Nonverbal communication is an important aspect in communicating ideas from the sender to the recipient. It involves the sensory channels such as sight, sound, smell and touch. On the other hand, verbal communication is the communication that uses words either written or spoken in a language the receiver understands. While both nonverbal and verbal communications are important in their own ways, nonverbal communication constitutes 70% of communication. My talk on Thursday will cover the basics of nonverbal communication with examples for the audience to understand the concept better.
For an example of how powerful nonverbal communication is, let us take a look at a YouTube video in the Thai language (a language foreign to most of the members of the club). First view the video without the English subtitles (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmMRvuV2We4) and then view the same video with the English subtitles (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZMX6H6YY1M).
After that answer some of these questions as a pre-talk exercise.
1. What emotions/message did you receive when you watched the video without the English subtitles?
2. Was the emotion/message brought across better (or worse) when you watched the second video with the English subtitles?
3. Try to mute the video (either one) and watch it again. Was the impact strengthened or reduced?
I hope that you will find this exercise useful and insightful on your understanding of nonverbal communication.
Feel free to leave some of your comments in this post. Note that some interesting comments may be highlighted in my speech.
This constitutes the pre-talk exercise for my P5 and I will elaborate more on this on Thursday. I look forward to seeing you all on this Thursday!
Interested readers are encouraged to read more here:
1. Wikipedia: Nonverbal communication (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonverbal_communication)
2. Nonverbal Communication by Judee K. Burgoon, Laura K. Guerrero, Kory Floyd
3. Communication Mosaics: An Introduction to the Field of Communication by Julia T. Wood
