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Which TL’s body language do you know? | ||
Tags: Gestures/Body Language | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5146 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes  Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 1 of 8 29 December 2011 at 12:53am | IP Logged | ||
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There is another thread about body language right now, which made me think of to which degree we actually know the body language of our target languages. In my case, I can do the body language of the languages I have learned through immersion, but find it more and more difficult the less I have been exposed to native speakers.
Spanish and Italian is a piece of cake - half of those languages are body language anyway, and you cannot do those properly without it. French body language is also o.k, though I am less certain there, because of the time factor. (Me being 14 years old is not exactly last week :-) My English BL is patchy, fragmented, and reflects the fact that it not place bound, but the result of a thousand different sources. German is hardly there, since I have not spent more than a month alltogether in Germany. My Russian BL is non existant. My Russian is so basic, and I have spent virtually no time among Russians, and have not had the chance to get into that. There is however not a complete match between level in TL and level in BL. My English is far better than my Italian, yet as I explained, my English BL is fragmented and inconsistent. How about the rest of you? Does your BL match your levels in your TLs? :-) Edited by Solfrid Cristin on 29 December 2011 at 12:53am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| SmilingStraw Diglot Newbie United States Joined 4722 days ago 35 posts - 37 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Arabic (Written) | Message 2 of 8 29 December 2011 at 1:12am | IP Logged | ||
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I spent six months in Germany once which helped greatly with my learning of the lnaguage, and I realized I picked up much of the body language with it. I'd say it's "okay" for me.
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| KSAKSA Groupie Australia Joined 4957 days ago 65 posts - 99 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Arabic (Gulf) | Message 3 of 8 29 December 2011 at 5:09am | IP Logged | ||
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I'm pretty comfortable with my TL's BL as I lived in the Middle East for many years but also because I've studied the local dance as well which naturally incorporates a lot of gestures too.
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| mick33 Senior Member United States Joined 5736 days ago 1335 posts - 1632 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Finnish Studies: Thai, Polish, Afrikaans, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Spanish, Swedish | Message 4 of 8 30 December 2011 at 3:02am | IP Logged | ||
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No, I can't say that I even know about the body language that is related the languages I'm learning. I think I could actually fit in well in most of Europe, as long as I didn't try to speak another language, since I don't smile all the time. Beyond that, I'm almost totally ignorant of what body language is normal or appropriate in other countries. Edited by mick33 on 30 December 2011 at 3:03am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5146 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 5 of 8 30 December 2011 at 7:36am | IP Logged | ||
Because Europeans don't smile? :-) Edited by Solfrid Cristin on 30 December 2011 at 7:36am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| mick33 Senior Member United States Joined 5736 days ago 1335 posts - 1632 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Finnish Studies: Thai, Polish, Afrikaans, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Spanish, Swedish | Message 6 of 8 30 December 2011 at 9:24am | IP Logged | ||
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I know that Europeans smile, but I need to explain myself more clearly. What I meant is that in North America (This applies to the Canadians too) there is a cultural expectation that people should smile all the time, or almost all the time, regardless of whether or not you feel like doing so. I tend to smile only when I actually want to. I have sometimes been told that I seem less American because of this and that my often neutral facial expressions must mean that I am either sad, upset or trying to intimidate people when none of these assumptions is correct. I simply think that when people smile they should be expressing genuine joy and that Europeans are more sincere when they smile because there doesn't seem to be any cultural expectation to do so constantly. Edited by mick33 on 30 December 2011 at 11:22am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4701 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 7 of 8 30 December 2011 at 10:35am | IP Logged | ||
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In the Pacific Islands people talk with their eyebrows. Instead of actually saying "yes"
out loud, they will simply raise their eyebrows once or twice. It used to drive me crazy. I'd ask a question, and stand there waiting for an answer, wondering why I was getting the complete silent treatment, and not understanding that I was getting a full and complete response! I don't speak Japanese, but I get the impression that body language, affect, and actual grammar are all intertwined. After being around so many Japanese tourists, I think I might have pretty good "Japanese body language" even if I can only speak five words. I never noticed that big of a difference between Americans and Europeans, but I never really looked for one. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Melisse Triglot Newbie Sweden Joined 4682 days ago 19 posts - 36 votes Speaks: English*, SwedishC1, French Studies: Dutch, Russian, Modern Hebrew | Message 8 of 8 30 December 2011 at 12:59pm | IP Logged | ||
Ugh! All of these smiling rules bug me so much! I experienced the same thing as you in the US, people would always accuse me of being angry or 'too serious' or tell me I needed to lighten up. I remember many times being told by complete strangers on the street or in a shop or somewhere, that I should smile. Whenever I did smile, people would say something like "you're so pretty when you smile, you should do it more often." I remember one time I had just received some really great news, so I had a (genuine) big smile on my face, an old lady stopped me on the street and said "well now, that's a nice smile honey, that's what I like to see". Americans are obsessed with smiling! I thought I would be relieved of these comments when I moved to Europe and for the most part I have been. Smiling doesn't seem to be compulsory here. That doesn't mean that I haven't been accused of 'looking too serious' though. I have been, mostly by people wearing huge smiles themselves, but it hasn't happened nearly as often. EDIT: I forgot to answer the original question. I've been here for over 2 years so I guess I'm OK with the body language here in Sweden. Edited by Melisse on 30 December 2011 at 1:02pm 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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