Nonverbal Communication Misunderstanding
Communication is an essential part of every human being as it is through communication one gives their opinions, interacts with others, and expresses his or her feelings. I believe that communication is a complex process that goes beyond the sending and receiving of messages and signals, then sending feedback (Adler et al., 2016). Communication, either in the verbal or nonverbal state, should be carefully encoded to ensure that the receiver decoding the sent message does not misunderstand it. In conversation, most of the time, nonverbal communication is misunderstood by people. This is due to its evolution and change of meaning from what it was known for in the past.
When using none verbal cues like facial expressions, dress code, body postures, and other signs and signals or gestures, it is essential to ensure that as the sender and the receiver share the same meaning of that cue. The misunderstanding of nonverbal communication is contributed to differences in culture, geographical factors, and age difference (Burgoon et al., 2016). For example, the teenagers of nowadays are using emojis in their communication, which might confuse an older person due to differences in meaning, like when one uses eggplant in a message, the older person only sees the eggplant but not the meaning behind it. The difference in meaning based on age and culture play a big part in the misunderstanding of nonverbal communication.
It is always advised that when you are in a new place that has a different culture from yours to avoid using nonverbal cues in your communication or if it is a must you use them then use the universal signals. For example, in China, the dress in all black during weddings which is not the case with other places as black is a color of sorrow and sadness. But in China, it is the color of happiness (Cai, 2019). Such differences in cultures and traditions might contribute to the misunderstanding of nonverbal cues. The fact that a gesture can be translated into different meanings, unlike the spoken words, which are direct leads to misunderstandings.
In conclusion, it is essential to avoid using a nonverbal cue that might have multiple meanings to avoid creating confusion. Confusing nonverbal cues lead to a misunderstanding of the intended message, causing communication breakdown where it is possible always to ensure that you use verbal cues in communication to avoid being misquoted or misunderstood, which might lead to embarrassment or negative judgment.