Disavantage of non-verbal conversation in English

Nonverbal behavior plays an essential role in communicating due to itsbenefits. However, body language can not be free from the disadvantages in a number ofareas. Individuals will encounter with the dissimilarities of meaning in differentcultures, as well as the limitations in public situations and long conversation. First, one of the ubiquitous issues that people run into when usingbody language is the misunderstanding in various cultures. Although nonverbalcommunication is universal phenomenon, meanings of these cues are not thesame. Eye contact is an example of misapprehension when individualscommunicate to others in variety of countries. In many Asian cultures, avoidingeye contact is seen as a sign of respect. However, those in Latin and North America consider eye contact important for conveying equality among individuals. In Ghana, if a young child looks an adult in the eye, it is considered an act ofdefiance. Another cue exemplifying this situation is gestures. Gestures can conveywildly different meanings. Individuals in the United States use the “OK” sign toconvey that something is acceptable. On the contrary, in Japan, the same handsymbol means “money. ” Argentinians, Belgians, the French and the Portugueseall use the symbol to mean “zero” or “nothing. ” Still other countries in easternEurope consider that same sign an offensive swear. Clearly, typical signals thatpeople use every day cause major misunderstandings depending on where andhow they are used. Next, the second disadvantage is its limitations, especially in longconversations and in pulic. In fact, non-verbal expression is used at the same time with verbal communication, it is not popular to exercise and maybe all thelisteners do not prefer such means of communication. In long conversations suchas discussions, debates, formal speeches. . , non-verbal cues cannot express theparticular issues of the messages. People can easily mislead others by using somesymbols that don’t match with their mental status. Therefore, the importantmessages in long conversations may be missed and distorted. It is also not goodwhen the difference in message can lead to negativity and offensiveness. All in all, cultural differences and inconvenience in public environment orlong conversations are primarily barriers in non-verbal behaviour. In order to solve these problems, individuals should learn non- verbal of other cultures, or combine both verbal and non-verbal in communication to obtain effectivetransmission.