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课件网) Unit 4 Eye Contact in Intercultural Communication Eye contact can indicate interest, attention, and involvement. In some culture, looking people in the eye is assumed to indicate honesty and straightforwardness. In other cultures, however, it is seen as challenging and rude. Most people in Arab cultures share a great deal of eye contact and may regard too little as disrespectful. In English culture, a certain amount of eye contact is required, but too much makes many people uncomfortable. Most English people make eye contact at the beginning and then let their gaze drift to the side periodically to avoid “staring at the other person”. In South Asian and many other cultures direct eye contact is generally regarded as aggressive and rude. In some cultures and religious groups eye contact between men and women is seen as flirtatious or threatening. In Japanese, African, Latin American, and Caribbean cultures, people avoid eye contact to show respect. The timing of eye contact also can reflect cultural differences. English speakers prefer to have prolonged eye contact while conveying. To them, a person who does not look you in the eye when talking to you is not trustworthy. In France, a man can look at woman from her head to her feet whether they are friends or strangers, which just implies that “I like you or I appreciate you”, and women will not feel embarrassed or angry at the eye contact. However, this kind of eye contact is not approved in Chinese culture, because it is looked upon as rudeness or sexual harassment. To look someone in Japan is rude because it is invading someone’s space. When the samurai held power, a strict code of behavior was enforced regarding who could look at whom and for how long one could look, and one violated those codes at one’s own peril. This has been carried over into modern society. The Japanese may sit close together in an office, but they seldom look at each other in the eye. Even on the crowded subways and trains, nobody makes eye contact. When greeting someone, one bows and looks past the other person. They are taught to look at the neck. Arab cultures, even more than Western cultures, use very intense eye contact and concentrate on the eye movement to be able to read real intentions. It has been discovered that to talk while walking side by side without maintaining intense eye contact was considered rude by the Arab’s standards. To see eye more clearly, Arabs will move closer, and that can make non-Arabs feel uncomfortable. A person from Japan, for example, would feel uncomfortable both with the intense eye contact and with the close physical proximity. The Japanese person will feel even more uncomfortable if the Arab, in addition to making close eye contact and standing very close to the listener, also touches the listener. In this case, the Arab sends three very strong nonverbal signals, all of which run counter to what is acceptable non ... ...
