It’s well-known by all the people to greet friends with a smile and a wave. 【小题1】 However, what happens if your face and body send mixed messages? Would someone tend to believe the look on your face or the way you behave?

Recently, scientists have dealt with these questions. They found that when a person is staring at your face, he might not believe what he sees if your body doesn’t match the feeling that your face shows. 【小题2】 Previous study had showed that the tone of a person’s voice can be more important than the words spoken. For example, most people are more likely not to believe a person who says in a flat voice, "I’m so excited."

When talking about emotions conveyed by facial expressions and body language, most scientists suspected that the face was more important. To test if this was true, psychologists from the Netherlands and Boston showed people a number of pictures of isolated faces and isolated bodies that showed anger or fear, 【小题3】

An angry face had low eyebrows and tight lips. A frightened face had high eyebrow and a slightly open mouth, 【小题4】 A scared body had arms forward and shoulders square, as if ready to fight back.

These results told the researchers that mixed messages can confuse people. Even when people

pay attention to the face, body language surely influences the emotion they read.

【小题5】 And if you want to be understood it helps to avoid sending mixed messages.

Body language is the “silence language” of every culture. It is important to know the body language of every country, or we may be misunderstood.

In the United States, people greet each other with a handshake in a formal introduction. The handshake must be firm. If the handshake is weak, it is a sign of weakness or unfriendliness. Friends may place a hand on the other’s arm or shoulder. Some people, usually women, greet a friend with a hug.

Space is important to Americans. When two people talk to each other, they usually stand about two or a half feet away and at an angle, so they are not facing each other directly. Americans get uncomfortable when a person stands too close. They will move back to have their space. If Americans touch another person by accident, they say “Pardon me” or “Excuse me”.

Americans like to look the other person in the eye when they are talking. If you don’t do so, it means you are bored, hiding something, or are not interested. But when you stare at someone, it is not polite.

Learning a culture’s body language is sometimes confusing. If you don’t know what to do, the safest thing to do is to smile.

Body language or, as it is also known, nonverbal communication, is about all the things that people say and do without using words. Research suggests that more than 70% of communication occurs without people having to say a single word.

Like language, the way we communicate nonverbally varies across cultures. But, unlike language, it can be very difficult to find out what the nonverbal rules are.

It’s very well-known that there are differences in the ways that cultures work, but what can you do to try to prepare yourself for living and surviving in another culture?

I think you’ve got two things to think about. I personally don’t fully accept the idea of “When in Rome, do as the Romans do. ” I don’t think people expect you to completely adopt all of the things that they do. What I think people would like is that you agree and understand it and that you do your best.

One of the things you can do is actually to explain to the other culture, saying, “Well, you know, actually we don’t normally kiss in my culture, so it’s a bit uncomfortable.” But then do your best, so it’s a learning process.

Well, kissing is just one of many different ways of interaction that you need to know. You can get into difficult or embarrassing or even worse situations if you don’t know it. Eye contact, tone of voice, how close you stand, any touching, how many times you kiss, a long handshake, a short handshake, it can go on and on. So I think, yes, you do need to get these correct and you need to have good observation skills.