Kohei Hikosaka-Body Language

 I have learned a lot about communications through the textbook, and almost every topic is new to me. The most impressive topic among them is nonverbal communication. Because, I am Japanese, and I have got a kind of culture shocks about nonverbal actions. There are several aspects of nonverbal communication, which are chronemics, haptics, artifacts, paralinguistic, qualities, and kinesics. I am going to introduce my experiences related to these aspects.

 First of all, I am going write about chronemics, which mean the study of how time function as part of communication. Here is my experience. It seems that, in japan, being on time is more important than America. Japanese trains always arrive to stations on time literality. Not only the trains but also buses, ships, and taxis in Japan are exactly punctual. In Boise, there are few trains and buses, so I am not sure whether the transportations are punctual or not, but at least the subways in New York are not punctual. When I traveled to New York, I was waiting for my train so long. This experience was my culture shock.Secondly, I will introduce my experience related to haptics, which mean the study of the touch. In America, when people greet their friends, teachers, and even strangers, they shack hands with each other. This fact indicated that American people more haptic than Japanese, because when Japanese people greet to each other, we are supposed to bow to each other. Third nonverbal communication is proxemics that is the study of how people use space to communicate. The interesting point of here is there are barely the differences of how we use spaces among us between Japan and United States of America. For example, in terms of personal space, it gets closer, when we communicate with close friends or probably even professors.Fourthly, nonverbal communication includes the notion of artifact, which means how we use our personal belongings to express ourselves. I guess this type of nonverbal communication does not bother me. Because, artifacts have no chances to make our communication confused, so I am rarely care of them.Fifth nonverbal communication is paralinguistic aspects that modify how you say something. I think I might change my paralinguistic aspects depending on whether I speak in Japanese or in English. American people express their feeling obviously, so I tend to imitate the way to speak in English like emotionally, unlike the way to speak in Japanese.Finally, I will mention about kinesics, which is the study about our gestures, movements, and facial expressions. Actually I have been in Michigan for four months as a studying abroad, and I got a body language that does not exist in Japan. That is to shake your hand slightly to express your feeling what is called 'so so'.