communicating without words

Nonverbal communication is important because it allows us to communicate in a way that doesn't require for everyone to speak the same language. Simple gestures can let a person know exactlty how we are feeling at that moment. Something as simple as smiling can let a person know that we are happy. This type of communication is important because it's the first one people learn when they are toddlers. It doesn't go away with age and actually gets more sophisticated and complicated as we get older. This new sophistication and complication opens the door for misunderstandings. The book explains: "One of the problems of defining nonverbal communication is deciding what counts as a nonverbal message and what does not" (108). This means that a person's smile might be misinterpreted by someone else who thinks they are making romantic advances towards them. Despite this dilema it's hard to picture a world without nonverbal communication. In fact, one might argue that if we stopped using nonverbal communication, then we have also stopped communicating in gemeral.

The book also explains that nonverbal communication, "is both universal and cultural" (111). This illustrates the importance of this type of communication. If toddlers of different races were put together in a playpen they would still be able to communicate through nonverbal communication. This also shows how important it is in creating a bridge between all the different cultures in the world.