6.9 Body Language- Touch数字时代的商务英语写作.pdf

Nonverbal Communication 6.9 Body Language: Touch Hi, everyone. Welcome back to our course. Now let’s continue with touch. Touch can be very different in different cultures. Since childhood, our culture has taught us how to communicate with touch. We have learned who to touch and where they may be touched. For example, there are different ways of greeting in different cultures. People may shake hands, hug each other, kiss each other on the cheek, or touch nose to nose. Even for the same kind of greeting, people in different cultures do it differently. For example, American colleagues usually shake hands when seeing each other for the first time and then shake again when departing company, while many European colleagues shake hands each time they see each other. The number of “pumps”, that is, the squeezes and up-and-down shakes in a handshake also varies among cultures. The Germans and French typically only give one or two pumps and then hold the shake for a few seconds. The British tend to give three to five pumps, while the Americans tend to give five to seven pumps. Besides hand-shaking, the Americans also hug a lot, either to greet someone or to say goodbye. Another example of cultural difference in touching behaviors is patting someone on the head. In some countries like the US, Korea or China, people like to pat someone, especially a child on the head to convey affection, but in Middle East or part of Asia, like Thailand, India and Indonesia, it is forbidden to pat someone, including a child, on the head because in their belief, the head is the most sacred part of the body. So when you are travelling abroad, make sure you know the taboos about touching. In conclusion, th