“Where Do We Stand” by Lisa Davis
Lisa Davis in this article focuses on cross-cultural difference in the use of personal space and on conflicts and misunderstanding that often arises from these differences. She maintains that with enough training and preaching. People can learn non-verbal habitat of other culture and minimize intercultural problems. She says the main cause of non-verbal conflict is the tendency for people to interrelate the non-verbal pattern of other culture in terms of the pattern within their own culture.
These ethnocentric viewings of reality often result in misinterpretation negative value judgment and feeling of discomfort.
- American use more direct eye contact than do Japanese (Para 6)
- South American converse at a closet distant and establish more direct eye contact than do another European. (Para 7)
- Men tend to converse at a greater distance than do women. (Para 8&9)
- Women established more eyes contact than do men. (Para 9)
- Russians are a higher contact, a people whereas establishes are a non-contact group. (para10)
- Caucasians should view a student avoidance of eye contact as sign of deception whereas Asian teachers see such avoidance as sign of foreign. (Para 11)
- An American who is used to standing on the corner of elevator and avoiding eyes contact with other people will feel that something is wearing if someone stand by a few inches away. (Para 17)
- South Arabian men often hold hand while walking but American men don’t. t is important to follow the foreign country’s ways when people go to foreign country because there are huge differences between own country and foreign country. Especially, the way of communication makes people confuse.
According to “Where Do We Stand” by Lisa Davis, people have different way of non-verbal communication, which depends on their cultural back ground and gender. As a result, people sometimes feel uncomfortable when they communicate with other people. In Japan, there are some different communications styles, which make foreigner confuse.
