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Lisa Davis-Where Do We Stand

The document discusses how body position and physical contact have different meanings across cultures and between genders. Maintaining eye contact, proximity, and intimacy through actions like holding hands carry different connotations in places like the US, Middle East, Asia, and between men and women. Understanding these cultural differences in non-verbal communication is important to avoid misunderstandings, especially in business and education.

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Arnav Shah
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599 views3 pages

Lisa Davis-Where Do We Stand

The document discusses how body position and physical contact have different meanings across cultures and between genders. Maintaining eye contact, proximity, and intimacy through actions like holding hands carry different connotations in places like the US, Middle East, Asia, and between men and women. Understanding these cultural differences in non-verbal communication is important to avoid misunderstandings, especially in business and education.

Uploaded by

Arnav Shah
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Where do We Stand?

Lisa Davis

In this essay the writer is trying to show how the body position can have

non- verbal communication. Though the position of the body, the people also

communicated their cultural differences not only between the countries but also

within the same country.

The people from middle east are been to make physical intimacy where

the Americans maintains a distance when a businessman of middle east steps

forward the Americans steps backwards as far as possible.

The difference of personal space is with in access. The male and the

female of the same location show different physical intimacy. The female would

like to come quite closer than the males.

The cultural differences can be seen in classroom environment the

American culture teaches the students to make a direct eye contact with the

teacher whereas the Asian student feel it as disrespect to the teachers. On the

other hand an American teacher feels it as insult if the students break of the eye

contact. Similarly, a Japanese unless fell quite uncomfortable when his

American partner deals with him informal manner.

Key points.
a) American use more eye contact than do the Japanese.

b) South Americans conjure at a close distance then do the northern Europeans.

c) Saudi Arabians show more physical contact than the Americans. They show

intimacy by holding hands walk in the street joining the hands but the American

hate it.

d) Men keep greater distance than the women and women tend to make more eye

contact than the man.

e) The Asian try to understand a person though sense perception and they go quite

close to a person but the Americans try to understand though gestures.

f) The Asian students show respect to the teacher by breaking the direct eye

contact with the teacher there as the western students maintains it through direct

eye contact.

Main theme

Where do you stand? Is an essay by Lisa Davis in which she is focusing

on the importance of intercultural studies, specially the location of the body? It

is obvious the meaning of the body differs from culture to culture group to

group with in a country even between the gender and so on. there is a greater

chance at misunderstanding about body position and consequently there is a

disaster in order to prevent the misunderstanding at the detail is necessary to

study inter-cultural practices.

In the present time the entire world has became a global village and we

people have earn inter-cultural practices to avoid he possible misunderstand,


specially the people of business world are prove to each misunderstand. They

have to deal with people from different world on might be showing the sense of

intimacy but the same manner might be unnatural for the other for example

holding hands is a sign of showing affection to the other in the eastern culture

but they looks really unnatural in American culture , similarly making on eye

contact with the teacher or concern person is a sign of respect in American

cultural Whereas it is a sign of disrespect in eastern culture underbelly if a

Nepalese student those to Americans classes he finds the classroom

environment really strange unless he is given the version of intercultural studies.

Therefore, unlike justifies that the need for inter-culture studies has

become an essential part in the modern situation specially with globalization. It

would be much easier for the people of alliance culture to appreciate the culture

of the other people of they know that keeping physical intimacy and despair

differs from people to people

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