Body Language & Communication
June 19th, 2008 by Christine KnottCommunication is such a fascinating subject and despite language barriers, builds great friendships and relationships.
A massive 55% of a message is transferred via body language, 38% by the vocal characteristics and just 7% through the words used.
Whenever Beyond The Box delivers communication courses, delegates are amazed at the small part words play and fascinated by the role of body language. It becomes apparant how important body language is if you can recall an occasion when you were visiting another country and found yourself having a great ‘conversation’ with someone who didn’t speak a word of your language and you couldn’t speak a word of theirs. The content of the conversation will have been transferred by body language, along with the tone, emphasis and pace applied to the words used.
Of course some topics such as football are universal and can always bring about animated and productive conversations!
Some gestures made with the body are a langauge of their own and whilst completing some research on the subject I came across this video on You Tube. It’s worth taking a look not only for the content but for the entertainment value it provides when it’s demonstrating the origin of some well used gestures! I’d be interested to know if anyone can expand on the content and the accuracy behind it. It appears convincing in its theory when it explains how certain gestures have evolved, but can we be sure?
Here is the video
