Non-verbal communication

Communication is important in our life. However, we can’t speak all the languages of the world. Sometimes, non-verbal communication is necessary and could help us on several occasions. While traveling, non-verbal communication helps me several times. For example, I was in France, trying to go to the hostel. I was in front of a store and tried to talk to a worker there. I tried to ask him whether he could speak English and whether he knew the location of the hostel where I was going to stay. He stretched his hand and used his right palm to touch his left hand twice. I guessed he was trying to tell me that the hostel was located on the left side of the street. I walked straight a few blocks and turned left. The hostel was there. The worker didn’t say a single word and he just used his hands to guide me in the right direction. Moreover, a friend told me this story in Korea. He and his friend were traveling in Korea and they would like to have a scissor in a restaurant. His friend speaks English fluently, nonetheless, the restaurant staff barely knows English and couldn’t understand. My friend doesn’t speak English and couldn’t speak Korean, either. He only used his right hand and simply made a scissor gesture. The staff got it and gave him a scissor. Well, non-verbal communication sometimes works better than verbal communication. In addition, I can understand that someone was just trying to help me during a trip. However, it’s still very important to do some homework before traveling. Gestures are not exactly the same in every country and some gestures might be rude to some people in certain countries. We don’t want to have any troubles on a trip and avoiding some unnecessary gestures is a better idea. Thus, using gestures could help us solve some problems on a trip and sometimes, non-verbal communication works.