Abstract:

This paper aims at providing information on what body language is and to state the importance of it in intercultural communications. People can have serious problems when interpreting body movements and gestures of people who belong to different cultures as they might not be aware of the fact that they have different meanings in intercultural situations. What one action means and reflects in a certain culture might be totally different or even offensive in another culture; therefore problems are likely to occur in these intercultural situations. Proximics is also important in non-verbal communications in relation to intercultural communications as it refers to the distance between the communicators which also should be mentioned when talking about body language. Gabriel and Raam (2007) state that the distance between two people communicates the type of relationship they have and this distance reflects different meanings in different cultures. Some of the main body movements and gestures include smiling, hands, pointing, looking, listening, head movements and feet and these are the ones that play a great role in intercultural communications. Therefore, the present paper includes examples to indicate the importance of these body movements and how they might lead to serious misunderstandings in intercultural communications.

Keywords: