BODY LANGUAGE

BODY LANGUAGE

Human beings are also known as „homo community‟ because they communicate with other members of the species. Before spoken languages were developed, they communicated with other members by using various parts of our body – face, eyes, limbs, body and sounds to convey their feelings, emotions, ideas etc. However, interest in the subject started only after Charles Darwin wrote his book titled „Expressions of Emotions in Men and Animals‟ in 1872 and has increased after Julius Fast wrote his book titled, „Body Language‟ in 1970. Also called non-verbal communication, it is a complex process involving people and the gestures, expressions, and sounds they make to communicate with others. Over time it is encompassing the related fields of ergonomics, neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) related to the impact of five basic senses and brain on human perception.

Charlie Chaplin and other famous actors of silent movies may be considered to be pioneers in non-verbal communication skills as they conveyed the meaning of their actions without uttering any dialogue. Non-verbal communication specialists enjoy watching cues and clues about the attitude and responses of other people by simply watching them in social functions, formal gatherings and in television shows. It is like „birdwatchers‟ studying birds in order to understand their movements. Much the same way, young people develop the hobby of „girl-watching‟ or „boy-watching‟ in order to understand the meanings of their body movements.

By studying the actions of fellow human beings, one can ultimately learn more about self. Words and movements of body parts occur together with such predictability that, according to Prof Birdwhistle, a trained person is able to tell what movement a person is making by listening to his voice only; conversely, he is able to tell the words and phrases he is speaking by watching his gestures and expressions only. For example, a mother can easily make out from the sound of her infant child as to whether it has wetted the bed or is hungry or is just missing her.