communicating degrees of involvement and formality. Eye contact plays a vital role here, and we spend more time looking at each other at far than at closer ranges.Public distance (12 to 25 feet and beyond): Its generally for speakers in public. And most of those in conversation at social gatherings tend to keep a distance farther than any of the above. Of course it also depends on identity, location and the relationship between two speakers. Now, lets see how space works in Germany. Unlike in China, Chinese people pay less attention to their own space. Usually German regards space as privacy. In Germany, doors, hedges, fences, all these physical features of a German home reflect an emphasis on privacy. Furthermore, the sense of privacy is reflected not just in a house, but also in a small apartment. In German houses, doors are firmly shut between rooms to suggest the need for personal space and individual privacy. The ideal German house has an entrance hall that leads visitors into the house without showing specific rooms and spoiling the familys privacy. It is an honor to be invited into a German home, because this doesnt frequently happen to foreigners, who are usually viewed with suspicion. Pieces of furniture are heavy and placed far apart, so that personal space is maintained during conversation.But Germany is similar to many other northern European countries, including Scandinavian countries and England. In these countries, people living next to each other are not necessarily expected to interact unless they have already met socially. In northern Europe in general, personal space is quite large, and people remain at a distance. “Dropping in” is simple not an option. You are considered very rude if you dont call in advance to arrange a visit in countries like England, Belgium, Luxembourg, Finland, Norway, and Denmark. Even in Austria, where there is a customary visiting hour at 3:00 PM, you still must call in advance. Only in certain countries, for example Sweden, can you drop in unannounced and this can occur just in the countryside or at summer homes, never in city. In most of these northern countries, dont expect the grand tour of the hosts home.2.2. Sense of touchThe other part of this area is touch. Touch refers to the way people exchange information by touching ones body. The most common touch behavior is hands shaking and hugs. In China, people greet with each other with head nodding, smile, hand shaking and so on. Even good friends just hold hands for a short time or hammer softly on the other friends shoulder. As for hand shaking, people in North America do that when they greet with each other. As children, they have learnt to hold other peoples hands tightly. Nowadays, hand shaking has become a custom to show hospitality and friendliness in many countries. But the way of hand shaking is a little different. In western countries, people used to hug or kiss each other in public between males and females, which is unacceptable and only exists between lovers and couples in private in China. In America, common friends and acquaintances will avoid body touch. Even in the elevator, body touch is not allowed. Touching the other people slightly or unconsciously, people will say “Sorry”, “Very Sorry”, “Excuse me” in a hurry to express apology. Or they will be abused. In addition, research has shown that high- contact cultures comprise most Arab countries, including North Africa; the Mediterranean region, including France, Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain; and the Middle East, Eastern Europeans and Russians, and virtually all of Latin America. Men in much of Eastern Europe, Spain, Italy, and the Arab world will kiss when they meet their friends. Low-contact cultures comprise most of northern Europe, including Scandinavia, Germany and England; British Americans; and every Asian country, including Burma, China, Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. As Edward and Hall observed, “In northern Europe one does not touch others. Even the brushing of the overcoat sleeve used to elicit an apology. Compared to the rest of the world, Asian cultures have the least public touches. They are even regarded as the noncontact cultures. The appropriateness of touch varies with different cultures. Figures from a study offer interesting insight into this matter. Pairs of individuals sitting and chatting in college shops in different places were observed for at last one hour each. The number of times that either one touched the other in that one hour was recorded, as follows: London, 0; Gainesville, Florida, 2; Pairs, 10; San Juan, Puerto Rico, 180. These figures speak for themselves. (Robinett, 1978)In western countries, touch is generally avoided in conversation among ordinary friends or acquaintances. Merely touching someone may cause an unpleasant reaction. If one touches another person accidentally, he/she usually utters an apology such as “Sorry, Oh, Im sorry, Excuse me.”From above examples, we can easily find that the differences in touch can be showed in the following four aspects.Differ in amount: The amount of touching that people with different cultures can accept is different. People in high-contact cultures touch more than people of low-contact cultures. According to one study of touching in a coffee house, during a one hour sitting 180 touches were observed for Puerto Ricans, 110 for French, none for English and 2 for Americans.Differ in where：In different cultures, people touch different parts of the body in ritualistic c greetings and departures. Handshaking is by now the most popular greeting ritual. Other forms of touching such as hugging and kissing are common in South America, Italy, France, and Russia etc. among friends and acquaintances. In many Latin American countries, hand kissing is widely performed. There are some cultures behave in very particular way in greeting. For instance, Japanese bow to each other while greeting; and in Thailand, people place the palms together in prayer-like fashion and lower the head. Differ in who：.It seems to be a universal feature that one of higher-status could touch one of the lower-status. This could be understood in severa